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in proportion as our higher nature slumbers. It is rep¬ 
tile and sensual, and perhaps cannot be wholly expelled; 
like the worms which, even in life and health, occupy 
our bodies. Possibly we may withdraw from it, but 
never change its nature. I fear that it may enjoy a 
certain health of its own; that we may be well, yet not 
pure. The other day I picked up the lower jaw of a 
hog, with white and sound teeth and tusks, which sug¬ 
gested that there was an animal health and vigor dis¬ 
tinct from the spiritual. This creature succeeded by 
other means than temperance and purity. “That in 
which men differ from brute beasts,” says Mencius, “ is 
a thing very inconsiderable; the common herd lose it 
very soon; superior men preserve it carefully.” Who 
knows what sort of life would result if we had attained 
to purity ? If I knew so wise a man as could teach me 
purity I would go to seek him forthwith. “ A com¬ 
mand over our passions, and over the external senses 
of the body, and good acts, are declared by the Yed to 
be indispensable in the mind’s approximation to God.” 
Yet the spirit can for the time pervade and control 
every member and function of the body, and transmute 
what in form is the grossest sensuality into purity and 
devotion. The generative energy, which, when we are 
loose, dissipates and makes us unclean, when we are con¬ 
tinent invigorates and inspires us. Chastity is the flow¬ 
ering of man; and what are called Genius, Heroism, 
Holiness, and the like, are but various fruits which suc¬ 
ceed it. Man flows at once to God when the channel 
of purity is open. By turns our purity inspires and 
our impurity casts us down. He is blessed who is as¬ 
sured that the animal is dying out in him day by day, 
and the divine being established. Perhaps there is 
