, 1880-12-01
o G.
(From the Spectator.

Uldt mcu dIc ~ lIttl6 puzzled TO KNOW Wnab
it precisely meant. Gluttons are so rare
in Western Europe, that divines are some
times perplexed to understand the rank in
the scale OF sin which old theologians, and
especially the early Christian writer's, as
signed TO gluttony, and are inclined to
explain the word as covering any kind of
inordinate interest in eating. or expendi-
ture of energy upon it. 1t is very probable
that the condemnation of g~luttony did
cover gOurmandiSe-which NAV be carried
to the point of distinct ~viciousness, the
duties of life being postponed or sacrificed
in the pursuit OF a sensual enjoyment of a
very inferior kind-and that the belief in
the value of controlled asceticism, which
can never be quite wanting to Christian
philosophers, did something to influence
their strong language but VIC suspect
there was more than this.-that actual
gluttony, in the ordinary sense, was once
q common vice, and a much more injurious
one than the West, which is intemperate
as to alcohol, but temperate as to meat. is
inclined to believe. The testimony of
theologianS, of historians, and of an immo.
vable tradition, embodied in most. if not
all, European languages, proves that
among II remote though ciyiIiSed ances-
tors, it was a Ommon thing for men to
cultivate the appetite for quantities of food
till it became diseased, and that they
gorged themselves with it habitually, till
they became almost as incapable of the
business and duties of life as drunkards
now do. They sought quantity, they ate
for eating's sake until they could eat no
more, and when they ceased, were as incapa-
BILE as many animals after a similar indul-
gence. lit is a popular mistake to sup
pose that only pigs care gluttons. Horses
and cattle will kill themselves with certain
kinds of food, and so will individual dogs,
while all the wild carnivorcS are liable at
times to eat themselves into temporary
imbecility.) They could not work, they
could not converse, and they could not
think. They were fall to bursting, and
repeated the feeding until their lives be-
came one long dobauch. and their faculties
died away as completely as if they had
been drunkards, though, of course. the
remedy, protracte1 fasting, was easier to
apply. Many Of the Roman mobiles were
p%Iuttons as we'll as gOurmandS: indeed the
accounts Of their teats indicate a deep
delight i'll Over-eating as well as epicurism,
and it is probable that the vice existed in
SYRIA, and amidst q generally abstemious
D0pulation-a jew to this day is rarely q
drunkard, and an Arab neyer-may have
seem especially disgusting. Another bit of
evidence is the continuance OF the practice
in the East. Men who cat enormously,
who rave for huge quantities of food, and,
seek in creating a torpOr which pleaSes
them as much as the calm before stupefac-
tion pIeases the drunkard, or apathetic
rest the opium smoker, or kef the tobacco
smoker, are perfectly we'll known types
throughout India, where every district has
its notorious glutton, i'll China, and among
some African tribes. Indeed, Captain Col
vile. in his recent ride through Morocco,
became convinced that even MOOrS, who
are distinctly abstemiouS by habit, count
in their ranks men to whom Over-eatlng IS
SO attractive that they renew the practices
of Vitellius. which scandallSed even Rome,
and obtain by emetics the power OF sWal-
lowing two or three successive dinners
straight on end. Wealthy negroes have
been accused of a similar habit OF over
eating. Red Indians are constantly guilty
of gorging like snakes till they can hardly
move. and we are not sure that gluttony II
the old sense is wholly unknown even III
this country. It is doubtful if the horrl-
BILE exhibitions of eating-power sometimes
made in the country districts are not given
bv men to whom the excessive supply OF
food is an enjoyment, while experienced
clerovmen often doubt whether in one or
two households in a village gluttony III the
old sense is not chiefly restrained by power
ty. They tell astounding stories OF guam
titles consumed on special OCCASIONS,
though they never Indicate g%luttony as a
Dopular vice. The disposition appears,
too. among children. There are few pubic
schools without a elutton or two, boys who