Chapter VII - Physiology
357:1
up to nature's God, learning is profitable. Prof. Ru-
up to nature's God, learning is profitable. Prof. Ru-
dolph's astronomical explanations are of this sort. The
researches and experiences of our great minds are of the
utmost importance, when given thus.
357:5
Astronomy, Natural History, Chemistry, Music, Mathe-
Astronomy, Natural History, Chemistry, Music, Mathe-
matics, etc., as ideas of a Principle, are mile-stones in
the pathway of science; but when we attempt to put
Principle into these ideas, we give them the interpre-
tations of personal sense, that mislead our conclusions.
Let spiritual sense give the last, because the highest
explanation of all things, and "the last shall become
first, and will be final." If material man was really
man, when this body is destroyed man would be anni-
hilated; identifying man through matter you have no
authority for saying, he lives after that is destroyed.
Education is all that develops sense, but it cannot de-
velop Soul; Casper Hauser, without this education,
manifested less Intelligence than a mouse, was unable
to feed himself, even knew less than the lower species,
guided by instinct. The infant boy, incarcerated in a
dungeon where neither sight nor sound could reach
him, at the age of an adult, was not a man, – showing
years make not men – he was an infant still, and a
belief of Life in matter, that proved itself neither In-
telligence nor the idea of God, but in reality nonentity.
Thus mortal man for whom laws of health are conjured
up from the abyss of condemned "knowledge," is just
this material nothingness, "dust to dust;" therefore,
what availeth it to plant him deeper in matter-belief,
whence he sprang and was accursed.
357:31
The least thought or said of physical structure, laws
The least thought or said of physical structure, laws
of health, etc., the higher will become manhood and,
358:1
woman-hood, the fewer diseases appear, and less harm
woman-hood, the fewer diseases appear, and less harm
be derived from change of climate, unwholesome diet,
laying aside flannels, severe mental labor, sedentary
habits, heated rooms, and all the et cetera of physiolo-
gical rules based on man as a structural thing, whose
life is at the mercy of circumstance. The scriptural
warning against "knowledge" ought to be heeded, but
it is not; the stronger constitutions of our forefathers
compared with this age, should furnish a hint, but they
do not; the difficulty lies in our nameless theories; sin,
sickness, and death, all over the land, are the fruits of
the belief of Life and Intelligence in matter.
358:13
The simple food our forefathers ate would not cure
The simple food our forefathers ate would not cure
dyspepsia to-day; with rules of health in the head and
the most digestible food in the stomach, there would be
dyspeptics; the effeminate constitutions of this period
will never grow robust until the science of being takes
the place of materia medica, physiology, etc. The ig-
norance of our forefathers of the knowledge that to-day
walks to and fro in the earth, made them more hardy
than our physiologists, and more honest than our poli-
ticians. We by no means deprecate learning, deep re-
search, original thought, history, observation, invention,
science and understanding; it is the scheming barbar-
isms of learning, the mere doctrine, theory, or nauseous
fiction, we deplore. Novels, remarkable only for exag-
gerated pictures of depravity, works on materia medica,
hygiene, or laws of health, remind you of Aesop's moun-
tain in labor with a mouse; introduce but a scandal
and humbug and you please society. What I wish to
know is, if this taste be not a fault of our systems of think-
ing and writing. All is mechanical; nature is suffocated;