III
it of their fatigue: there is another muscular feeling, by which the mind regulates attitude and judges of position.
What are usually called our appetites, are attended with sensations modifying the state of the mind. This state is complex: for, first, there is present a sensation of gradually increasing uneasiness,as of hunger or thirst; and, next, a mental desire to remove it; lastly, the variety of the states of mind, arising from bodily causes, more immediately within the province of the physician, is inexhaustible.
The combination of sensations, arising from a free and healthy performance of all our bodily functions,is truly pleasurable. On the contrary, what a different state of mind is induced by local bodily irritation, or impeded function. The fine flow of spirits observed in healthy children, does not depend more on the delightful novelty of the world around them, and the rapid succession of agreeable external sensations, than it does upon the state of mind necessarily attendant upon the vigour and freedom of all the corporeal functions, viz.: upon pleasurable internal sensations.* "Mens sana in corpore sano," is considered a definition of perfect health: but my belief is, that they cannot long exist as separate states; for, as I have shewn that the mind is infinitely modified by the states of the body, so, inversely, the bodily functions are materially influenced by the states of the mind. So obviously is
- A child, four years of age, exclaimed, " Oh, I am so happy!"
Upon being asked "where he was happy?" the reply was, " All over me."
