40 LITERARY VALUES 



Is not the satisfaction of appetite the prime motive in 

 eating ? If dining gave us no pleasure, we should 

 probably soon learn to swallow our food in a highly 

 concentrated form, in capsules, and thus make short 

 work of it. Nature, of course, conceals her own pur- 

 pose in the pleasure we take in our food, just as she 

 does in the pleasure of the sexes ; but of this pur- 

 pose we take little thought, except in the latter case 

 how to defeat it. We do not have conscious plea- 

 sure in breathing ; hence our breathing is involuntary. 

 We do have conscious pleasure in food ; hence our 

 elaborate and ingenious cookery — often to the detri- 

 ment of our bodies. Take away the pleasures of life, 

 the innocent natural pleasure, take away the plea- 

 sures of art, and few of us would care for either. 



Man is a microcosm, an epitome of the universe, 

 and its laws and processes are repeated dimly or 

 plainly in him. Then there are, of course, real ana- 

 logies and homologies between different parts of na- 

 ture, as between fluids and gases, and fluids and 

 solids, between the organic and the inorganic, be- 

 tween the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms. 



When we strike the great vital currents or laws, 

 — the law of growth, of decay, of health and disease, 

 of reproduction, of evolution, — we strike the re- 

 gion of true analogy. These laws must be continu- 

 ous throughout nature. All phases of development 

 must be analogous. The mind grows with the body 

 and is under the same law. Exercise is the same to 

 both. Each has its appetites. Each has its tonics 

 and stimulants. All beginnings are the same ; that 



