God] AND SYMBOLS. 133 



these geese in a particular way, and keeping them in artificial 

 heat, the liver becomes diseased, grows to an enormous size, 

 and in this way furnishes the materials of a pate much sought 

 after by the scientific gourmand. How many instances occur 

 where our citizens, exposing themselves to the long-continued 

 operation of the very same causes, confinement, overfeeding, 

 heat, and want of exercise, are affected by them exactly in the 

 same way ! How slight the difference between the morbid 

 phenomena displayed in the post mortem of a city feaster and 

 the autopsy of an overfed goose ! s. 



The Fate of Gluttony. 



The favourite haunt of the python is the low marshy ground, 

 rank with moist herbage, where they prey upon birds and 

 small animals, swallowing them whole swallowing them even 

 alive after having seized them in the invincible folds of their 

 long sinuous bodies, and always commencing with their hinder 

 parts. So greedy a repast must necessarily be followed by a 

 slow and difficult digestion, and cannot be renewed at any very 

 brief interval. They eat in effect but once a month, or once in 

 two months. During the lethargic and semi-somnolent con- 

 dition which invariably follows their debauch, they fall easy 

 victims to the attacks of their enemies. D. 



Human Opinions Concerning God. 



It cannot be too clearly impressed upon the inquirer that 

 human opinions respecting God have frequently merely the 

 effect of obscuring the glories of God. They are only the 

 media, often the dense and unhealthy media, through which 

 certain human intelligences look at Him; and so far from 

 revealing Him, they, rising from impure sources, obstruct the 

 clear view which under other influences might be obtainable. 

 Let men's opinions in different ages and lands be what they 

 may respecting God, He is still absolutely the same and un- 

 changed. That which changes is the human opinion or medium 

 through which men gaze. And it is pestilent or wholesome 

 according to an infinitude of circumstances. Sometimes we 



