HYGEIA. 553 



reservoirs of life, and its consanguinity is absolute with all 

 the creatures of the earth, sea, and air. 



" For there is nothing more general in animal life than 

 the digestive apparatus, because matter is the largest, if not 

 the greatest fact in the universe. Every creature which is 

 here must be made of something, and maintained by some- 

 thing, or must be landlord of itself. Every part and every 

 faculty of every being inhabiting the planet must be duly 

 clothed, and ballasted, with stuff derived from the earth, or 

 it would have no operation in the body, or upon the body, 

 much less upon the external world. 



" Hence, the stomach is an organ of the first importance 

 to all mortals. You may take away brain or nervous sys- 

 tem and leave their places to be supplied by the fluxions and 

 imponderables of Nature ; you may take away the lungs 

 and consign their office to the circumambient, lifeless atmo- 

 sphere ; you may abstract the heart with its blood-vessels, 

 and commit the dull, gluey circulation to the almost me- 

 chanical and chemical laws of affinity that obtain in vege- 

 tables, and, notwithstanding all this, you may still have an 

 animal being remaining. In short, there are animals which 

 are nothing but stomachs, but there are no animals which 

 are nothing but brains. In the human race, also, the stomach 

 is of the same paramount importance ; its existence and due 

 impletion are the first or last conditions of the existence of 

 the individual; they are the basis of humanity, and no- 

 thing is so sublime but it rests upon them, and must perish 

 out of this world if they cease, and otherwise follow their 

 vicissitudes. The assured feeding of the nations is a ques- 

 tion that involves in its settlement all other questions, and 

 postpones sublimities until necessities are complied with. 

 Jeweled goblets there are besides, but this earthen cup must 

 be satisfied before the other vessels of the man can begin to 

 be filled." 



This intimate alliance or physical affinity with all earthly 

 beings must necessitate or preordain a general dominion ; 

 also, a subjugation to universal law, for every form of every 



41 



