Page:Letters on the Human Body (John Clowes).djvu/84

64 office and duty, by admonishing them, that they are the appointed guards at the door of the mind, to keep watch and thus prevent the admission of any affection, thought, or purpose, which might prove injurious to mental health and activity. For need I remind you, that the mind also has its health as well as the body, and that the health of the mind consists altogether in its standing and operating in the, which order requires, that the love and the wisdom of shall be exalted above every other love and wisdom, and that every other love and wisdom shall have its place of subordination, according to its tendency to administer to and strengthen in the mind the principles of the Divine love and wisdom? I leave you to judge, then, what mischief must necessarily ensue if the organs of mental taste are off their guard, respecting the quality of the things admitted into the mind,—that is to say, into the will and its affections, or into the understanding and its thoughts; since it must be evident, that if such things have a tendency to disturb the, they must, in that case, necessarily prove destructive of mental health, in like manner as unwholesome food, or poison, is destructive of bodily health. On the other hand, if the organs of mental taste faithfully discharge the duties pointed out to them by the lower organs of bodily taste, what blessed