A HARD-WORKING DIET. 81 
of theology, and restored to the domain of common 
sense and political economy, for there is no prospect 
of arguing the matter in a fair spirit among conflicting 
divines : and of all things polemics are the most stale 
and unprofitable. Loaves and fishes have, in all ages 
of the Church, had charms for us of the cloth ; yet how. 
few would confine their bill of fare to mere loaves and 
fishes? So far Lent may be a stumbling block. In 
Edward III., A.D. 1338, Rymer’s ‘ Foedera,’ page 1021, 
says that before the battle of Cressy fifty ton of 
Yarmouth bloaters were shipped for the troops. The 
enemy sorely grudged them their supplies, for it 
appears by thechronicles of Enguerrand de Monstrellet, 
the continuator of Froissart, that in 1429 they had a 
battle which Rapin calls “La journée des harengs.” 
The cultivated Athenians appreciated the value 
of fast days. Accordingly on the eve of certain 
festivals they fed exclusively on figs and the honey 
of Mount Hymettus. Plutarch tells us a solemn fast 
preceded the celebration of Thermophoria. 
It appears that Numa fitted himself by fasting for 
an interview with the mysterious inmate of Egeria’s 
grotto. 
Gibbon, in the ‘Causes of the Decline and Fall,’ 
notices the vile propensity to overfeeding, and shows 
that nothing but a dond fide return to simpler fare 
could restore the mighty system of dominion. The 
hint was acted upon. The Popes, frugal and 
abstemious, ascended the vacant throne of the Czsars, 
and ordered Lent to be observed throughout the 
Eastern and Western worlds. 
The theory of fasting saved the Empire, taught 
self-control, and gave a masterdom over barbarous 
