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surance that the stick of the thief would, in his hands, grow by supernatural power. The real culprit, imagining that his stick had actually increased in length, secretly cut a piece off, and was thus detected. An equally ludicrous anecdote is told of a farmer, who detected depredations on his corn-bin, by calling his men together, and making them mix up a quantity of feathers in a sieve, assuring them at the same time, that the feathers would infallibly stick to the hair of the thief. After a short time, one of the men raised his hand repeatedly, and as he hoped unseen, to his head, and thus betrayed his guilt. In the first of these examples we may suppose both sight and touch to have been affected; in the second, touch alone.

The power which the emotions exercise over the functions of secretion is well known. I have heard that at the native tribunals of justice in India, it was a practice to give persons suspected of any offence rice to chew, which after the lapse of a minute they were ordered to eject from the mouth: the absence of saliva in the contents of the culprit's mouth was considered to prove his guilt. Terror also will sometimes cause profuse perspiration; both joy and grief, tears. Weeping, the expression of a distress which is sometimes bodily, sometimes mental, is a strong inspiration, and a broken expiration, accompanied by a flow of tears, which affords relief. Here the respiratory nerve is especially excited. call your attention to the fact that both laughing and weeping are attributes of superior mental organization; for man alone laughs, of all creation, and that seldom until he is five or six weeks old. Kant called special attention to this fact; and an eminent follower of his bitterly annotated it by the observation, "Truly man is also the only animal which deserves to be laughed at." Laughing and weeping, like joy and grief, are strangely allied to each other. They depend on the same physical condition; have in

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many persons the same physiognomy (the mouth excepted); moreover, when intense, they exchange places, and merge into each other. We all know the ecstatic tears of joy-the frightful laughter of despair.

It will repay attention to take a cursory glance at the modes in which the varying and different emotions and passions affect the body. Every joy-and hope may be given as an instance-has a peculiarly beneficial effect, when it acts in a gentle and durable manner. Schiller beautifully says, that "virtue is the frame of mind most conducive to bodily health; because it excites the most durable of all joys, true Christian hope." But if the joyful emotion be too lively, the brilliant eager eye, quickened breath, and accelerated pulse, denote a condition of excitement that must be followed by depression. We see the direct contrary of this in melancholy or hopelessness. Here the nervous vitality languishes at its root, and the life of the blood becomes languid. A person so affected is like some noble tree, at whose root decay has struck; and so the whole fabric-trunk, branches, and leaves-18 withering.

The master-passion of love keeps body and mind fluctuating between pleasure and pain, in continued excitement. A state of abstraction, interrupted by sighs, and a change in the temper and habits, betray its early dawn; change of colour the presence of its object. A pale countenance, a languid eye, decline of strength, show its hopelessness; a flushed cheek, a brilliant expression, indicate its happiness and realization. These phenomena are more marked in the female sex, physically from their more delicate conformation, and mentally from the higher value which they attach to love.

The effects of anger are those which, of all the emotions of the mind, are the most manifest on the body. The spasm of the muscles indicates the struggle in the conflicting excitement; the circulation is urged to the utmost vehemence; the respiration

keeps equal pace with it; so that in very intense cases rupture of the heart may take place, or the foundation be laid for organic disease. The death of Valen

tinian, the Roman emperor, actually occurred from this cause, during a violent passion while giving audience to some ambassadors. Anger also acts through the nervous system upon the various secretions, the saliva, the gastric juice, the bile, and in females the milk, all of which may be temporarily suspended, or changed into poisons. Tourtual tells us that he saw a child die, as if struck by lightning, after taking the breast of its enraged nurse. I have myself witnessed a case of convulsions produced from the same cause. Long-continued indulgence in fits of passionate temper, will frequently induce severe disease of the liver and digestive organs.

In taking leave for the present of the subject of the passions, let us remember that they are planted in us by the All-Wise for benevolent and noble purposes; and that it is only when abused and not kept in proper bounds that they induce disease, and affect the duration of life. When the natural gratification of the passions is guided by reason and sanctified by religion, the effect produced upon mind and body, instead of being pernicious, is of a beneficial kind. Sydney Smith most happily says "The passions are in morals what motion is in physics: they create, preserve, and animate; and without them, all would be silence and death." We see avarice guiding men across the trackless wastes of the restless ocean; pride covering the earth with pyramids and lofty temples; love turning hearts from their savage rudeness; ambition prostrating the mightiest empires. Whatever there is of the terrible, whatever of the beautiful, in human events; all that agitates the inmost soul, and is remembered whilst thought and flesh cling together;-all these owe their origin to the passions. The influence of the mind upon the body is variously modified by the different characters impressed

upon the physical frame; resulting from peculiar conformation of body-from the distinction between the sexes-from the wide distinctions of race-and lastly, from individual peculiarities. Thus, then, we have now to consider-1st, Temperaments. 2nd, Sexual Distinctions. 3rd, The Races of Man. 4th, Idiosyncrasies.

The temperaments are generally considered to be four in number, viz.:-the sanguine, the phlegmatic, the bilious, and the nervous. In the sanguine temperament, the vital processes are active, the nerves irritable, the movements are light, and fancy is predominant in the operations of the mind. The feelings of the sanguine are attuned to cheerfulness; his desires are superficial and changeable. With this disposition, the hair is generally of some shade of red or chestnut, the eyes blue, the complexion fair and florid, and the skin thin and delicate. The phlegmatic temperament is the direct reverse of that just described. Here fancy and impulse fall into the background, and desire and ambition convert themselves into a composed stability, and do not easily rise into passion. There is often the most invincible energy inherent in such a disposition. It is characterized bodily by largeness and, as it were, softness of form-the eyes grey, the skin pale, the lips fleshy. The bilious temperament is somewhat allied to the preceding; and is characterized by great power of endurance, and permanence of impressions, both physical and mental. There is generally more er less sadness combined with great and solid powers of intellect. Dr. Johnson was a striking example of this temperament. We recognise it in the possessor of dark hair, dark eyes and complexion, with strongly-marked features, and decided expression of countenance. In the nervous temperament, the whole Lervous system, including the brain, is very active; the senses are acute, the thoughts quick, and the imagination lively. Of such a temperament is the

true poet: I do not mean a mere dreamer, but the interpreter of Nature to his fellows. This temperament is generally distinguished by a small spare form, delicate features, with a thin upper lip, slender muscles, pallor of countenance, and, too frequently, fragile health. Your twenty-five-stone men

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rarely men of thought or action; but this, like every other rule, has its occasional exceptions. These various temperaments are seldom found pure and unmixed; but are generally more or less blended together in each individual.

We have next to consider the differences caused by sex. And here we find a most beautiful and admirable adaptation of the mental endowments and characteristics to the bodily conformation. The male is formed for power-corporeal and intellectual; the female for gentleness, affection, and delicacy of feeling. It is worthy of remark that of all the animated creation, woman is the only female possessing the principal share of the beauty of person characterising the race. In man, in conformity with his greater firmness and vigour of body, we find on the mental side the fancy predominant and active; the feelings easily controllable to suit the command of the will; the emotions less overpowering than in woman; and those passions strongest, in general, which are the most founded on intellectual or ideal impulses; such as ambition, love of fame, love of honour, of knowledge, &c. In woman, on the contrary, the nerves are much more excitable; the receptivity is greater, and the reaction less. On the mental side we find feeling predominant; and hence the energy of the judgment and will is impeded: the emotions are very powerful, and exercise the most potent influence; as are those passions which are founded chiefly on the social impulse, such as imitation, desire of pleasing; but above all, love; which is to woman by God's decree the centre of her world of feeling, suffering, and joy. An attempt has been made of

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