DIET AND DRINK. 497 



DIET AND DRINK. 



"With relish would you taste your rich repast? 

 'Tis appetite must make that relish last ; 

 If the gi'eat orator did right to say 

 That eloquence in action, action lay; 

 And ■will you ask me, Appetite comes whence ? 

 A fortiori, I should answer — thence. 

 You want — what you may think an idle notion — 

 Perpetual exercise ! perpetual motion ! 

 A substitute for bread, your poorer neighbor ; 

 But you require a substitute — for labor!" 



"Eat and drink with moderation, if you wisli to live long," is a 

 saying not less applicable to sportsmen than to other persons ; but 

 to quaff lightly is absolutely necessary, not only for the comfort 

 but for the success of the shooter, as much depends upon his 

 temperance in all things appertaining to the bottle. It is im- 

 possible, as all will grant, (old topers not excepted,) that any one, 

 no matter how hardy he may be, can take the field with a steady 

 hand and sure eye on the morning following an evening's debauch ; 

 we will use even a milder term, and say after a night's frolic. 

 Laying aside the headache and the general malaise that most 

 usually attend excesses of this kind, the nervous system, even in the 

 most robust, must suffer more or less from the reaction that takes 

 place on such occasions ; and the muscular system, sympathizing 

 with it in its derangement, renders the whole vital apparatus unstrung 

 and unfit for arduous duty, such as the sports of the field require. 



These conclusions are so evident that it requires no argument 

 to support them ; and we suppose no one will deny that such are 

 the inevitable results of any excess in drinking. 



No drink insures better health, and produces a more equable 

 tone throughout the whole system, than the exclusive use of un- 

 adulterated water, — nature's gift, — the only beverage to which all 

 animated creation instinctively resorts to quench the natural 

 cravings of thirst, 



A fondness for other fluids, especially vinous liquors, is the 



effect of education and habit, as few persons like the taste of 



any description of spirits the first time they venture to apply 



32 



