356 



HITCHCOCK'S ANATOMY 



gains are great, how incessantly will he work day and night, 

 and yet consider his no hard life. But if there be no encour- 

 # agement, no prospect of reward to the working-man in his 

 employment, what drudgery does it become ! Nay, how posi- 

 tively injurious to health and vigor of body and mind. 



652. To the scholar, however, this principle is much more 

 important than to him who labors only with the muscles, since 

 these organs can be worked to a considerable extent with an 

 unwilling mind ; but fo work a brain already depressed and 

 discouraged is much more difficult, and sure to bring on grave 

 disease. When the spirits are light and the mind free, the 

 memory can be more readily stored with facts and principles, 

 and the reasoning powers more easily developed. It is hence 

 the duty of teachers to make study as pleasant and attractive 

 as possible ; it becomes those who select the location and con- 

 struct the buildings of colleges, academies, and school-houses, 

 to have a reference to taste and comfort in their plans, so that 

 physical inconvenience may not render study irksome, and 

 that the taste of the student may be improved as much as pos- 

 sible by the construction and arrangements of these buildings. 



653. Control of the Nervous System by Moral and 

 Religious Feelings.— 11. Finally, of all the sources and 

 promoters of health, correct moral and religious feelings and 

 principles are among the most powerful. The reaction of a 

 guilty conscience upon the body, in obstructing the functions 

 and in bringing on weakness and premature decay, is well 

 known. Equally powerful in promoting health and longevity 

 is an approving conscience. A cheerful acquiescence in the 

 divine will has often done more to restore the invalid and 

 maintain good health against disease, than all medical reme- 

 dies ; while pure and ennobling sentiments and religious hopes 

 have sometimes been more efficacious to prolong life on earth 

 t lan all other hygienic prescriptions. 



652. What effect has pleasurable, feelings on the progress of the scholar? 653. State 

 the value of an approving conscience upon all classes of society, as it simply respects 

 physical health. 



