A SINGLE HUMAN BEING IS IN SUCH A FORM

This can be seen by those only who make a survey of all the things in man, not merely with the eye of an anatomist, but with the eye of reason as well. Whoever in his survey uses the eye of reason also will see that all things therein and each smallest individual unit of them are formed in accordance with a use and for that use: that each part and each part of a part has a function in the general body: and that the general use which is the general good, has regard to the smallest individual unit as if regarding itself therein while conversely the smallest individual unit has regard to the general good as if regarding itself there. By this means all things in the body from the head to the soles of the feet are a one; so much so that a man is quite unconscious of the fact that he consists of so many myriad parts having varied and diverse functions. In illustration of this, let the structure of the lungs and the trachea alone be surveyed with the eye of reason, and their uses considered.

[2] [12.] The Lungs. Their most general use is breathing, effected by admitting air through the larynx, trachea and bronchial tubes into the air-cells, causing the lungs to expand and contract alternately. By this action, too, the lungs bring about alternating motions throughout the organic body and all its members; for the heart and the lungs are the two fountains of all the general motions in the whole body, by means of which each and all things are guided into their own activities and vital functions.

The lungs also connect together the voluntary motor life that depends upon the cerebrum, and the natural motor life carried on under the control of the cerebellum.

Another of their uses is to dispose all the viscera of the body, specially its motor organs, the muscles, so that the Will may carry out any movement it desires, in harmony and without anywhere a break.

Another of their uses is, not only to accord with the various sounds employed in speaking and singing, but also to bring them forth as from a womb. Another of their uses is to receive into themselves all the blood of the body from the right side of the heart to cleanse it from its viscous and phlegmy contents and expel them, to supply it with fresh elements, or food so to speak, from the inhaled air, and so send it back new, as it were, to the left chamber of the heart, thus converting venous blood into arterial. In this way the lungs, in respect of the blood, act as filtering-room, expulsion-room, restoring-room and preparing-room, besides acting as the air's cleansing-room.

In addition to these uses of the lungs there are many others, both general and particular, every air passage and every lobule being, more nearly or more remotely, a partner in all their offices, that is, in all their uses.

[3] [13.] The Trachea. Its uses are: (1) to furnish a channel for both the air and the breath of the lungs passing inwards and outwards, and to accommodate itself to their every different manner of breathing, both when inhaling and exhaling; (2) to examine and correct the air about to pass into the lungs, so that nothing hurtful shall enter, to moisten it as it passes out and so trap and expel any breath that has lost its usefulness, and in general to clear the lungs of any thick phlegm by expectorating it; (3) to serve as a pillar and foundation for the larynx and epiglottis, to adapt itself exactly to all their commands and tremulous vibrations, to dispose the walls of its channel for the air to strike upon, to make its membrane taut so that it may vibrate when the air strikes upon it, and so, without refining, to initiate sound, for the larynx and glottis to form, that is, modify into song or speech; the trachea, moreover, keeps the larynx continually moistened with a damp dew; (4) to act as assistant to the neighbouring esophagus and help it in its task of swallowing; (5) to communicate the alternate respiratory movements of the lungs to adjacent parts and through these to more distant parts and to the most distant: namely, to the esophagus, through this together with the diaphragm to the stomach, and so to the abdominal viscera; also to the ascending carotid artery and the descending jugular vein: also to the great sympathetic nerves, the intercostal and the vague, in this way keeping the motor life of the body renewed; (6) to cause its own sound tremulations and those of the larynx to pass into the adjacent parts and through these into the most remote parts above and below, stimulating and by a general modification refreshing and animating both the arterial blood mounting to the head and brain and the venous blood returning therefrom: and in this way keeping the sense-life of the body renewed.

[14.] Moreover from a study of the bones of the trachea, as well as of the larynx and epiglottis (which are not here being enumerated), a mind possessed of understanding and cultivated in the sciences can, under anatomy's direction and the eye's guidance, be instructed in and made acquainted with the way Nature modulates sounds and sets their limits by articulations. No secrets in acoustics, in music, or in harmony are so deeply hidden, no secrets so buried out of reach in the vibrations and tremulations of continuous bodies, or in the modifications of a contiguous volume or atmosphere, but that the spiritual has here gathered them out of Nature's innermost recesses, assembled them into one and bestowed them upon these two organs, and at the same time upon the ear.

[4] [15.] Similar arcana are contained in all the other viscera, both in the head and in the body, and more arcane still in those parts that are concealed interiorly and cannot be inspected by the eye; for the more interior anything is, the more perfect it is. In a word, the pre-eminent life, or excellence of life, in every one of the members, organs and viscera consists in there being no function proper to any one of them that is not a function of the whole, and so, in each one containing what is typical of the whole man.

[16.] This is the arcanum that results as a conclusion: Man embraces within himself all uses whatever existing in the spiritual and natural worlds; and each use, having within it what is typical of the whole, is as it were a man, but a man of such sort as is the use, that is, as is the function it fulfills in the general whole. Man derives this from his being a recipient of life from the Lord, for life from the Lord embraces within itself all uses to infinity, the Lord alone being Man having Life in Himself, from Whom is everything of life; and unless that form of uses were infinite in the Lord, it could not exist finited in any man.