98 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 



If this classification of the pleasures of this world be 

 correct, there can exist no doubt that it is the interest 

 of every young person to select from them those which, 

 in intensity, increase instead of diminish the longer they 

 are enjoyed, and which in duration are eternal, instead 

 of being shorter than life. 



Yet, supposing this wise selection to be made, it does 

 not follow, because one set of pleasures rank infinitely 

 higher than others, that the former should be exclusively 

 pursued, and the latter wholly abandoned. 



On the contrary, as rest restores the strength of the 

 body after hard labour, so do pleasures of a lower order, 

 if judiciously administered, recruit the exhaustion caused 

 by mental exertion. 



Now, of all sensual pleasures, those of eating and 

 drinking produce, as we either use or abuse them, the 

 most opposite results. 



When a young man commences his career, the engine 

 which is to propel him throughout his life, is, his 

 stomach. 



If he preserves it, it will in return render him good 

 service. If he inconsiderately wears it out, whatever 

 abilities he may possess become to him of no avail. 

 Indeed the Spanish proverb truly says that in man's 

 progress in the army, navy, law, church, or state, in short 

 in every profession, " it is the belly that lifts the feet." 



