LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 249 



food. Thus we eat for the sake of the stimulus 

 which our highly-dressed dinners afford us ; seeming 

 to forget entirely that nourishing the body has any 

 thing to do with the matter. But to return. 



The rule, therefore, which is to regulate your 

 quantity of food, is to be found in that sensation of 

 disrelish which invariably succeeds to satisfy appe- 

 tite ; provided always, that your food be plain, and 

 your drink water. If you be content to live thus, 

 you will never eat too much, but you will always 

 eat enouah. But if you would rather incur the 

 penalty of disease, than forego the pleasure of 

 dining daintily, all I can say is, you are welcome to 

 do so : but do not plead ignorance : blame only 

 yourself. 



One of the means, therefore, of preserving the 

 health, is a spare diet; I say "spare," because the 

 upper and middle classes, together with that nu- 

 merous class of persons consisting of manufactu- 

 rers, whose employment is sedentary, such as 

 weavers, tailors, shoemakers, milliners, &c. &c. ; 

 with counting-house clerks, and journeymen trades- 

 men of the better order, such as mercers, linen- 

 drapers; and, indeed, shopkeepers of all grades, 

 whose chief work consits in chaffering behind a 

 counter; I say "spare diet," because these persons 

 undergo but little bodily labour, and the bodily 

 M 3 



