Page:God Manifest.djvu/255

Rh He eats till that desire is satisfied; he wants no more, and therefore he eats no more; he goes to no excess. Not so with man. By the possession of a rational or reflective thought, he is able to look beyond his desire, and thus, as it were, to guide it. His thought does not, as with the brute, merely follow and serve his desire, but is able rather to go before and to lead, and even to force it. By his power of self-observation, he is able to note the pleasure he has in eating or in taste. He says to himself—"this is very good,—I must have some more of this. I must take care to have ta dinner of the same kind to-morrow; and—let me see—perhaps I can improve upon it, and make it still better. This turkey is very good, delicious—but perhaps a few side dishes and accompaniments would make it still more savory. I must look round me at the market, and choose something that will do. I must have a few friends, too, to share my dinner with me. We shall cheer and entertain one another." They meet accordingly. There are meats of various kinds served up. There are also sauces and condiments. There are spices, which man's energetic, industry has brought from distant parts of the earth. There are sweetmeats of various sorts, highly tempting to the sense of taste. Finally, there are pleasant drinks in abundance—wines from Portugal, and Sicily, and elsewhere. In a word, the appetite is so tempted and urged by the variety of agreeable things placed before it, that both the host and guests eat and drink to excess,—they disorder their physical natures, and by and by come pain and disease.

Now, by reflection on this simple instance (of every day's occurrence,) of the manner in which man is led astray from the proper order of his nature, and is