Page:Letters on the Human Body (John Clowes).djvu/172

152 But further, the bodily life of man, it is evident, would be imperfect, because useless, was not the above union of the heart and lungs attended with operation, by acting on the body, and thereby supplying it with power to fulfil the various ends and purposes of bodily and natural life. For supposing those two corporeal organs to have no connection with the rest of the body, and thus to leave it without life and activity, of what use or benefit would they be to the body? It is therefore mercifully and providentially ordained, that the heart, by its pulsation, and the lungs, by their respiration, have communication with the other members of the body, so as to impart to them an operative vigour and activity, which otherwise they would want, and separate from which, the heart and the lungs would be altogether useless.

Behold here then another significant, yet most edifying lesson, taught to all the families of mankind by the joint agency of the heart and lungs, on the other viscera and members of the body! Behold, I say, the grand end and design of all love and wisdom, of all will and understanding, of all goodness and truth, of all charity and faith, in the soul or spirit of man! For what are all these heavenly principles, or of what benefit either to the possessor or to others, unless determined and applied to the production of some