433 
MISCELLANEA. 
BRITISH INDUSTRIES. 
By Professor Hunt. 
The position which any nation occupies in the scale of 
civilisation is exactly determinable by the industry of its 
people. The constitution of the human mind — the consti- 
tution of the human body — is of that character to render 
activity necessary for health, and to make repose destructive 
to every energy. The mutual dependence of mind and body 
renders it essential that an equal burthen should be thrown 
upon each. There is a beautiful balance between the intel- 
lectual and physical forces, which if disturbed leads to 
irregularities, which are diseases. The mind we call imma- 
terial , the body is essentially material ; yet this material mass 
is quickened into motion by the influences of certain physical 
forces which hold a position — not w T ell defined — between 
gross matter, and the “ Spark of Life.” Light, heat, elec- 
tricity, and other forces which the eye of the philosopher 
sees, but which he has not yet grasped, are necessary agents 
to the existence of the organized mass we call man, but they 
are not the cause of that existence. An unknown energy — 
far beyond the reach of the most giant mind — which we call 
Life — is hidden behind the veil, and the physical agencies, 
like the lightnings around the sacred mount, hide the 
Divinity which crowns it. Yet are this gross organic mass, 
these physical forces, and the ethereal life, bound together in 
a wonderful system. To maintain the health of life, even in 
its highest developments of intellect, a change of form 
in some portion of the material constitution is necessary. 
The exercise of the mind in the development of a single 
thought compels a portion of human muscle to change its 
form — in common language to be destroyed ; it is in fact re- 
solved from its compound condition into its more simple 
elements. Every thought, therefore, according to its energy 
— its intensity — is dependent upon a chemical change. Thus 
a mind of excessive energy, with an intensification of power, 
wears out the body faster than the material elements can be 
supplied. 
On the other hand, if the material elements required to 
restore the waste in our bodies be supplied in too great 
abundance, the macl>mery is clogged, the mind becomes 
