820 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



no believer in the doctrine of metempsychosis. But on the influence 

 man's diet has on his conduct no less than his constitution he is very- 

 sure : "It is certain that an adequate practical recognition of the 

 value of proper food to the individual in maintaining a high standard 

 of health, in prolonging healthy life (the prolongation of unhealthy 

 life being small gain either to the individual or to the community), 

 and thus largely promoting cheerful temper, prevalent good-nature, 

 and improved moral tone, would achieve almost a revolution in the 

 habits of a large part of the community. 5 '* 



Sir Henry is, perhaps, a little hard upon our forefathers. They 

 thought more on these things, and had a clearer view of them, than he 

 allows. A glance at the voluminous pages of Burton (author of " The 

 Anatomy of Melancholy," not the gentleman who has done his best to 

 spoil the " Arabian Nights " for us) ; a glance at this book, I say, 

 might have shown Sir Henry how much the ancients thought and 

 wrote and how wisely too on the stomachic influence. And always 

 through the years wise men who studied the character and conduct of 

 their kind have commended moderation in gratifying the appetite, 

 and lashed indulgence. Milton, for instance, in a famous passage, has 

 chanted in his solemn music the praises of a sleep which 



" Was aery light from pure digestion bred " ; 

 and Pope, in coarser strains, but with equal truth, reminded his fellows 



" On morning wings how active springs the mind 

 That leaves the load of yesterday behind ! n 



A little thought will bring a hundred such passages to the memory. 



But their way of thinking was not ours. They spoke generally, 

 and left "the mean, peddling details" alone. " Be not unsatiable in 

 any dainty thing, nor too greedy upon meats, for excess of meats 

 bringeth sickness, and surfeiting will turn into choler. By surfeiting 

 have many perished, but he that taketh heed prolongeth life." That was 

 the text and bearing of their sermons. They did not believe in a writ- 

 ten law for regulating these things. Tiberius, says Tacitus, held that 

 man a fool who at the age of thirty years needed another to tell him 

 what was best to eat, drink, and avoid (" JRidere solebat eos, qui post 

 tricesimum cetatis annum ad cognoscenda corpori suo noxia vel utilia 

 alicujus consilli indigerent "). It may be remembered, by those who 

 think with Ensign Northerton, that Mr. Sponge (who knew more of 

 Mogg than Tacitus) said pretty much the same thing to Mr. Joggle- 

 bury Crowdy, when the latter's unseemly want of that knowledge 

 had helped to spoil a day's hunting. And between Tiberius and Mr. 

 Sponge comes a host of authorities, all harping on the same string. 

 "There is," says Bacon, "a wisdom in this beyond the rules of 

 physic : a man's own observation, what he finds good of, and what he 

 finds hurt of, is the best physic to preserve health." The melancholy 



* " Food and Feeding," by Sir Henry Thompson, F. R. C. S., etc., third edition, 1884. 



