ignorant rustics and idiots." Aretaus states that the mind under certain circumstances of disease becomes clear and prophetic, for some patients "predict their own end and certain events of interest to those around, who think them talking deliriously, but nevertheless are amazed to find their predictions true." Alsaharavius says, he has known many epileptics who had a knowledge of things which he was sure they had never learned. The occasional prevision of the dying has been credited by almost every nation, and the faculty of second sight has been almost as universally acknowledged. In most of the cases related in this chapter, it is probable that the attention was kept so long intensely fixed on one set of objects, that at length the brain took on a new action, as if from physiological necessity, or because the law of its organization demanded a change, violent in proportion to its abuse. We know that there is, while awake, a tendency to repeat sensations and ideas in an accustomed manner, and that there is also, during the suspension of outward attention, a tendency to a state contrary to that previously existing; thus a man who has been almost maddened by vain desire, say for food, will, during his sleep, enjoy a fancied feast. From this and many similar facts we learn that the mind possesses the power of securing its own satisfaction when withdrawn from the demands of the body; that one train of ideas can be displaced only by substituting another; that obedience to the laws of our bodily and mental economy is imperative; and hence, that there is a necessity for exercising the will in a judicious, moral, and religious manner, if we would enjoy a healthy habit of thinking and acting. CHAPTER IV. THE EFFECTS OF UNDUE ATTENTION TO ONE'S OWN BODY. It has been already observed, that the education of the senses is a mental act, in which attention and comparison are busily at work, to determine the relation of objects to each other and to the individual regarding them. Where the organs are perfect, the power of perception or the acuteness of sensation is in proportion to the power of the mind in directing attention, or in proportion to the degree in which the particular sense is used, hence we find microscopic observers, for instance, acquire such a command over their sight, in the use of their instruments, as to detect the minutest variations in objects, and such slight shades of difference as would be altogether overlooked by persons unaccustomed to such investigations. This education of sense, under the tuition of the will, is displayed in the most remarkable manner among those savage tribes, whose very existence depends upon the keenness of their senses, in discovering indications of danger or of safety among the wilds in which they dwell, and where civilized men would be wholly at a loss either to track prey or to avoid an enemy. The dominion of the mind over certain organs of the body is beautifully shown in such instances; but there are curious facts in connection with this subject well worthy of observation. It is not the senses merely that may be rendered more acute by effort of mind. Attention to any part of the body is capable of exalting the sensibility of that part, or of causing the consciousness concerning its state to be affected in a new manner. Thus a man may attend to his stomach till he feels the process of digestion; to his heart, till conscious of its contractions; to his brain, till he turns dizzy with a sense of action within it; to any of his limbs, till they tingle; to himself, till tremblingly alive all over; and to his ideas, till he confounds them with realities. We have remarked that persons of high intellectual endowment are capable of abstracting the attention from external objects, and of so applying it to the objects of thought as to become almost insensible to those of sense. On this power of abstraction depends the degree and success of studious habit. By it reason expands the scope of her vision, and acquires increased sagacity in every fresh exercise of her faculties. Fixing the attention on abstract truths is like lifting the veil between the world of sense and the world of spirit. By endeavoring to look, we see farther along the vista of life, and by abstraction we place ourselves in a position to be actuated by new influences. By striving and urging after truth, we get more and more familiar with her footsteps. When we would learn more of some mystery important to us, we turn away from all other subjects, and cast our attention in upon the consciousness of our own spirits, as if ex pecting there to discover a reply to our inquiry; and by thus standing, as it were, in the attitude of expectation, to observe thoughts as they pass before us, we often discover great secrets, and find our moral nature enlightened and enlarged by new convictions and new desires; for by this mental retirement we become most susceptible of spiritual impressions. But, by some mysterious reaction, this strong awakening of the mind renders it more conscious of the body, when the abstraction is over, and hence the most intellectual are generally also the most sensitive of mortals. Many diseases are produced, increased, and perpetuated by the attention being directed to the disordered part; but employment which diverts the attention from disease, often cures it. Every one who has had a tooth drawn, knows the charm of expecting the final agony; a sight of the operator or the instruments has put the pain to flight. The celebrated metaphysician, Kant, was able to forget the pain of gout by a voluntary effort of thought, but it always caused a dangerous rush of blood to the head. We may compare sensibility to a fluid, as Cabanis did, and suppose it to exist in a determinate quantity, capable of being diverted from one channel into another, according to the state of the mind and nervous system; thus causing an accumulation of exalted sensibility in one part of the body and a proportionate diminution in other parts. This state existed in the cases cited in a former chapter. In ecstasies the brain and |