Main body

“ The eyes, the hands, the feet, the stomach, and all the organs and members of the body serve one another just as the mental faculties do, just as men in various offices do. They constitute a little kingdom of uses. ”

“ Thus the hand is the tool which we make use of to lay hold of anything—so an organ; the eye is the instrument of sight—so an organ; the heart is the machine which causes the blood to circulate—so an organ; the liver fabricates the bile—it is an organ therefore; the bones are the framework which support the weight of the body—so organs; the muscles are the power which sets the bones in movement—organs also, therefore; the skin is the armor which protects them—so an organ: in fact everything within us is an organ. ”

“ Where the motive organs, the muscles and bones, predominate, the physical powers will be most prominent. Where the vital organs, indicated by a heavy-set body and a full chest, predominate, the manifestations of life will be most prominent. Where the nervous system predominates, the mental powers will be most prominent.
Motive temperament.—The motive temperament is indicated by bones broad and large; muscles slim, firm and tough; the individual is tall, angular, brow prominent, cheek-bones high, shoulders broad, chest full, eyes and hair usually dark. ”

“ Hence the whole muscular system may be considered as one organ of sense, and the various attitudes of the body, as ideas belonging to this organ, of many of which we are hourly conscious, while many others, like the irritative ideas of the other senses, are performed without our attention. ”

“ The sensibilities of the internal organs are the disposition of each person to such a degree as to be influenced by the slightest sensation of pain, joy, grief, or any feeling of the mind. The reaction affects the muscular system; all the functions of body are carried on by a system of self and mutual help, so intimately united together as to be dependent for proficiency on one another. ”

“ Bring every muscle in the body, deep and superficial, under the control of the will; twist–turn–breathe–tense, until like a contortionist every intelligence within your body springs spontaneously to your command. ”

“ The nervous system, at the head of which stands the brain, is undoubtedly the regent of the monarchy of the body, whose sovereign is the thinking spirit; and all the organs in a well-regulated body should be worked in the interest of the organ of thought, as servants for a wise and watchful master. ”

“ The body is a mansion, with bones for its rafters and beams, with nerves and tendons for cords, with muscles and blood for mortar, with skin for its outward covering, and filled with no sweet perfumes, but loaded with refuse. ”

“ Some of his organs are exceedingly old, while others are but of yesterday; yet all are highly developed in due proportion, knit and harmonized in a marvellously tough, vigorous, adaptable body, the instrument of a thinking and willing mind. ”

“ Thus one order and degree of loves and of thoughts may constitute the head in the mind, whilst another may constitute the trunk, another the arms and hands, and a fourth the legs and feet, the three latter being all of them in subordination to, and under the control of, the first, or highest, as is the case in the corresponding members of the body, which are all of them subject to, and at the disposal of the head. ”

“ But I think that we are more averse to assent on false grounds than to anything else which is contrary to nature. Now of the limbs, that is to say, of the parts of the body, some appear to have been given to us by nature because of the use which, they are of to us, as, for instance, the hands, legs, and feet, and also those internal organs of the body, of which I may leave it to the physicians to explain the exceeding usefulness ”

“ The Organ and its Work.—A most interesting question relating to the work of the organ is this: Does the organ work for its own benefit or for the benefit of the body as a whole? Does the hand, for example, grasp for itself or in order that the entire body may come into possession? ”

“ Yet these natural and temporal uses of the bodily organ of touch, wonderful and important as they are, admit of no comparison with the spiritual and eternal uses of the same organ, whether viewed as an instrument of producing the sensation of touch, or as a medium of communication between the great world of outward nature and the little world of the human body. ”

“ Only slight study is sufficient to reveal the fact that each organ performs a work which benefits the body as a whole. In other words, just as the organ itself is a part of the body, the work which it does is a part of the necessary work which the body has to do. ”

“ If we take for comparison those that assimilate to our general form, anatomy shows us that our organs are the same as theirs; we find in them muscle for muscle, nerve for nerve, that is found in man himself. Physiology, in turn, has demonstrated that, in the body of man, the organs, the muscles, the nerves, have the same animal functions. ”

“ It is not unusual to consider the body as being divided into the head, the trunk, and the extremities; but, in consequence of the hitherto universal neglect of the natural arrangement of the organs and functions into locomotive, nutritive, and thinking, the beauty and interest which may be attached to this division, have equally escaped the notice of anatomists. ”

“ You know the head contains the brain, which is the king of the body, and commands all under him; and it depends on his being good or bad whether his subjects,—the legs, and arms, and body, and stomach, and our old friends the bowels, are in good order and happy, or not. Now, first of all, keep the head cool. Nature has given it a nightcap of her own in the hair, and it [47] is the best. ”

“ Our answer is simple enough; it is that we can and do point to a living tangible person with flesh, blood, eyes, nose, ears, organs, senses, dimensions, who did of his own cunning, after infinite proof of every kind of hazard and experiment, scheme out and fashion each organ of the human body. This is the person whom we claim as the designer and artificer of that body, and he is the one of all others the best fitted for the task by his antecedents, and his practical knowledge of the requirements of the case—for he is man himself. ”

“ For the body itself is "fearfully and wonderfully made." Supported by over two hundred bones, which are welded together by ligaments and ten­dons, and again overlaid by hundreds of muscles—the bands and pulleys by which action and locomotion become possible—permeated by thousands of nerves which give sensibility and vitality to the living mass, and clothed by a soft and flexible skin which charms at once the eye and the touch. ”

“ That the construction and organization of the human frame is in all men essentially the same. They have similar solids and fluids, viz., bones, cartilages, tendons, nerves, muscles, veins, arteries, flesh, blood, and other juices, body and parts, or members. ”

“ Among the other great acquisitions gradually evolved we may notice: a well-developed head with sense-organs, the establishment of large internal surfaces such as the digestive and absorptive wall of the food-canal, the origin of quickly contracting striped muscle and of muscular appendages, the formation of blood as a distributing medium throughout the body, from which all the parts take what they need and to which they also contribute. ”

“ We must study man in all aspects of the case, and when we see in the face, limbs, or body indications of his brain or mental condition, we should analyze and describe—first, the position of features and parts as we see them, then the muscles which produce those positions or movements, knowing that the muscular condition which has produced the movements or positions is the result of the state of the corresponding nerve-centers. It has been said that a man's face is an index of his mind, and this is true ”

“ The principal components of the body will naturally indicate and classify the topics for discussion in dealing with the subject of physical education. The body may be roughly described as an organisation of bones and muscles, permeated by blood, covered with skin, and containing a breathing and digestive apparatus.
The chief process by which life is maintained, and health and strength developed, is the receiving of food. That over-feeding and under-feeding are both bad is a truism. ”

“ Every time we think, move, play, or work, some part becomes worn, and must be mended. Blood, the care-taker, passes swiftly around every part, first up, then down; and every trip she makes, the bones take something to mend them; the flesh takes its part; the skin must have a share; the hair and finger-nails take something to make them grow; and so, while we study, work, or play, the mending goes on, and we hardly stop to think that it is done at all. ”

“ Would it shock our nervous sensibilities, if our next-door neighbor the philosopher, or some near-by grave and reverend doctor of divinity, or even the learned judge himself, should give unmistakable evidence that he had in his body the two hundred and odd bones and the five hundred and more muscles, with all their fit accompaniments of joints and sinews, of which the anatomists tell us? ”

“ It is not a very uncommon faculty, but it is one which needs cultivation and development." "But what is a Thought Body?" My hostess smiled: "It is difficult to explain truths on the plane of thought to those who are immersed body and soul in matter. I can only tell you that every person has, in addition to this natural body of flesh, bones, and blood, a Thought Body, the exact counterpart in every respect of this material frame. It is contained within the material body, as air is contained in the lungs and in the blood. It is of finer matter than the gross fabric of our outward body. ”

“ The body, by its organs of sense, as eyes, ears, nose, palate, and various members, communicates with the soul, and conveys to it that intelligence, which the soul administers in procuring well-being to the body, and constantly directs it to the objects of pleasure, and warns it against those of pain. ”

“ As the human body derives its powers and faculties from the soul, and is formed by it, we can find in the body a likeness of the soul. The body upon the outside, the epidermis, is dead and passive. As we pass inward, there is the sensitive tissue of the dermis, the muscles, the veins and arteries; still more interiorly is the nervous system, and then the nervous fluids that infill it. ”

“ Whatever of agony, of fury, of stubbornness, of determination, can be expressed by the human body, is expressed here. There is no muscle or tendon which is not exhibited in various positions; no posture of limbs or trunk which is not represented. The resurrection of the body is illustrated in a hundred ways, and the expression of the faces is of secondary importance. ”

“ Those who copy every­thing else that we do let us alone in this, and make their corsets now with as little regard to the anatomical structure of the body and the requirements of the vital organs, as if science had made no progress nor art any advancement. ”

“ Internally it reproduces the mould of all the organs which constitute the framework of the human body. We see it, in short, move, speak, take nourishment; perform, in a word, all the great functions of animal life. ”

“ Well, then, how significant is the fact that the eyes, and lips, and tongue, and hands, and feet, and the bending of back, and neck, and sides, are all placed within our power—to be applied to such operations as are suitable to them, when we have a body free from impediments and in a sound state of health ”

“ These are called the base of all things, and upon this base the four bodies of man are raised, each from its own element. Thus the physical body is raised from the earth. The vital body is raised from the water, the emotional body from the fire, and the mental body from the air. ”

“ The human body, then, is composed of three great classes of organs, all distinct in their nature and ends, but each indispensable to happiness, and even to life. These classes of organs and their functions are some­times called Temperaments, and the predominance or deficiency of either, is called the predominance or deficiency of the corresponding Temperament. ”

“ And if we are to move the muscles must be contracted. And it is, of course, obvious that only those muscles can be set in action which are, according to the immediate situation of the body, free to move. ”

“ A good body, well grown, well proportioned, and of such quality in its tissues as to be enduring, should bring, as it does bring, its share of admiration. Admirable, too, in their ways, are good stomach and lungs, as well as a vigorous vascular system ”

“ Moral and Mental Habits make their Mark upon Physical Tissues.—​But, practically, everybody knows that the body, and every part of the body, accommodates itself very readily to the uses it is put to: we know that if a child accustom herself to stand on one foot, thus pushing up one shoulder, the habit will probably end in curvature of the spine ”

“ These muscular feelings, though they may be almost unnoticed by us, during the influence of stronger sensations, [270] are yet sufficiently powerful, when we attend to them, to render us, independently of sight and touch, in a great measure sensible of the position of our body in general, and of its various parts ”

“ Although what is called my Body is shown to be a group of qualities which are feelings—its color, form, solidity, position, motion—all its physical attributes being what is felt by us in consequence of the laws of our organization ”