434 lewis' AMERICAN SPORTSMAN. 



rendering them a very important service to show them how 

 they may increase their pleasures without destroying their 

 health."— ^S'ee Chap. II., Essay III. 



Who, among our readers, will not bow in humble submis- 

 sion to such sentiments, emanating from so great a source? 

 Who among them will not acknowledge, in the fulness of his 

 heart, " that a good dinner is one of the greatest enjoyments of 

 human life ?" Who ever knew of a Philosopher refusing to 

 participate in the festivities of a banquet? And who ever 

 encountered the still stranger sight of a Physician living up to 

 the dietetic precepts laid down for the guidance of his refrac- 

 tory patients. 



Look around you on every side, ye carping Cynics and 

 snarling Bigots, and see how many men of the greatest talents 

 and rarest virtues, whether of the present day, or of ages past, 

 have sought pleasure in the innocent enjoyments of the table, 

 and thus convince yourselves that these indulgences are not 

 "incompatible with intellectual pursuits or mental superiority." 

 Doctor Johnson, with all his wonderful attainments, did not 

 consider a good dinner, or a recherche supper, beneath his atten- 

 tion ; for, we are informed by Boswell, his biographer, that "he 

 never knew a man who relished good eating more than he did ; 

 and when at table, he was wholly absorbed in the business of 

 the moment." The Doctor himself says, in his usual quaint 

 and philosophic style : " Some people have a foolish way of not 

 minding, or pretending not to mind, what they eat; for my part, 

 I mind my belly very studiously and very carefully, and I look 

 upon it, that he who does not mind his belly will hardly mind 

 anything else." 



How perfectly correct and natural do these remarks appear 

 to us, when we reflect for a moment on the intimate sympathy 

 and peculiarly direct communication existing between the head, 

 and the stomach! If the least irregularity in the natural func- 

 tions of the bowels takes place, with what rapidity is it followed 

 by a proportional degree of malaise at the very centre of life, 

 the brain! 



In fact, the healthy operation of the whole natural economy 

 is dependent in a great measure upon the state of the stomach ; 

 but the brain watches the actions of this organ with a most 



