130 PROSE HAIilETJTlCS. 



to the bottom of a prescription, which requires Latin to 

 make it pass demurely ; ourself or some learned brother 

 orders a combination of things more or less soluble or 

 miscible in water, and then claps under it. Fiat : let it 

 be or become (what else could it be or become but) a 

 mixture or a draught ; or mix equal parts of James' and 

 Dover's powders, and. Fiat : let them be or become a 

 powder. When, we wonder, will some approved kitchen 

 oracle, versed as well as his underlings in Latin, issue 

 receipts or prescriptions in that language, and subscribe 

 with the initials of his name a fiat for a plum-pudding or 

 a vol-au-vent ? 



The high repute in which Galen holds ' caUionymus 

 gall ' for removing specks from the cornea, suggested to 

 commentators the luminous idea that Tobit's blindness 

 was cured by it ; which, in the present state of our igno- 

 rance, it would be impossible to disprove. The conse- 

 quence of so much redundant bile to stimulate the sto- 

 mach is an inordinate appetite, which causes this creature 

 to be held out by moralists as a beacon and warning to 

 gluttons ; just as the ant and the bee are proposed as 

 examples to the unthrifty and idle. Thus Oppian, speak- 

 ing of his bulimic propensities, say«, ' the hemeroccete is 

 devoured by an unrestrained, inexorable appetite, and 

 crams till his beUy bursts, or the undigested load drags 

 him to the bottom ; sometimes, surprised at his ceaseless 

 mealj he falls a prey to some larger fish. Behold here 

 the sad and sure effects of intemperance ! and let all 

 men learn from it to dread and curb sloth ; to shun ex- 

 cess ; rehnquish the short-Hved pleasures of the epicure ; 

 indulge very moderately in the good things of life ; and 

 you especially whose belly has been your god, learn at 

 length to moderate a voracity which will only increase 

 the more it is indulged ; behold, ye day-dozers and slug- 

 gard voluptuaries, the end of the wretched hemeroccete, 

 and think, while you may, what will be your own !' 



