Letters on the Human Body/Letter 2
LETTER II.
- My Dear Sir,
My Dear Sir,It cannot have escaped your observation, that the five bodily senses, called seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching, are the only doors of your communication with the outward visible world of nature, insomuch that if these doors are removed, or even closed, you would be as insensible as a stone to all the variety of earthly objects by which you are encompassed; and thus, instead of enjoying the splendour, and beauty, and delights of the princely palace, which is given for your habitation here below, you would find yourself a miserable captive in a dark and silent prison, shut out from every sensation of external comfort and enjoyment. You must consequently have noted, that you are indebted to the eye for all the delights, which gain admission through that organ into the mind, and in like manner to the ear, and the rest of the senses, for the several gratifications, with which they are continually solacing and supporting you, by presenting you with an exuberance of their multiplied and enchanting powers of affecting you. I cannot therefore for a moment doubt, but that in a mind like yours, the blessed song of praise and gratitude must often have been elevated to the FATHER OF MERCIES, in humble and thankful adoration of the goodness which suggested, of the wisdom which devised, and of the power which constructed so many inlets for the reception of all that is delightful, interesting, and edifying in this lower world.
And here I might call your attention to the astonishing mechanism, displayed in the fabrication of the organs of the above senses, and manifesting a skill, in comparison with which all the works of human contrivance and ingenuity are rude and unskilful. For examine only the wonderful internal structure of the eye and the ear, as made known by the experimental discoveries of modern anatomists. Look attentively, I say, at the organ of sight, with all its several appendages of its retina, its coats, its three fluids—called humours,—its cornea, its pupil, and its chrystaline lens, &c., all arranged together in an order the most exactly suited to admit all the modifications of light, and thus promote vision. Look next at the organ of hearing, with its appendages, consisting of a drum, a hammer and anvil, a stirrup, a labyrinth, a cochlea, &c., all again so admirably arranged, as to render sensible all the modifications of the air, and thus admit every possible variety of sound. Let me then ask you, whether, in these two single specimens of divine workmanship, you do not discover a skill and a wisdom as far exceeding all that is human, as heaven is above earth, or as Infinite is superior to finite.
But it is not my present intention to dwell merely on the external form and structure (astonishing and edifying as they are) of the several organs of your bodily senses; what I wish rather to impress on your mind is the importance of the uses, both temporal and eternal, both natural and spiritual, for which they are designed by the GREAT CREATOR. Permit me then to begin with the uses of the EYE; and, first, with its natural and temporal uses.
It cannot have escaped your observation, that the natural and temporal uses of the eye are both various and interesting, because daily experience must have taught you, that you are indebted to the instrumentality of this wonderful organ for all the multiplied gratifications resulting from the admission of natural light, and the images of natural objects, into the otherwise dark and empty chambers of your intellectual mind. For without this organ, all the splendour and beauties of outward nature would be lost upon you; colour would be colourless, shape shapeless, and every glory and stupendous object of creation would be hidden under a veil of impenetrable darkness. Even the bright rays of the sun of this lower world would be deprived of all their cheering influences, and you would find yourself, to all intents and purposes of recreation, a blind inhabitant of a sun-less, moon-less, and star-less cavern. In point, therefore, of mere animal gratification, the immense debt which you owe to the Creator of your eyes is incalculable, and defies all the powers of arithmetic.
Animal gratification, however, forms but a small and comparatively trivial part of the natural and temporal uses and blessings which you are perpetually deriving from the organ of vision. For, lo! what a multitude of nameless, yet interesting, objects are every moment gaining admission, through that small aperture, and entering into the outward court of your mind, where they are stored up as rudunents for its future formation and growth; whilst their material images are gradually putting off, and they assume a new aspect under the higher character of intellectual ideas! Perhaps you have never, as yet, paid due attention to this singular metaphysical phenomenon, in the birth of that part of your constitution which you call rational and intelligent, and how it is the continual result of the transplantation (if I may so express myself), through the medium of external vision, of all the visible objects of creation in this lower world, into the interior recesses of mental power and operation. You forget, therefore, that thought, reason, intellect, &c., owe their birth, in a great measure, to the stores of material images introduced by such transplantation, since without those images, there would be a deficiency of the ideas necessary to constitute a thinking, rational, and intellectual mind.
But, on this occasion, a caution may be requisite, to guard you against the error, into which some modern philosophers and metaphysicians have been betrayed, whilst, in opposition to all the rules and maxims of sound philosophy, they have ascribed to external material substances the power of insinuating themselves into the mind through the organ of vision; and have thus invested those substances with an ability which doth not, and cannot, belong to them. For what eye cannot see, that matter, howsoever it may be modified and organized, is in itself dead; and, consequently, is utterly incapable, of itself, to enter into mind, so as to form images there? What eye, therefore, cannot see further, especially if under the illumination of heavenly light, that whensoever the images of natural thnigs are introduced into the human mind, it is by virtue of a faculty—not inherent in those things themselves, nor yet in the organ by and through which they gain admission—but implanted in every man by the GREAT CREATOR; being the constant and wonderful result of the life which every human being- receives continually from GOD? Had your favourite author, Mr. Locke, then, suffered his intellectual sight to be opened by this edifying truth, that all life is from GOD, and particularly the life of man, and that hence man derives the astonishing faculty, not only of seeing the various subjects of outward nature, but also of transplanting them for use into the interior of his own intellectual mind, he would never have cherished the groundless idea, that matter, by its own activity, ascends into and forms that mind; but would rather have adopted the sublime wisdom which teaches, that mind, in connection with the life which it receives momentarily from the DIVINE SOURCE of life, takes to itself, for its own use, the material images presented to it by the various material substances with which it is surrounded. Let me then earnestly caution you how you give too much credit to great names, in their speculations on mind and matter; whether they assign to the latter a power which belongs only to the former, or to the former an independant faculty of its own, separate from the life which it derives continually from the SUPREME SOURCE of life and being.
There is yet another caution, to which, on this occasion, I am anxious to call your attention, as your only security against mistaking instrumentals for principals; and thus falling into the dangerous error, for instance, of supposing that, in the grand concern of bodily sight, the eye is a principal, and not merely an instrument. For the truth is (and I am persuaded you will subscribe to it, whensoever you give yourself time to reflect), that the organ of vision, called the eye, doth not, of itself, see, but is only an instrumental medium for the conveyance of sight to some other and higher faculty in the interior of your constitution. For the organ of vision, it is plain, is merely material; and consequently, like every other material substance, is utterly incapable either of seeing or feeling. You must look then to some other source within yourself, before you can discover the wonderful faculty of vision, or that astonishing power which enables you to admit into yourself all the glories and beauties of external nature for your comfort and edification.—And what can this other source be but mind? Yet what is mind, but a substance and form capable of receiving life from its GREAT CREATOR; consequently, in respect to that CREATOR, a mere instrument, whilst the CREATOR Himself is the GRAND and ONLY PRINCIPAL? The real fact therefore is, that GOD alone sees independantly, and that all other substances, whether of mind or matter, are merely dependant instruments for communicating the blessings of sight to His otherwise blind and sightless creatures.
But enough, I trust, has been said to convince you of the natural and temporal uses of the eye; and how infinitely therefore you are indebted to the DIVINE AUTHOR of your being for a gift of such surpassing excellency, by virtue of which you are enabled to enjoy all the blessings of light, all the gratifications resulting from a view of the sublime and beautiful objects of creation, and, what is of still higher importance, to admit into yourself the materials necessary to form intellectual ideas; and thus, by transplanting the images of the natural and visible things of this lower world into the interiors of your constitution, to promote the birth and growth of that intellectual mind, which is to be your capacity of receiving, of believing in, and enjoying the great realities of that higher and eternal world for which you was created.
Allow me now, therefore, to pass on to the consideration of uses—even more important than those of which I have been treating—by calling your attention, as was proposed, to the spiritual and eternal uses intended to be derived from the organ of vision.
It has been already shown how the images of natural objects, when presented to the human mind through the medium of the bodily eye, are serviceable in forming the intellectual mind, by becoming a plane, or ground-work, for the production of intellectual ideas. But are you aware, that an intellectual mind is only another term to express an intellectual eye; and that the objects of the sight of this eye are all the forms and colours and qualities of TRUTH, whether it be scientific, rational, or spiritual truth? Are you aware, therefore, that there is a certain relationship subsisting between the bodily eye and the intellectual eye, so that what is true of the former, in regard to natural objects, is true also of the latter, in regard to spiritual objects? The bodily eye, for instance, introduces to your notice all the grand objects of this lower world, so as to convince you, not only of their existence, but also of their instrumentality to solace and delight you. In like manner, your intellectual eye introduces to your notice the more sublime objects of another and higher world, attended with a similar conviction of their reality, and of their tendency to promote your bliss. Do you ask what those more sublime objects of another and higher world are? I would reply, they are all such objects as are presented to your view in the volume of REVEALED WISDOM, viz. the being and attributes of the ONE ETERNAL GOD; His manifestation in the flesh; His connection with the hunian race, not only as a CREATOR and perpetual PRESERVER, but as a REDEEMER and perpetual REGENERATOR; His everlasting kingdom also, with its nearness to man, both as a present and future possession.
But you will tell me, perhaps, that it is impossible for you to attain to a belief in the existence, the nearness, and important reality of such invisible and eternal objects, as full and as convincing as that which you enjoy respecting visible and temporal objects; and that, consequently, the evidence resulting from the testimony of your bodily eye is more to be depended on than that which results from the testimony of your intellectual eye.
I am well aware, that an impression of this sort prevails in many minds, but let me entreat you, my dear Sir, to consider whether it be a just impression. For why should not the objects of intellectual sight be regarded as of, at least, equal reality with those of bodily sight? You say that the sun of this world has a real existence, because you see it with your bodily eye, and you would laugh at any one who should dispute your testimony. But why then will you not say that another sun exists, with the same reality, called THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, which is presented to the view of your intellectual eye in the bright pages of the ETERNAL TRUTH? [See Malachi, iv. 2.]. There can be no just reason assigned for a want of evidence in the latter case, but what is grounded in a disbelief or doubt respecting the Divine testimony of the WORD OF GOD. Being persuaded, however, that no such disbelief or doubt has any place in your mind, I am perfectly satisfied that, whensoever you will give yourself a moment’s time to reflect on the subject, you will then discern clearly, that the GLORIOUS SUN, presented in that Holy Book to your intellectual eye, demands as full a belief as to His existence and wonderful properties, as the sun of this world which is presented every day to your bodily eye. And if the SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS exists, we are then compelled to allow that there must be a world also, called the eternal world, with all its various inhabitants and objects, on which that SUN may exert its blessed influences. For what is a sun without a world to shine upon? And what is a world without inhabitants and objects?
You see then, my good friend, from the above statement, that one grand spiritual and eternal use of the bodily eye is to form an intellectual eye, by virtue of which you may be enabled to discern clearly (provided you acknowledge the Divine Testimony of the WORD OF GOD), not only the reality of the existence of a SPIRITUAL SUN, called the SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, but also the existence of an eternal world, with all its variety of spiritual inhabitants and objects.[1]
Allow me now to call your attention to another spiritual and eternal use of the same bodily organ.
But here I must beg leave to address you as a man, who possesses, not only a bodily eye for the purpose of admitting into your mind all the grand objects of outward nature, but also an intellectual eye, capable of viewing those objects in the interior light of truth; and thus of collecting from them all that sublime and heavenly wisdom which they are intended to convey. Too many, alas! in this respect, may be said to have only one eye, viz. the eye of the body, whilst they either put out, or what is the same thing, never open the intellectual eye,—thus drawing down upon themselves the just, but awful expostulation and censure of the GREAT SAVIOUR, “Having eyes, see ye not?” [ Mark, viii. 18.]. Persons of this description, therefore, in beholding the exterior forms of the things of this world, see them, and yet do not see them, because they see only their outward forms, sizes, and colours, but do not see the wonders and the glories of that infinite and adorable goodness, wisdom, and power of the GREAT CREATOR which they were intended to display. They behold nothing, therefore, but the husk and shell of things, which in themselves are dead, whilst they are totally blind to the living principles within, of which the husk and shell are mere coverings. And (what is of still more lamentable importance) in reading the holy Oracles of the ETERNAL WISDOM, which were revealed from heaven for the blessed purpose of opening their eyes to a view and contemplation of an everlasting world, and of their sacred connection with it and its GOD, they still discern nothing but chaff; because they limit their views by looking only at the sense of the letter of the Booh of Life, without opening their intellectual eyes to see, and their penitent hearts to feed upon, the rich and nourishing grain of heavenly love, charity, holiness, and blessedness which are stored up under the letter.
I am persuaded however, my excellent Friend, that I am not here delineating your character, since whether you take a view of the works of the ALMIGHTY, or of His HOLY WORD, I fancy that I always see you penetrated with a sevout sense, not only of what they appear to be, but of what they really are. In beholding, therefore, the external objects of this world of nature, your pious and penetrating eye looks through them, as well as at them, and thus sees them in their transparency, alike as in their brilliancy. Your view thus passes through the surfaces of things to the contemplation of their insides, where you are at once astonished and edified at the perception of a love, a wisdom, a goodness, and a power, which, whilst it abases you under a profound sense of your own comparative nothingness, consoles you, at the same time, by the conviction, that you are the blessed and favoured child of the DIVINE AUTHOR both of your perception and of the wonders which excite it. In the works of GOD, therefore, you see (as much as mortal can see) GOD Himself; you adore His perfections; you grow wise by His wisdom; you cultivate an acquaintance with all that is truly excellent, grand, and edifying: thus you ascend, through the aid and instrumentality of the organs of external vision, to the throne of the MOST HIGH, and take your eternal seat with Him; agreeable to the Divine promise to every child of wisdom who exalteth his CREATOR above himself and the world, “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set with My FATHER in His throne,” [Rev. iii. 21.].
In reading too the word of GOD, as in contemplating His WORKS, methinks I again see you ascending the high mountain of the Divine love, purity, and holiness, since whilst your bodily eye is occupied in the outward letter of the sacred volume, your intellectual eye is soaring in the elevated regions of its internal spirit and life. You presently discover, therefore, as you read, the bright and beneficent coimtenance of the GREAT REDEEMER, Whose high and holy name is JESUS CHRIST. You behold Hini condescending to become a man, that He might effect the redemption and salvation of men, by fighting against and subduing the powers of darkness, by teaching the interior truths of His own Divine wisdom, by setting an example of the purest holiness, and by finally making His humanity ONE WITH HIS DIVINITY, that so all mankind, in all future ages, might by faith and love have access to Him, and conjunction of life with Him. You learn also the heavenly lessons of humility, of self-denial, of meekness, of charity, of well-doing, and of combat against sin,—by the practice of which you are to become the follower and new-born child of this GREAT SAVIOUR. Thus your bodily eye is again the instrument of opening your intellectual eye, whilst your intellectual eye is again the instrument of leading you to the knowledge and love of JESUS CHRIST, the MANIFESTED and ONLY TRUE GOD; of teaching you the true wisdom of life; of enabling you to gain the victory over yourself and the powers of darkness; and thus of finally introducing you to all that purity of regenerate and all-conquering love, to which is extended the blessed promise, “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of GOD,” [Rev., ii. 7.].
But whilst I am thus pointing out to you the uses, resulting from the organ of bodily sight, I must not forget to warn you of some mischiefs and dangers to which you are exposed from its abuse. Allow me then to observe, that the eye of the body, like every other bodily sense, will require the watchfulness and control of some principle superior to itself, as a security against its exaltation to a pre-eminence, which, if not checked, may prove destructive, not only of your temporal, but your eternal interests and happiness. It is impossible, in the compass of a letter, to note all the instances, in which bodily vision may be thus your deceiver and betrayer; but there is one of such magnitude that I cannot pass it over in silence, and perhaps this one, if properly attended to, may enable you to discover and guard against the rest. The instance, to which I allude, is the tendency of bodily vision (I may add also of intellectual vision), to exalt itself above every other vision; and thus, by elevating itself, its testimony and its delights, above the testimony and delights flowing from superior sources, to separate itself from the GOD to Whom it owes its existence, and by this separation to plunge itself into all that blindness and wretchedness, pointed out by the great SAVIOUR, where He says, “If thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall befall of darkness,” [Matt., xvi. 23.]. I am persuaded that I am not here speaking a language which you will deem strange and unintelligible, and therefore I am sure you will join me, on this occasion, in devout prayer to the FATHER OF MERCIES, that both you and I, and every other human being, may be wise, in the exercise of all sight, whether bodily or intellectual, to secure that single eye, which renders the whole body full of light, [Matt., vi. 22.]. You will thus make it your constant earnest endeavour to conduct all your inferior organs of vision, with the higher principles of the fear and love of the most high, under the humble grateful acknowledgment that these organs are indebted to their GREAT CREATOR for all their astonishing powers; and that those powers can only become blessed in proportion as they submit and open themselves to the guidance and government of the SUPREME GOOD and SUPREME TRUTH, in the supplication of the Psalmist, “Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity,” [Psalm cxix. 37.].
Having now, I fear, wearied your patience by descanting on the uses of the bodily eye, I shall reserve the consideration of the uses of your other senses till another opportunity. In the mean time, believe me,
- ↑ Concerning this expression, THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, it may, perhaps, be necessary to suggest a caution to the Reader, lest he should be led to suppose, that the GREAT REDEEMER, to Whom the expression is manifestly applied by the prophet, is to be regarded as a SUN; whereas the truth is, that the GREAT REDEEMER, Whose high and holy name is JESUS CHRIST, is a DIVINE MAN, and to be regarded therefore as a DIVINE MAN, whilst the holy influence of His love and wisdom is figured and marked as a SUN, to denote that All of heavenly love and wisdom is from him and is His.