THE EMOTIONS OF THE SALIVA. 155 



know that the stomach may be hungry, and provision at hand, and 

 yet the receipt of painful news, a tale of horror, the arising of dis- 

 putes, or the suggestion of anxieties, may, in a moment, not only 

 expunge the sensation of hunger, but produce a loathing worse than 

 heavy satiety? The organic mind will not extend its miseries by 

 feeding them. But when it is in peaceful outflow, respiring un- 

 hindered action, the appropriation of food which supports it is de- 

 lightful. Cseteris paribus, peaceful workers have the best appe- 

 tites, and can consume the most with benefit. Peace, indeed, is the 

 eating-time of whatever is best in our informations j it is the spirit- 

 ual world of the satisfactions of conviviality. On the other hand, 

 the time of trial is the time of fasting, and it is only afterwards 

 that we are again an hungered. 



Let us then remember, that every permanent passion that we 

 cherish, dines with us at every table ; and that as for temporary 

 conditions, tranquillity can eat, but strong emotions go to suspend 

 the want of food, that they ma.y use the time for their own work. 



The subject of food subdivides itself into quantity and quality. 

 A certain assured amount of provision — a decent minimum — is the 

 ground of further wants. This annuls those distressing anxieties 

 that consume the stomach, and make it the seat of care instead of 

 exhilaration for a large portion of our fellow men. Under these 

 circumstances the body feeds upon itself, only miserable sensations 

 are alive, and the mind has neither leisure nor wish to pursue its 

 own avocations. But when the first demand is satisfied, quality and 

 variety are the next necessities to be considered. And here there 

 is room for a new gastronomy, to instruct us under all circumstances 

 and seasons, what nutrient matters, and what artificial compounds 

 and alterations of these, will enable the body to carry forward hap- 

 pily the various works required at our hands. We know that the 

 mind can modify the frame to almost any extent by the manner of 

 feeding it: by the substances introduced we already produce the 

 baser conditions, of fatness, intoxication, stupidity, ferocity; and it 

 must be the business of a charitable science to reverse the direction, 

 and to feed the industries and virtues with their daily bread, from 

 among the riches in this kind which the earth is instructed to yield. 

 There is not an emotion however retiring, not a thought however 



