The second point to be considered in the influence of mind upon body, is
the mode of operation and conjunction of the moral feelings on and with
the intellectual powers, and then their conjoint influence on the bodily
form. Now, the operation of the right moral feelings on the intellect is
always for the good of the latter, for it is not possible that
selfishness should reason rightly in any respect, but must be blind in
its estimation of the worthiness of all things, neither anger, for that
overpowers the reason or outcries it, neither sensuality, for that
overgrows and chokes it, neither agitation, for that has no time to
compare things together, neither enmity, for that must be unjust,
neither fear, for that exaggerates all things, neither cunning and
deceit, for that which is voluntarily untrue will soon be unwittingly
so: but the great reasoners are self-command, and trust unagitated, and
deep-looking Love, and Faith, which as she is above Reason, so she best
holds the reins of it from her high seat: so that they err grossly who
think of the right development even of the intellectual type as
possible, unless we look to higher sources of beauty first.
Nevertheless, though in their operation _upon_ them the moral feelings
are thus elevatory of the mental faculties, yet in their conjunction
_with_ them they seem to occupy, in their own fulness, such room as to
absorb and overshadow all else, so that the simultaneous exercise of
both is in a sort impossible; for which cause we occasionally find the
moral part in full development and action, without corresponding
expanding of the intellect (though never without healthy condition of
it,) as in that of Wordsworth,
"In such high hour
Of visitation from the Living God,
Thought was not;"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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