Brownlow's Knoxville Whig, and rebel ventilator. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1863-1866, 1866-01-17
The Power OF the VIII ever the Sen.
SeS.

a sailor will discover ship at sea hours |
before landsman can perceive her ap- |
proach. He can tell how many masts she |
has, and the general character and class of
the vessel All this he reads easily, while
those unaccustomed thus TO exercise their
eyes can sec nothing of it at all. When we
say that this facility arises fsom the power
of the will over the senses, what do we
mean? Not that by any one simple act of
volition tie sailor can resolve to see, and he
does; the landsman will make far greater
efforts without any Immediate success
But that the power to see so much more
clearly now than others is the result oft re
peated and former acts Of the will, each car
nestly directed to the same object and strain
ing and perfecting the visual power so that
now, spontaneously, the sailor looks and
sees clearly where others can sec nothing.
On the other hand, where the volItlon IS for
successive generations withdrawn from any
sense. like that Of sight, it may and VIII be
utterly lost The optic nerve OF the fishes
in the waters of the Mammoth Cave, IN
Kentucky, has entirely dried up. You can
lust see where the eye ought to be, but
where it now certainly is not. 1t IS Proba-
bic that each of our senses may bc grad
uaIIv developed or diminished by the force
of the will gradually to much the same
. extent
There Is. however, a sort OF C0HlPCaSdtlrC
arrangement, by which it would appear that
the nervous power not used by one sense
often goes to feed others where there Is more
demand for it. Thus ii would probably be
found that the sense Of hearing Is much
more acute in many cases Of blindness, rs
that Of touch also is well known TO be, as II
the nerve force must and would find for It
self vent and occupation. The buzzard has
no sense of smell but vision OF lnconceIy-
able power.
1t would seem then to be a general law Of
the senses, that wherever there is that feel
ing of want, need. desire and effort which
amounts to a tr~to exert any sense to the
almost, it will lally augment in power
even nj the cXDSIisC of diminishing III some
cases from the power Of other senses not
kent in equally strained exercise. Let man
keen his arm in 4 sling for few months
and he will soon be able to compute by the
diminished SIZE Of the muscles and the fee
blencss and diminished power OF muscular
exertion, how rapidly the want OF use an(
will diminishes any power.
This NAV teach us how to keep our sense
younq, and in healthy tone, l. {. by llttL
exercise every day Men of studious an,
retired habits grow deaf in many cases, be
cause they get SO fond Of reading and alb
stract thought, that there seems very HttL
in the world that is worth hearing. Whcl
this comes to be the habitual feeling OF tn
mind, the sense of hearing, being supCriiu
Gus, dries up. Literary men should cult
yatc the love Of music, OF to disCrlmlnat
and love the song Of birds IN the woods
that they may desire to hear, and they vii
hear. The Indians will be found wonder
fully acute in this sense. Hearing and smcl
however. arc the two senses which seem T.
offer their results most spontaneously in al
most full perfection. We cannot well he'll
receiving their impressions.
All the senses may. however bc great,
aided by an indirect application Of the will
as well as the direct. Most of these appl,
to all the senses equally. The more full ant
perfect the general health, the more perfect
as general rule. will be the operations O
each sense Those who neglect exercise o
bathing, or who live upon injurious food
will find their senses often become ObSCurct
and impaircd in their fullnCss by small III
GERS or corrupt humOrs, affecting sometime
The nerves and sometimes the muscles
which regulate the perceptions OF the senses
Il thus ottcns is in the power OF the VIII by
paying the most perfect attention to The
general health, and regarding every lmpcr
fiction Of the senses rs symptoms of some
imperfcctiOn Of the sclf-gOVcrnlng prnClpIc
20 keep improving and renewing the PoWc
of each sense to a very late period IN Lie
By 50 doing. men often pTOIon~ life and al
its eniovmcnts greatly, and render old AZ
period Of not only the most sublime nc
Elections but the his chest and most pcrtcc
Immediate Observation-Disclosures Ledg
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