Page:Fruits and Farinacea the Proper Food of Man.djvu/51

Rh of reason, infallibly direct him to the adoption of the means best adapted for securing his well-being; and painful or disagreeable sensations constantly warn him of danger and impending destruction. No superior intellectual endowment, no scientific research could so effectually and so instantaneously direct man to the best means of self-preservation. These observations particularly apply to the selection of food suitable to his peculiar organization, and best adapted for assimilation. Man, when originally created, would, doubtless, be devoid of all information which we know to be the result of long experience; but food would be immediately necessary for renewing his constantly wasting structure: how then could he be directed to the most suitable aliments, but by the senses of sight, smell, and taste? But even if we grant that man was created with an extensive acquaintance with the properties of other bodies; supposing him to have possessed considerable chemical, physiological, anatomical, and other knowledge; yet even these endowments would have been a poor substitute for those instinctive feelings by which other animals are directed in their choice of food; and the most scientific philosopher, without these instincts, would, if an unusual article of diet were placed before him, be surpassed by an unenlightened rustic, who depended upon the simple suggestions of the senses.

37. Reason and science are insufficient even to remind man when supplies are necessary to recruit his strength and renew his structure; and without the sense of hunger as a monitor, man would be constantly endangering his life, by neglecting his daily food. Three senses are therefore absolutely necessary to the continued existence of all animals; one to render them conscious of the demands of nature, another to direct them to their food, and a third to test the qualities of the food when in contact.

38. "It cannot be too often repeated," observes Mr. Sidney Smith, "that none of those necessaries which an animal requires are ever left to reason or to mere perception of utility. The superstructure and basis of humanity is animalism. Man lives before he thinks; he eats before he reasons; he is social before he is civilized; loves even against reason; and becomes a Nimrod long before he is a Nestor. Had man not been an animal before he became rational, he would not have existed at all. Reason is evidently the last care of nature. She first secures existence, and then finds leisure to think. She begins with enduing man with the faculties necessary to enable him to provide for himself, before she ventures to animate him with the sentiments which dictate to him to look abroad for the health of others; and she bids him provide for others before she allows to him that high