A Solemn Appeal - James White

and ruins the mind. That this latter fact must follow
the former, is clear in the consideration that the
body is the seat of the mind, and the medium
through which it acts. The mind gets its simple
ideas through the medium of the body. And in
proportion to the perfectness of this medium does
the mind improve. But when the body is
debilitated, languid, sick, it is injured, and ruined
as a medium for the action of the mind.
Consequently the mind is then shut up to itself in
weakness and destitution. Moreover, the mind
increases its stock of knowledge and its energy by
the reflection upon its ideas. So that on ideas, by
reflection, ideas grow. But when the body is feeble
and sick, reflection cannot be supported. (Witness
the case of thousands of invalids.) As, then,
reflection is necessary to mental improvement, and
as a sound body is necessary to clear and continued
reflection, so is a sound body necessary to high
mental improvement. Once more--the ability of the
mind to use the knowledge it has, is dependent
upon the body. Thus, whatever weakens the body,
in so far locks up the mental treasure-house against
even itself. But unchastity does weaken and
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