Page:Letters on the Human Body (John Clowes).djvu/122

102 I therefore call these two acts both important and significant, because their importance must be manifest from the consideration, that until solid food be well masticated, it cannot possible be swallowed; and until it be swallowed, it cannot possibly be received into the body so as to supply that full and perfect nourishment which it was designed to do.

Much might be said on this importance, and also on the wonderful provisions made by the for the purpose of effecting both mastication and deglutition; as for instance, on the operations of the jaws and teeth in masticating, and of the tongue and other organs in swallowing; likewise on the constant supply of saliva, necessary to soften the hard substances which require mastication. But leaving these points to be the subjects of your own private contemplation, which, I am persuaded, will not fail to discern in them the most manifest proofs of Divine wisdom and goodness, I am eager to call your attention to what appears to me equally deserving of it, viz. the figurative and significant character of both the bodily acts of which I am speaking.—I shall begin with the act of mastication.

You are probably surprised at hearing of any figurative and significant character, as applicable to an act which, in itself, appears so trifling and insignificant