Page:Letters on the Human Body (John Clowes).djvu/139

Rh cannot see, that if it remains there, without any elevation thence into the higher chambers of understanding and will, it gains no admission into the mind itself; and, consequently, lies buried as an useless precept, neither enlightening the mind with intelligence, nor enlivening it with wisdom? What eye therefore cannot discern further, that some additional process is necessary to give to the precept all that power of imparting to man the blessings of eternal life and bliss, which it was intended to exercise? But what shall we say is this additional process, or what can it be, but serious thought and serious purpose? And what is serious thought and serious purpose, but mental digestion, mental absorption, and mental secretion; by virtue of which acts, a truth deposited in the memory is raised out of it into the understanding, and from the understanding into the will; and thus from science becomes intelligence, and from intelligence becomes wisdom; and from all three united rejects every evil affection, thought, and act, and thus renders man the blessed child of his, Who is never satisfied until His children both know His will, and by knowing understand it, and by understanding love it, and from loving practise it?

Yet what is thus true of the above single precept, is equally true of every other precept contained in the