The Brain as King and Minister -- a Passage

Engraving: section of brain, by Capieux, 1792.

In the past, I have not given to my brain the respect due its lofty station, as ruler above the other organs and all else in the body it surveys. After all, a body cannot be a democracy. The brain is liege and lord, and is therefore entitled to certain privileges.

In fact, from the way the brain responds to restrictions, it might well be called a tyrant. To stern admonitions, such as those ordering the brain to “think positive”, it lashes out in a fury of violence and temper worthy of Bad King John. Then the brain is an increasing misery, laying waste to the fields of the imagination, and sending all good thoughts to the chopping blocks of rumination and anxiety.

The brain wants a little humoring. It must be given room to stretch its legs and exercise the less serious aspects of its wondrous faculties. It must not be lashed to the printed word every hour of the day, nor tied up in distractions and only let out of these chains begrudgingly to go to sleep.

What is more, even Bad King John might have been better with better ministers. A good minister does not flatter, nor does he patronize. While the king rages, he is calm. He has the interests of the King and the nation at heart, and loves peace, truth and justice. He is above all things a philosopher.

I think it a healthy thing to reserve part of the brain to minister its more tyrannical neighboring portion—to humor the tyrant’s vagaries and its whims, to allow it a little hunting and jousting, while quietly working towards the good of the whole. Thus, while the King hunts after daydreams and inexplicable thoughts, the minister does the housework and meditates.