Page:Science and Health.djvu/349

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PHYSIOLOGY.
345

mind, or that mind unconsciously controls the body, but man presents this phenomenon every moment, who comprehends not his own being, for this proves ignorance of mind's action on the body. Supposing a dose of poison be administered through mistake, and physician and patient are looking for favorable results when the patient dies, — did mind produce this? As surely as if it had been consciously done. Mind is ever active, for action signifies mind and the remote and predisposing thought furnishes a link to the present, although what we term personal sense knows this not. Accordingly, the thought that has risen above the verge of unconscious mind is the only one recognized, but it has acted before, and effects have followed this action all the same as when the thought became conscious. The mortal body, of matter, is but a grosser strata of mortal mind.

When darkness is over the earth, personal sense cannot say where the sun is, or that there is a sun; our antipodes must tell us this, or we must learn it of science. Thus it is with mind; the very reverse of what we are thinking at present, is often the remote cause or belief that has produced the inharmony of the body, and we must learn this belief of its opposite thought or the effect on the body, or submit its character and relations to science. We are willing to leave the explanation of light and its effect on the earth, to science, and because sense takes no cognizance, a portion of the twenty-four hours, of the sun, never say it has no effect on the earth, or deny there is a sun, or that the earth borrows light and heat from the sun. No more should we deny the effect of mind on the body because the belief that produces this effect is below the mental

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