Chapter VII - Physiology
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of his body, when you amputate a limb, you have taken
of his body, when you amputate a limb, you have taken
away a portion of man, and a surgeon destroys man-
hood, and worms are the annihilators of man. But
losing a limb or injuring structure, is sometimes the
quickener of manliness, and the unfortunate body pre-
sents more nobility than the statuesque outline, and
we find, "a man's a man, for a' that." Admitting
matter, blood, heart, brains, etc., and the five personal
senses, man, we fail to see how anatomy makes out the
different species of brute and human, or determines
when man rises above his progenitors, for both possess
these constituent parts, and must, to some extent, be
mortal man, if he is matter. According to accepted
theories, the genus homo ranges from dust to Deity, the
latter having its origin in matter, while the different
varieties of man are mineral, vegetable, and animal;
but the spiritual is not a link in this chain of so-called
being, and is seen only as it disappears. If man was first
dust, he has passed through every form of matter, until
he became man, and if the material body is man, he is
matter, and the dust that returns to dust. But this is
not man, the image and likeness of God, but a belief of
Soul in sense, and of Life in matter, that Wisdom con-
signed to annihilation. Anatomy makes man a struc-
tural thing; physiology continues this definition, meas-
uring his strength by bones, sinews, etc., and his Life
by material law. Phrenology makes him a thief or
Christian, according to the development of bumps on
the cranium; but not one of these define immortal
man. The tendency of all true education is to unfold
the infinite resources of being, but to measure our ca-
pacities by the size or weight of our brains, and limit
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our strength to the use of a muscle, holds Life at the
our strength to the use of a muscle, holds Life at the
mercy of organization, and makes matter the status of
man.
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Physiology is like fiction in which debauchery is
Physiology is like fiction in which debauchery is
toned down to fascinate, and mankind are in danger of
catching its sentiment. The very opposite teachings
of physiology, are all that will open again the gates of
paradise that beliefs have closed, and reach the per-
sonification of Spirit, in which man is upright, pure,
and free, having no need to consult calendars or clouds
to learn the probabilities of Life, or brainology, to
know how much of a man he is. Mistaking his origin
and nature, we call man both matter and Spirit; the
latter sifted through the former, Soul put through per-
sonal sense, carried on a nerve, and subject to ejection
at the hands of matter; the intellectual, moral, and
spiritual, that exist as Soul outside the body, subject to
the body!
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Unless civilization embraces heathenism, why should
Unless civilization embraces heathenism, why should
man, in the nineteenth century, bow down to flesh-
brush, flannel, bath, diet, exercise, air, etc., when mat-
ter is not capable of doing for him what he can do for
himself? The idols of civilization are more fatal to
health and longevity than the idols of other forms of
heathen homage; they certainly call into action less faith
than Buddhism in Intelligence governing man. The
Esquimau restores health by incantations, as effectually
as the modus operandi of the schools.
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Physiology is anti-Christian; it teaches us to have
Physiology is anti-Christian; it teaches us to have
other gods before "Me," the only Life of man. The
good it claims is positive evil, because it robs man of
his birth-right from God. Truth governs it not, and