Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1861-02-14


ment Of electricity, as may be seen by any
one who will witness the common expert
ments made with an electrical apparatus.
now provided in most of our well-appointed
schools. Take a seat upon the insulated
stool, holding the conductor in your hand
until fully charged with the electrical cur
rent, when every particular hair on your
head will rise up and stand out like the
quills Of ,orcupine, no matter how neatly
it may have been previously brushed. This
is ocular demonstration that the hairs are
conductors of electricity. What may be
all the uses of electricity in the human
economy is not so well understood, owing
to our limited knowledge Of the action Of
that element in animal and human life; yet
it is known that the horsepower of man
makes use of it as medium of its potent
action. We know, also, that this nerve
power increases in intensity as man adj
yances in intelligence and truly moral
activity, and that, therefore, the demand
for the electrical element in the system
must increase la the exact ratio of that
advancement. Now, as each and every
individual hair on the human body is a
conductor Of electricity to or from the body.
we are able to give a philosophical reason
for the recently prevailing fashion Of wear
ing the beard entire. Even fashions are
not arbitrary, nor are they the result Of
mere caprice, but, like all other things, are
subject to the action of immutable law.
- wear the beard has become, and is be-
coming more and more fashionable, because
by the increased action of nerve or brain
power in man, there is an increased demand
for electricity in the system; and to supply
this demand, the hirsute conductors of the
element, especially on the head and face,
must be preserved Hence it is that men
have instinctively obeyed the law, though
they Intellectually gave it no recognition.
But, it may be asked, what is this nerve
! or brain-power, which demands further
supplies Of electricity! This question has
been veil answered in an able article in the
AHonttc Monthly, on the peculiar charac-
teristics of the American Man, from which
we take the following extract:
"While the typical American organize
ton is of this admitted delicacy and light
ness, it is still capable, under high and
powerful impulse, of extraordinary feats of
endurance. This has Of late been admira-
bly, Illustrated Not long since there
returned to our shores a hero who-as
Dante was believed by the people of Italy
to have entered the Inferno Of Fire-had
actually descended into the opposite Infer
no Of Frost, and done unprecedented battle
with the demons of that realm. DIR. Kane
was slight, delicately framed, lean, with
sharp, clear-cut features, of quivering mo-
/ bility and fineness of texture having the
aspect rather of an artist than an explorer,
not at all the parsonage to whom most
j Judges would assign great power OF endur-
/ anee. And rs one follows him through
those thrice Herculean toils,--sees him not
only bearing cheerfully the great burlen OF
his own cares and ills, but lifting up, as it
were, from his companions, and assuming
upon his own shoulders, the awful oppies-
sion of the polar night, as Atlas of old was
! tabled to support the -heavens,-not even
ones admiration at such force of soul can
wholly exclude wonder at such fortitude OF
body. Whence, we ask, this power of
| endurance? We can trace it 20 no ordinary
physical resource. 1t comes from no
ordinary physical resource. 1t is pure
BRArN-PowER. 1t streams down upon the
body, in rivers of inyigoration, from the
cerebral hemispheres. 1T. Non. for Oct
1858, page 522.
This brain-power or nerve-force is, then,
neither more nor less than an ability to
patiently endure and cheerfuily suffer for
the accomplishment of great, laudable ends.
1t is the power Of the spirit. In this view,
the scriptural myth concerning Samson
must have far profounder meaning than
the commentators have yet discovered.
The renowned seer, Swedenborg, teaches
that the human body corresponds, in all of
its parts and in whole, to the spirit, which
is also an organized human body, substan-
tial and indcstructible, but not materia.
He tells us, for instance, that the interiors
OF the body correspond to the interiors Of
the spirit, thus: as the heart and lungs are
the vital organs of the body, giving circul
I IatIOn to the DIOOu ailj ilIldllHg tHc slehl1S-
phere, in like manner the spirit Is visited
| by affections of charity ard truths of Faith
from the Word; and this correspondence
he extends to every organ, muscle and fiber
Of the body, even to the nails and halr,
which latter, being its most extreme ultl-
mate, corresponds to the ultimation Of
spiritual principles. He teaches, also, that
| it is a law Of creation, that spiritual princi-
pies are in the constant endeavor to descend
| into AM yitalize the ultimates Of life 1.-THE
most common Of its secular affairs, and
| that IN 50 FIR as the ultimates of life are
thus yitalized in any one, just in SO far
does the spirit acquire strength, fullness
and potency and this until all external
things are il complete order and suborllna-
ton to the behests Of the spirit. This doc
trine, well understood, will not only open
the instruction which hes concealed IN all
the mythical expression Of the Wcrd, but
will lead to a more full appreciation OF that
orandest event IN creations grand history,
sl,ar. rollf "a