Page:Hatha yoga - or the yogi philosophy of physical well-being, with numberous excercises.djvu/22

22 immediate obedience. The brain receives telegrams from all parts of the body, warning it of danger; calling for help; making complaints, etc.

Then the body must have means of moving around in the world. It has outgrown the plant-like inherited tendencies, and wants to "move on." Besides this it wants to reach out after things and turn them to its own use. Nature has provided limbs, and muscles, and tendrons, with which to work the limbs.

Then the body needs a framework to keep it in shape, to protect it from shock; to give it strength and firmness; to prop it up, as it were. Nature gives it the bony frame known as the skeleton, a marvellous piece of machinery, which is well worthy of your study.

The soul needs a physical means of communication with other embodied souls. Nature supplies the means of communication in the organs of speech and hearing.

The body needs a system of carrying repair materials to all of its system, to build up; replenish; repair; and strengthen all the several parts. It also needs a similar system whereby the waste, refuse matter may be carried to the crematory, burned up and sent out of the system. Nature gives us the life-carrying blood—the arteries and veins through which it flows to and fro performing its work—the lungs to oxygenize the blood and to burn up the waste matter.

The body needs material from the outside, with which to build up and repair its parts. Nature provides means of eating the food; of digesting it; of