About the same time, the Palate is no longer contented with being employed as a mere shovel to the Stomach,--and as it finds its master becomes every day more difficult to please--learns to be a more watchful Purveyor.
After 40,--the strongest People begin to talk about being _Bilious_, or _Nervous_, &c. &c. and the Stomach will no longer do its duty properly--unless the Food offered to it is perfectly agreeable to it--when offended, _Indigestion_ brings with it, all that melancholy depression of the Animal Spirits, which disables a Man from either thinking with precision, or acting with vigour--during the distressing suspension of the restorative process--arise all those miseries of Mind and Body, which drive Fools to get drunk, and make Madmen commit suicide:--without due attention to Diet, &c. the Third period of Life is little better than a Chronic Disease.
As our assimilating powers become enfeebled, we must endeavour to entertain them with food so prepared, as to give them the least trouble, and the most nourishment[23].
In the proportion that our Food is restorative, and properly digested--our bodies are preserved in Health and Strength--and all our faculties continue vigorous and perfect.
If it is unwholesome, ill-prepared, and indigestible--the Body languishes, and is exhausted even in its youth--its strength and faculties daily decrease, and it sinks beneath the weight of the painful sensations attendant on a state of Decay.
Would to Heaven that a Cook could help our Stomachs, as much as an Optician can our Eyes: our Existence would be as much more perfect than it now is, as our Sight is superior to our other Senses.
"The vigour of the Mind decays with that of the Body--and not only Humour and Invention, but even Judgment and Resolution, change and languish, with ill constitution of Body and of Health."--Sir WILLIAM TEMPLE.
The following account of the successful REDUCTION OF CORPULENCE AND IMPROVEMENT OF HEALTH, the Editor can vouch for being a faithful statement of Facts.
In consequence of the Conversation I had with you, upon the advantages I had derived from Exercise and attention to Diet in the reduction of Weight, and your desire that I should communicate as far as I recollect them, the particulars of my Case; I have great pleasure in forwarding to you the following Statement.