Page:Letters on the Human Body (John Clowes).djvu/137

Rh purest of those principles are elevated more inwardly into the mind, where they acquire a new form, and receive a new name,—being no longer called science, but dignified by the higher title of intelligence, because seen in intellectual light, or the light of the understanding. Lastly, material food, when by natural absorption it has been admitted into the lymphatic and lacteal vessels, under the form of lymph and of chyle, or white blood, is finally introduced to conjunction with the red blood, and is thus more intimately and fully incorporated with the life of the body. Spiritual food too, when by spiritual absorption it has been elevated into the understanding, so as to be viewed and cherished there with the affection of truth, is by degrees exalted to a higher place in the interiors of the mind, being viewed and cherished with the affection of good; and thus raised out of the understanding into the will, and consequently admitted to its supreme abode in the love and life, from which abode it rules and governs all inferior principles and operations.

The above analogy might be illustrated, if necessary, by a thousand instances; but perhaps one will be sufficient to prove that the mind, as well as the body, hath its powers of digestion, of absorption, and of secretion, and that, if those powers are not exercised, it is impossible that any mental food can be fully