its circumstances as to admit of their fulfilment if its Creator is wise and powerful. Is there, then, no such phenomenon on earth as a human being existing in possession of full organic vigour from birth till advanced age, when the organic system is worn out? Numberless examples of this kind have occurred, and they show that the corporeal frame of Man is so constituted as to admit of the possibility of his enjoying health and vigour during the whole period of a long life.

In almost every country, indeed, persons are to be found who have been free from sickness during the whole course of a protracted life.

Now, this excellent health could not occur in individuals unless it were fairly within the capabilities of the race.

Let us assume, then, that the organised system of Man admits of the possibility of health, vigour, and organic enjoyment during the full period of life, and proceed to inquire into the causes why these advantages are not universal.

1. One condition of their possession, I have stated, is that the germ of the infant must be complete and sound in all its parts. If an agriculturist sow corn that is weak, wasted, or damaged, the plants that spring from it will be feeble, and liable to speedy decay. The same law prevails in the animal kingdom; but has it hitherto been observed by Man? Certainly it has not. Indeed, its existence has been either nearly unknown or greatly disregarded. The feeble, the sickly, the incompletely developed through extreme youth, and the exhausted with age, marry, and without considering what organisation they may transmit to their offspring, bring into the world miserable beings, the very rudiments of whose existence are tainted with disease.

If we trace such conduct to its source, we shall find it to originate in the supremacy of animal propensity or in ignorance, or in both. It implies an utter disbelief in the organic laws, and in their consequences being pre-ordained by God for the purpose of serving as a guide to rational beings in their marriages. The fruit of this conduct is debility and pain transmitted to the children, and reflected back in anxiety and sorrow to the parents.

From such observations as I have been able to make, I am convinced that the union of certain temperaments and combinations of mental qualities in the parents is highly conducive to health, talent, and morality in the offspring,

and that these conditions may be discovered and taught with greater certainty, facility, and advantage than is generally imagined. It will be time enough to conclude that men are naturally incapable of accommodating their conduct to the organic laws when, after their intellectual faculties and moral sentiments have been trained to observance of the Creator's institutions, as at once their duty, their interest, and a grand source of their enjoyment, they shall be found continually to resist them.

2. A second condition of health regards nutriment, which must be supplied of a suitable kind, and in due quantity. Free air also is requisite, with light, cleanliness, and attention to every physical arrangement by which the functions of the body may be strengthened. Have mankind acted in accordance with, or neglected, this organic law? I need scarcely answer the question. To be able to conform to the laws of our constitution, we must first know them. Before we can know the organic constitution of our body, we must study it; and the study of the human constitution comprises anatomy and physiology. Before we can become acquainted with its relations to external objects, we must learn the existence and qualities of these objects (unfolded by chemistry, natural history, and natural philosophy), and compare them with the constitution of the human body. When we have fulfilled these conditions, we shall be better able to discover the laws which the Creator has instituted in regard to our organic system.*

It will be said, however, that such studies are impracti cable to the great bulk of mankind; and, besides, that they do not appear much to benefit those who pursue them.

They are impracticable only while mankind prefer resting their public and private conduct on the basis of the propensities, instead of employing their intellectual faculties to discover, and their moral and religious sentiments to obey, the laws which God has ordained for their guidance.

The second objection, that those who study these sciences are not more healthy and happy than those who neglect them, admits of an easy answer. They may have inherited feeble frames from their parents. Besides, only parts of

* In Dr. Andrew Combe's works on "Physiology applied to Health and Education," "Digestion and Diet," and "The Management of Infancy," the organic laws are expounded in detail, and many striking examples are given of infringement of these laws, and of its injurious

consequences,

these sciences have been communicated to a few, whose main design in studying them has been to apply them as means of acquiring wealth and fame; but they have not been generally taught as connected parts of a great system of natural arrangements, fraught with the highest influences on human enjoyment; and in almost no instance have the intellect and the moral sentiments been systematically directed to the natural laws as the grand fountains of happiness and misery to the race, and trained to conform to them as the institutions of the Creator. On this point, nearly universal infidelity to the Divine institutions pervades society. In cases where physiology, natural history, and natural philosophy have been properly studied, and the Divine authority of the rules of conduct which they reveal has been recognised, direct benefit has been derived from the study of them.

3. A third organic law is that all our functions shall be duly exercised; and is this law observed by mankind? Many persons are able, from experience, to attest the severity of the punishment that follows from omitting to exercise the muscular system in the lassitude, indigestion, irritability, debility, and general uneasiness that attend a sedentary and inactive life; but the penalties that attach to neglect of exercising the brain are much less known. The brain is the fountain of nervous energy to the whole body, and many persons are habitual invalids, without actually labouring under any well-defined disease, solely from its defective or irregular exercise. In such cases, not only does the mind suffer debility in its feelings and intellectual capacities, but all the functions of the body participate in its languor, because all of them receive a diminished and vitiated supply of the nervous stimulus, a due share of which is essential to their healthy action.

The best mode of increasing the strength and energy of any organ is to exercise it regularly and judiciously, according to the laws of its constitution.* The brain is the organ of the mind. It is subject to the general laws of the organism, and is strengthened by the same means as the other organs. When the muscles are called into activity, they receive an increased supply of blood and nervous stimulus, and their vessels and fibres become at once larger, firmer,

*See Dr. A. Combe's "Physiology applied to Health, &c.," chapters vii. and xiii., fifteenth edition.

and more capable of action. Thought and feeling are to the brain what bodily exercise is to the muscles; they are accompanied by increased circulation in its blood-vessels, and an augmented elaboration of nervous energy.

The first step, therefore, towards establishing the regular exercise of the brain is to educate and train the mental faculties in youth; and the second is to place the individual habitually in circumstances demanding the discharge of useful and important duties.

I have often heard the question asked, What is the use of education? The answer might be illustrated by explaining to the inquirer the nature and objects of the limbs, lungs, and eyes, and then by asking him if he could conceive how a being thus constituted could be benefited by obtaining access to earth, air, and light? He would perceive that these must be of high utility to him, as affording means by which his organs could obtain scope for action, which action we suppose him to know to be pleasure. To those, then, who know the functions of the brain as the organ of the moral and intellectual powers of Man, I need only say that the objects presented by education to the mind bear to it the same relation that the physical elements of nature do to the nerves and muscles: they afford the faculties scope for action, and yield them delight. The meaning commonly attached to the word education is the acquisition of languages; but I employ it here to indicate knowledge of nature and of useful artificial objects; also accomplishments and training.

Again, the signification generally attached to the word use in the question is, the amount of money, influence, or consideration that education will bring-these being the only objects of strong desire with which uncultivated minds are acquainted; and it is not perceived in what way education can greatly promote their attainment. But when the mind becomes acquainted with its own constitution and with the natural laws, the advantage of moral and intellectual cultivation, as a means of exercising and invigorating the brain and the mental faculties, and also of directing the conduct in obedience to those laws, becomes apparent.

The amount of nervous energy increases with the degree of activity of the cerebral organs. In the retreat of the French from Moscow, when no enemy was near, the soldiers became depressed in courage and enfeebled in body, and

nearly sank to the earth through exhaustion and cold; but no sooner did the fire of the Russian guns sound in their ears, or the gleam of their bayonets flash in their eyes, than new life seemed to pervade them. They wielded powerfully the arms which, a few moments before, they could scarcely carry or drag on the ground. Scarcely, however, was the enemy repulsed, when their feebleness returned. The theory of this is that the approach of the combat called into activity a variety of additional faculties; these sent new energy through every nerve; and, while this vivacity was maintained by the external stimulus, it rendered the soldiers strong beyond their merely physical condition.

Many persons have probably experienced the operation of a similar influence. If we are sitting feeble and listless by the fire, and hear of an accident having occurred to some beloved friend who requires our instant aid, or if an unexpected visitor arrive in whom our affections are bound up-in an instant our lassitude is gone, and we move with an alertness and animation that seem surprising to ourselves.

Dr. Sparrman, in his voyage to the Cape, mentions a striking illustration of the principle. "There was now again," says he, "a great scarcity of meat in the waggon; for which reason my Hottentots began to grumble, and reminded me that we ought not to waste so much of our time in looking after insects and plants, but give a better look-out after the game. At the same time, they pointed to a neighbouring dale overrun with wood, at the upper edge of which, at the distance of about a mile and a quarter from the spot where we then were, they had seen several buffaloes. Accordingly, we went thither; but, though our fatigue was lessened by our Hottentots carrying our guns for us up a hill, yet we were quite out of breath and overcome by the sun before we got up to it. Yet, what even now appears to me a matter of wonder is that as soon as we got a glimpse of the game, all this languor left us in an instant. In fact, we each of us strove to fire before the other, so that we seemed entirely to have lost sight of all prudence and caution."

Men who have received from nature tolerably active brains, but who, from possessing a competency, are engaged in no profession, and, from not having enjoyed the advantages of a liberal education, take no interest in intellectual and moral pursuits for their own sake are in general