OF THE ANIMATED CREATION. 



191 



fcbn of mental laws, the general tendency of which is to 

 mak 3 men adopt the proper measures. And these meas- 

 ures will probably be in time universally adopted, su 

 that one extensive class of diseases will be altogether 01 

 nearly abolished. 



Another large class of diseases spring from mismanage- 

 ment of our personal economy. Eating to excess, eating 

 and drinking what is noxious, disregard to that cleanli- 

 ness which is necessary for the right action of the func- 

 tions of the skin, want of fresh air for the supply of the 

 lungs, undue, excessive, and irregular indulgence of the 

 mental affections, are all of them recognize ! modes of 

 creating that derangement of the system in which disease 

 consists. Here also it may be said that a limitation of the 

 mental faculties to definite manifestations K vulgo, in- 

 stincts) might have enabled us to avoid many of these 

 eriors ; but here, again, we are met by the consideration 

 that, if we had been so endowed, we should have been 

 only as the lower animals are, wanting that transcend- 

 ency higher character of sensation and power by which 

 our enjoyments are made so much greater. In making 

 the desire of food, for example, with us an indefinite men- 

 tal manifestation, instead of the definite one which it is 

 amongst the lower animals, the Creator has given us a 

 means of deriving far greater gratifications from food (con- 

 sistently with health) than the lower animals appear to 

 be capable of. He has also given us Reason to act as a 

 guiding and controlling power over this and other pro 

 pensities, so that they may be prevented from becoming 

 causes of malady. We can see that excess is injurious, 

 and are thus prompted to moderation. We can see that 

 all the things which we feel inclined to take are not 

 healthful, and are thus exhorted to avoid what are perni- 

 cious. We can also see that a cleanly skin and a con- 

 stant supply of pure air are necessary to the proper per- 

 formance of some of the most important of the organic 

 functions, and thus are stimulated to frequent ablution, 

 and to a right ventilation of our parlors and sleeping 

 apartments. And so on with the other causes of disease. 

 Reason may not operate very powerfully to these pur- 

 poses in an early state of society, and prodigious evils 

 may therefore have been endured from disease in past 

 ages ; but these are not necessarily to be endured always. 

 As civilization advances, reason requires a greater as- 



