County, Tennessee, was severely bitten by a rattlesnake, but, by proper attention, the wound was perfectly cured. Nevertheless, strange to tell, every egg laid after that time by this hen, had a complete picture of a rattlesnake represented upon the shell! Now in harmony with this principle, every human being, that comes into this world, is impressed with certain peculiarities and constitutional tendencies. An instance is related, by Dr. Howship, of a woman who was crossing a frozen river, in a state of pregnancy. But the ice cracked and burst open, and she was terribly frightened. When the child was born, its skin was opened and cracked considerably in several places, and in a corresponding manner. we see Let your understandings be thoroughly impressed, therefore, with this conviction that, that principle of psychological action, which will, when inverted and misapplied, produce a human fiend or a human monster, is equally capable, when rightly understood and philosophically directed, of developing heroes, poets, saviors, metaphysicians, philosophers, and reformers. Physicians and agriculturists have been gradually coming to the discovery and application of this principle in the lower departments of Nature. Combe, that clearminded author, has brought out many details on this head. "In cases of varieties of the same species," says Dr. Edwards, one common principle, namely, that the mother often produces a being of a type different from her own-less so, however, in the latter case. This principle is seen even in the same variety; for here also the mother, in producing a male, gives birth to a being whose type differs, and in some cases differs very much, from her own. Now, says Dr. E., the same is observed in man. The varieties which differ most strongly, such as the negro and white, when crossed, produce mulattoes; and when varieties more nearly resembling each other are crossed, the descendants sometimes resemble one parent, sometimes the other, sometimes both. This, Dr. Edwards looks upon as the cause of the great variety observable in modern nations; among which, however, he thinks we can always observe specimens of the pure types which have entered into their composition. Every one knows that the hen of any bird will lay eggs, although no male be permitted to come near her; and that those eggs are only wanting in the vital principle which the impregnation of the male conveys to them. Here, then, we see the female able to make an egg, with yelk and white, shell and every part, just as it ought to be, so that we might, at the first glance, suppose that here, at all events, the female has the greatest influence." I am impressed to assure you, most deeply and religiously, that the proper application of psychological principles, to the generation and improvement of the human species, will accomplish more good for the great mass of mankind than all the preaching and praying that ever fell from the human tongue! Let all this fable about the "original sin," the "first curse," the "efforts of satan," the "total depravity" of the human heart, be forever buried in the tombs of ignorance and error; and let there be a universal resurrection and development of reason and philosophy, which shall, most harmoniously and inevitably, improve the individual and elevate the human race general to health, harmony, and to fair proportions! LECTURE IX. CONCERNING THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ACTION OF THE MIND UPON On this occasion, I will proceed to consider and explain how natural psychology operates and is exhibited in disease. Every well-informed individual is familiar with the influence of the mind upon the body. When the Asiatic Cholera prevails in a community, how common a thing it is to see impressible persons psychologized by the epidemic. I am keeping within the bounds. of truth, when I say, that one half of the victims of that paroxysmal disorder, die solely in consequence of being psychologically captured by fear and fright. The fear, of getting the complaint, disturbs the proper equilibrium of the mind; and thus an avenue is thrown wide open to the admission and possession of the enemy. When this epidemic prevailed in New York, I had a patient who expected every next hour to have the "agonies of the disease" upon him. I admonished him not to read the coroner's daily reports of the number of victims. He said: "it was next to impossible for him to resist the temptation to notice the various publications concerning the complaint," and yet he confessed that, "every time he read the reports he felt that he had actually swallowed the disorder," so piristalitic were the motions which the fear communicated to his dependent viscera. This man was ultimately obliged to leave the city in order to preserve his mental equilibrium and escape the disease. A good illustration of this psychological action of mind upon the body, was originally published in the Zoonomia, and was subse quently attested by the poet Wordsworth: A young farmer in Warwickshire, England, finding his hedges broken, and the sticks carried away during a frosty season, determined to watch for the thief. He lay many cold hours under a hay-stack, and, at length, an old woman, like the witch in a play, approached, and began to pull up the hedge. He waited till she had tied her bundle of sticks, and was carrying them off, that he might convict her of theft; and then springing from his concealment, he seized his prey with violent threats. After some altercation, in which her load was left upon the ground, she kneeled upon the bundle of sticks, and raising her hands to heaven, beneath the bright moon, then at full, spoke to the young farmer, already shivering with cold," Heaven grant that thou mayst never know again the blessing to be warm.' The psychological effect produced upon his mind was so distinct and powerful, that he complained of cold all the next day, and wore an overcoat, and, in a few days, another; and, in a fortnight, he took to his bed, always saying nothing made him warm; he covered himself with many blankets, and had a sieve over his face as he lay. From the effect of this one insane idea, or psychological impression, this man kept his bed above twenty years, for fear of the cold air, till at length he died. All psychological phenomena, be it remembered, are naturally confined to the common plane of positive and negative manifestations; for when higher results are produced, they are invariably developed on the higher planes of mental science, which I will consider on future occasions. In psychology, any thing, I repeat,-every element, person, or substance, which disturbs the equilibrium of the mental constitution, is capable, for the time being, of capturing the mind, and controlling its thoughts and impressions. Thus,—when disease has obtained a preponderance of power in the system, the mind is disturbed by the deranged psychological impressions which are conducted to the sensorium. According to this philosophy, dreaming, as a precursor and accompaniment of diseases, deserves continued investigation. Not because (says Dr. Winslow) it is to be considered as a spiritual divination, but because the unconscious language often very clearly shows, to those who can comprehend its meaning, the physical state of the patient. Lively dreams are, according to psychological science, in general a sign of the attenuated excitement of the nervous action. Soft dreams are a sign of slight cerebral irritation; these vaporish dreams also often denote a favorable crisis in nervous fevers. Frightful dreams,-wars and combats,—are a sign of a determination of arterial blood to the head. Dreams about blood and red objects,-houses and ships on fire,-imps, demons, &c.,-are signs of an inflammatory condition of the semi-intellectual and perceptive faculties of the cerebrum. Dreams about rain and water, floods, deluges, &c., are often signs of diseased mucous membranes and dropsy. Dreams, in which the person sees any portion of his own body, especially in a suffering state, indicate disease and disturbance in that portion. As, for instance, when the mind dreams of seeing food,―rich viands, a feast, &c., the cause of the dreaming is generally traceable to the digestive functions of the physical system, which are evidently impaired. It is deemed expedient to remind you, that I am not, by this explanation of a certain class of dreams, giving a solution of all mental phenomena of this nature. On the contrary, there are two classes of dreams originating in a very different manner; which will be duly examined and explained in subsequent lectures. But here, let it be understood, I am treating of the natural psychological science of man, which differs from the science of sympathy, somnambulism, clairvoyance, mental illumination, in this particular respect that psychology treats exclusively of the native positive and negative relationships of things, and explains how naturally |