Page:Letters on the Human Body (John Clowes).djvu/167

Rh and serious reader, especially if acquainted with the original Hebrew, may soon discover, that the lungs, as well as the heart, have a significative meaning, and are often applied accordingly. For it is remarkable, that in the Hebrew language there is only one term to express the two distinct ideas of bodily breath, or breathing, and of mental spirit, or spiritual thinking,—insomuch that the Hebrew term, we find, is applied alike to denote the, or , and the respiration or breathing the atmospheric air by man; thus proving to demonstration, that there is a close analogy between the operation of the in the spiritual world, and of atmospheric air in the natural world. And is it not reasonable hence to conclude, that the same analogy exists between what is called spirit, or spiritual thought, and the lungs, since the lungs are nothing' else but the instruments of respiration, and may thus, without impropriety, be substituted for respiration itself? Is it not reasonable therefore to conclude yet further, that as the heart, both in the language of and of man, is figurative of the affections of the human will, or love, in like manner the lungs are figurative of the thoughts of the human understanding, which thoughts are found to be in close connection with those affections?

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