Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1884 edition. Excerpt: ... chapter V. happiness and health, and wheee thet abe to be found. Blessedness and health are so closely related that they may be viewed as identical and inseparable. Disease has its spiritual counterpart in some mental unhappiness, some inharmony of the inner nature, some spiritual wretchedness, which ultimates itself in the body. For this antecedent mental disturbance we must first find a remedy, or the cure of the body is impossible; or, if it were possible, is of trifling value. To learn how and where to find true happiness, is to discover the best remedy for disease. To begin our search for this panacea and true elixir vitce, let it be observed that all desirable mental conditions are already in the spirit of every man as a possibility; or, as it is expressed in philosophical language, in potentia, though they may, for the present, be beyond the region of consciousness or sensation, though they exist as a fact in our inner being, and only wait recognition. They may be in a state of latency, like the germ of a plant in the seed, but are capable of being awakened into conscious activity. It has been said of the lotus, the sacred and expressive symbol in the religion of the Hindus and the Egyptians, that its seeds, even before they germinate, contain perfectly formed leaves, and the miniature representation of the perfected plant. This is an instance of preformation or antecedent ideal creation, which has its application to the subject before us. All the happy feelings and emotions that go to make up a state of tranquil blessedness, or spiritual healthfulness, are already in us, and can be aroused from their dormancy or quiescence, and be made to exist in actu, or in actual consciousn
