Page:Letters on the Human Body (John Clowes).djvu/111

Rh man insensible to the greatest of all mercies and wonders, for no other reason than because they are of daily occurrence, and common alike to all ranks and descriptions of mankind. For how few, at this day, give themselves time to reflect on the various appetites, operations, and provisions, such as hunger and thirst, mastication, deglutition, a supply of food, &c., involved in these acts; and how much fewer, on the powers and instruments necessary to produce those appetites, operations, and provisions! We are made sensible every day of the desire of meat and drink, but where is the man who considers seriously whence that desire proceeds, and that it originates in principles over which he himself has no control, as is evident from the fact, that he cannot at all times command it? We, again, masticate, or chew, our food, and we also swallow it; but whence comes it to pass, that we so seldom, if ever, reflect on the astonishing combination of powers and instruments conducive to effect these purposes! Meat and drink, again, are brought every day to our tables, but (Oh, shame to our want of thought and gratitude!) how rarely do we inquire in our own minds and consciences, to we are indebted for such blessings, and by what an union of Divine mercy, wisdom, and providence we are made the happy partakers of them!