DISEASE is a want of equilibrium in the circulation of the spiritual principle through the physical organisation. In plainer language, disease is discord, and such discord or derangement must exist primarily in those spiritual forces by which the organism is actuated and governed. The spiritual principle is a unit made up of lesser principles—that is to say, of motion, which circulates in the muscles; life, which circulates in the blood; sensation, which circulates in the nerves; and intelligence, which circulates in the brain. Physicians believe in the existence of hundreds of distinct and individual diseases, each of which develops peculiar signs and symptoms, whereby the complaints are detected and treated. But interior perception discovers that all are simply and only symptoms of one disease, caused or created by a constitutional disturbance in the circulation of the spiritual principle. In other words, they are modes by which a general primary discord manifests itself in different constitutions. Disease is not therefore a thing, not a matter to be removed, but simply a condition to be altered. It is a change suffered by one or other of those materials—preexisting already within us—which, given an harmonious state of the body, go toward formation of bone, muscle, nerve and ultimately toward the comparatively immaterial principles of motion, life, sensation and intelligence. Diseased parts or organs are simply evidences that spiritual
equilibrium has been constitutionally or generally disturbed.1 This spiritual disturbance is therefore the disease and not the variable symptoms experienced locally. To restore afflicted matter to its proper position in the animal economy, the original spiritual harmony must be re-established. The spiritual principle must be reached through the same mediums which it employs, as instrumentalities, in operating upon and governing the organism. These mediums are electricity and magnetism. When equilibrium is disturbed, and the result is a negative or cold state, a positive principle must be introduced into the organism. When the positive or heat state is produced, a negative force should be introduced. In either extreme harmonious circulation, healthy temperature and proper atomic motions will be thus restored.
The principles of positive and negative, or male and female, are universal. The human brain is constructed upon the principles of the galvanic or magnetic battery, and its physiological peculiarities are expressed throughout the entire system. The same duality of arrangement, the same galvanic action characteristic of the brain are discoverable therefore in every dependent part of the human organism. Duality is an unvarying manifestation of Nature. The male attracts the female, and vice versa, and while opposites thus draw, so likes repel each other.2 True oneness is constituted of opposite relations, or a proper adaptation of positive and negative principles. The brain is constructed upon male and female principles: the cerebrum is positive and the cerebellum negative. It is the adaptation of these opposite struc-
tures to one another that develops mind and all processes of the body which are subject to the control of mind. It is central harmony of magnetic poles and spiritual powers which causes our various organs to perform their appropriate functions with such exquisite order.
Now, the zinc of a galvanic battery generates a positive and the copper a negative fluid, but this phenomenon can be produced only by introducing sulphuric acid into the vessels in which these metallic plates are situated. The analogy between this and the human brain is perfect, for Nature never contradicts herself. The two hemispheres of the brain correspond to the zinc and copper plates, while the spiritual principle dwelling in the brain and developing motion, life, sensation and intelligence, corresponds to the sulphuric acid which pervades the metallic plates and originates the positive and negative forces in the ordinary battery. All human organs have likewise their positive and negative surfaces. The interior of each organ corresponds to its external structure. Internal surfaces are called mucous membranes and the external serous membranes. The first excretes a semi-fluid or alkali and the second an aqueous fluid or acid: one is positive and the other negative. The mucous membrane generates a negative and the serous a positive force. The secretions and excretions of the system are carried on and the physiological processes perpetuated by these membranes. All this is accomplished by the spiritual principle, 1 operating through the media of magnetism, electricity and the brain. Here
we find the origin of vital magnetism and vital electricity—fluids vastly superior in refinement to that mineral magnetism and electricity which emanate from the earth.
The food we eat, the air we breathe, the water we drink contain more or less of the gross kinds of magnetism and electricity; but they are refined and sublimated by entering the batteries of the human body. What was mineral electricity and terrestrial magnetism yesterday may by this process constitute tomorrow a part of our thinking principle. In perfect health the serous and mucous membranes constantly generate positive and negative forces, acids and alkalies. By supplying the spirit and being supplied in turn, these two forces preserve an equilibrium of physical temperature and atomic motion throughout the organisation. But if anything disturbs the circulation of the spiritual principle a corresponding disturbance results among the positive and negative membranes,1 causing one of the forces to preponderate over the other. If the positive forces are impaired the system passes into a negative state, and
alternatively. The first deviation from a healthy condition is therefore accompanied invariably by a change of temperature and consequent motion among the atoms of the body. Action and reaction being natural and inevitable, should the spiritual principle be repelled from the external to the internal membranes, the temperature will be lowered and atomic motions diminished, producing a slight negative state in which alkali and vital electricity preponderate, with sensations of coldness and the concomitants thereof. But should the vital principle be drawn from the inward to the outward membranes and tissues, the temperature will be raised and atomic motions accelerated, producing a slight positive state, in which acids and vital magnetism preponderate, with sensations of fever and cognate symptoms.
The causes which throw the system into preponderating positive or negative states, and develop those local consequences which are called diseases, may be classified under the seven following heads, understood as general and including innumerable particular causes: (1) Hereditary constitutional predisposition, (2) Accidents or injuries, (3) Atmospherical changes, (4) Situation, (5) Occupation, (6) Habits, and (7) Spiritual disturbances. As regards the last, external spiritual causes which, by disturbing the spiritual principle, produce discord, must be distinguished from those primary forces in the organism which themselves suffer disturbance prior to the development of disease. The human soul is endowed with countless springs of immortal activity which render it preeminently capable of endless harmonious expansion. But the same attributes render it capable of experiencing inexpressible misery. It follows that the living principle is surrounded by countless influences which are adequate to the development of spiritual and afterwards of physical afflictions. The point is that it is the man and not his body who is first affected thereby. At times they act individually and at times
in a state of concentrated combination, their legitimate consequences being faithfully recorded upon the dependent system and experienced ultimately therein.
It has been said that whatever disturbs the totality of consciousness—being the spiritual principle in the body—invariably throws that consciousness into one of two conditions—either positive or negative, comparable to the sides of a balance suspended by the hand of justice. If the body is born healthy, the scales are balanced perfectly, but, by disobeying repeatedly the principles of harmony, one end of the balance sinks gradually, and thus equilibrium is lost. It may require years for good constitutions so to cripple Nature that the legitimate consequences are felt; but the law works unerringly, and the system is thrown either into an undue positive or an undue negative state. Among evidences of positive disharmony are lung and brain fever, bilious fever, malignant, puerperal, yellow and typhoid fevers, eruptive and cutaneous diseases, rheumatic gout, with all disturbances which arise in the serous membranes and terminate in fevers, inflammations and eruptions. Among evidences of negative disharmony are pulmonary affections, catarrhs, bronchitis, consumption, epilepsy, catalepsy, dropsical diseases, dyspepsia, atrophy, structural diseases, internal cancer, prolapsus, female diseases generally, impotence and sterility, dysentery, epidemical influenzas, internal cramps, convulsions and Asiatic cholera.
Nature is built upon principles1 of justice and recipro-
city, and it is at her tribunal only that perfect justice can be obtained, because Nature is enlivened and governed by a Great Divine Positive Mind, a vitalising and super-celestial Principle, which is perfect, just and eternal. We are blessed inexpressibly by the inexhaustible fountain of the universe: our sphere of health and happiness is eternally progressive. When body and mind remain in their normal sphere of action the individual experiences enjoyment in its purest form, which is actually dwelling in a heavenly state. But when any of the causes cited are permitted to act upon the spiritual forces their legitimate consequences are developed with a form and violence proportioned to the deviation from the sphere of health. Some constitutions, as intimated, can resist disease for years, while others sink into a low state by the action of slight causes in a few days. But although disease is an evil, connoting deforming consequences, some persons seem to be exalted spiritually when thus arrested and subdued in their careless career. The laws of Nature are God's thoughts and cease not to guide, guard and administer justice. Though often admonished and at last chastised for disobeying the laws of life, our afflictions may therefore work out for us a far more exceeding glory. There is almost always a subduing, refining, spiritualising influence which emanates from seeming evils of physical affliction. Under the silent influence of many diseases the material temple falls, as it were, piece by piece to earth, and the indwelling spirit unfolds its delicate proportions, until it is prepared to tread the sunny paths and associate with the radiant inhabitants of a superior country. Disease is a strange process by which to subdue and purify, bringing the soul into conjunction with the eternal, but it is a revolutionising ordeal, and in this sense should be regarded as a blessing and sustained with patience.