156 ASSIMILATION AND ITS ORGANS. 



fine, not an action however skillful, but may be carried into further 

 and more exquisite perfection by some helpmate from the social 

 board, when humanity there enlarges its heart, and brightens its 

 calculating cheerfulness. 



With respect to diet, however, it is as various as days and moods, 

 and in the largest sense no food as digestible or indigestible per se, 

 but according to persons, times, and circumstances. Private judg- 

 ment, where it exists, has full rights here; where it does not exist, 

 the patient comes under dietetic rules. Fixed habits of diet other- 

 wise are a prison to changeable man, and curtail his versatility in 

 every sphere. His body ought to oscillate from the middle ordinary 

 point to fasting on the one hand, and to conviviality on the other, 

 in order that all his faculties may be helped by steering the appe- 

 tites in the direction where their power lies. Judicious fasting 

 especially is to the structure of the mind what held breath and ex- 

 piration is to its movements; the abstraction of food corresponds to 

 the abstraction of thought; without it there are no times of ascetic 

 intellectual separation, and without these, an important part of man 

 is unrepresented. Moreover, without times of fasting, the tongue 

 is immersed and lost in its objects, whereas fasting places the whole 

 of diet at a distance, sees it clearly and appreciates it sharply, and 

 introduces the criticism of intellect into the gastrosophic sphere. 

 Cooks, therefore, require these self-denials for their own business, as 

 well as other Christians for theirs. In short, we find that fasting 

 answers to spiritual eating, conviviality to human eating, and ordi- 

 nary meals, pleasant and calm, to the regulated private senses and 

 sensibilities; which three spheres contribute to make up the visceral 

 man. 



Nothing is more important than society for the useful pleasures 

 of the table. " Chatted food," the proverb says, " is half digested." 

 As a rule, the solitary man does not reap full advantage from his 

 cheer. Setting aside that single blessedness is opposed to economy 

 and abundance, it also leaves out convivial mirth, which otherwise 

 pervades the body, and gives sunshine and activity to its operations. 

 In the breaking of bread our better eyes are opened, and the truths 

 of communion are made known to us. We all know how very 

 much good company enhances the enjoyments of the palate; this is 



