If we desire to comprehend that just condition of body and mind which is termed health, we must become acquainted with those causes and laws which develop and sustain that condition. Perfect health is perfect harmony, a state when the immortal spirit circulates equally through every organ and tissue. All departments of Nature give unmistakable and demonstrative evidences that health is the true and normal condition of every living thing. The laws of Nature converge to one only end, being the establishment of perfect harmony, and there is nothing qualified so completely to represent and enjoy that condition as the human constitution, because only harmonious principles, proceeding from an harmonious and Divine Mind, could elaborate an organism so exquisite. Health of body and mind is happiness of mind and body. Again, it is the permeation, penetration and actuation of the spirit in every particle of physical and mental being.
The human organism is a world of motions, a solar system, or otherwise a universe in miniature. As the sun distributes heat, life and beauty to the various planets beneath its influence, so does the brain diffuse life,
movement, sensation, power to the various organs, muscles, nerves and membranes. So also does the heart send its vital current through every avenue. Disease or discord is the inevitable consequence when anything disturbs the circulation of the spiritual principle from the brain. Perpetual equilibrium of physical and mental temperature; unfailing reciprocity of life, substance, sensation; faithful discharge of functions natural to the various organs; penetration and interpenetration of the spiritual principle, without exaggeration or diminution: these constitute the immediate causes and conditions of health.1 But there are others, deeper and more essential, which lie in the invisible bosom of vitality, so we must therefore proceed to examine the nature and influence of that living principle which moves and illuminates the human body. Vitality is a part of Divine Mind associated with and acting specifically upon organised matter. There is demonstrative evidence that the universal principle of life or mind is substance. Matter cannot move without a principle of motion being applied to it; the primary source of life and power is the Divine Mind; therefore every relative or approximate principle of life or mind is a substance. It requires substance to move substance, and the moving principle must be superior to the principle which is moved. We are thus led to conclude that the mind or spiritual force which inhabits and moves the combinations of matter
in man's physical economy is a substantial principle. It is organised substance engaged in moving organised substance, and the unrestricted operation of all its principles is indispensable to that condition which is termed health. But just as the spirit acts upon matter, so does Nature act upon the spirit within. The principles of action, development, refinement and reciprocity are the same everywhere, and are unchangeable. Therefore health consists in the unhindered operation of these laws, firstly, between the spirit and the body, secondly, between both these and universal Nature.
Health consists otherwise in a series of events or revolutions, each of which is attended with some important change in the general structure. They result from the operation of reciprocal, positive and negative, or alternate forces, produced by the interior powers of the soul. Beautifully do these hidden powers manifest their action in subordinate portions of the individuality. The blood makes a revolution every three minutes; we breathe periodically, move periodically, think periodically, do all things, experience all things, understand all things according to the universal laws of periodical movements.1 Like earth itself, man experiences daily and yearly changes, resolved into regular and specific revolutions. Woman has her periodical experiences, perfect and unvarying. The four great events are birth, health, sleep and death.
When an individual is perfectly healthy, the organisation is a splendid representation of spiritual beauties
and symmetrical developments. With merely physical perceptions we are charmed by the well-formed, beautiful infant, elastic and joyous youth, splendid and accomplished man in his prime, while even more captivating than these is the aged man, his body unbent, his mind radiant with memories and sparkling with conceptions of the future. But the internally healthy man, beheld with spiritual perceptions, looks like an illuminated world, a typical summary of the life, beauty and harmony of the universe. The brain is surrounded by numberless radiations, like a glowing sun. Greatly to be desired is the attainment of this state, elevated above the depraving effects occasioned by transgression of Nature's immutable laws. Greatly to be desired is the knowledge by which it can be imparted to unborn generations. Greatly to be desired is the ability so to train them that it shall be as difficult for such generations to violate physiological and psychological laws as it is for us to obey these. It is necessary for happiness that the human head should be glorious as the sun, bright with the halo of righteousness; that the entire structure should represent faithfully that undisturbed harmony which pervades the universe. So accustomed should we become to moving, sleeping and thinking right that it should be as hard for us to deviate from the regular path prescribed by Nature as for earth to depart from its orbit. Indeed if we were so constituted and situated as to be perfectly healthy, it would not only be exceedingly difficult to violate the laws of Nature but even to realise that we possess any system which demands our vigilance. However, we touch here upon health raised into a heavenly state, and such it is in its perfection—not a mere physical condition, but the outer manifestation of an inward reality, the right arrangement and the right manifestation of those forces and elements which constitute the immortal soul.