238 LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 



viz. that he who eats more than is necessary to 

 supply his waste, even although the whole be well 

 and truly digested, not only does not increase his 

 strength thereby, but really incurs the danger of 

 destruction from several probable causes, and is 

 constantly walking heedlessly in the " valley of the 

 shadow of death." 



But, if the other and more frequent circumstance 

 happen if what is eaten be not properly assimilated 

 then that which remains unassimilated becomes a 

 source of great irritation and numerous morbid 

 symptoms, as I have explained to you in a former 

 letter : it ferments in the stomach and bowels, as 

 it would do in any other close, warm place ; and the 

 gases given out during this fermentation, and the 

 acids generated thereby, are neither more nor less 

 than poisons, and, of course, highly injurious to 

 health. 



If, therefore, a man, under these circumstances, 

 eat more than is necessary, nothing can be more 

 manifest than that he only adds to the evil he 

 wishes to remove. For, since his assimilating 

 powers can only assimilate just sufficient to supply 

 the body's waste and, in these circumstances, not 

 even so much it is surely most clearly evident, 

 that, by adding to the quantity eaten, he only adds 



