, 1885-06-23

FOOD IN LITERATURE.
How II Affects the Heart and the Mind
swim and johnson for Examples.
THE Catererl

How IL Affects tho Heart and the Mind
swim and johnson for Example
THE Caterer.l
The influence of food on the mind,
and its power according to its pro
priety or impropriety-to corrupt or
purify the heart, has been asserted time
and again; and the assertion is too well
sustained by every day observa-
ton to be attributed to the out
flow of mere metaphysical speculation.
The world contains, according to
Hannah Moore but two evils: Sin and
bile. and the conclusion is logical, that
if good cookery-which means, as a CON
sequence, good and proper food-were
universal, it would have neither evil;
for bad food is the prolific source of
bile. and lille, if we are to believe the
theory of certain savants, is the founda-
ton of all sin.
And, indeed, there is no reason why
we should not adopt the above theory
as sound. In the administration of JUS
tice in our criminal courts, juries are
becoming more and more satisfied, from
the O. idence of medical witnesses and
experts, to treat it as q fact that crime
may owe its origin as much to a diseased
body as a d~isordered mind; esteeming
the connection between the mind and
body to be so close, that if the latter is
shackled with disease, it is hardly pos
sible for the former to be free and there
fore responsible for the acts of its
owner.
If food, then, is so double in its effect,
in other words, controlling the action
both of body and mind, it is rather ,afe
70 say that the brains can't escape, and
therefore. that the illusions of writer's
derive their quality from the character
Of that which may be habitually selected
for n%ourishment. whether this be in
eating or drinking. He who drinks
beer, thinks beer, is a homely proyerb,
but one, nevertheless, whose force and
truth will become plain. sven TO tine cur
sorry reader of current and past litera-
ture. The ~coarseness. pungency and
sensuality-not unmixed with vigor-
which characterize Elizabethan litera-
ture, indicate the manner of life in that
beer drinking age. and show a strong con-
trast withthe polished emanations Of later
day brains, when VINE had superseded
beer as an accustomed drink, smoothing
the -coarseness without injuring the
vigor Of thought and expression. We
make no allusion here to Shakespeare.
lie is an anomaly we leave to the impu-
dent and impotent criticism of holder
pens than ours.
Good. solid food, then, and nutritious
fluids are essential to him who would
give force to the labors of his brain.
Tea may appear, in the eyes Of some, n
moro harmless drink than beer; yet the
tea drinkers thoughts might not outlive
the time they took to write them. Dean
Swift, it is true, was fond of his cup of
tea; but il was not owing to that fact
that his writings still live. lie did not
conine himself to 1.-THE cup that cheers
and not inebriates, " but was a lover Of
the other one that knows so well how
to do both. DR.. johnson was also u
passionate lover of tea, but, like swift,
he divided his affections. lie made the
pleasures of the table a study, and
seated before a Widespread dinner, he
would jilt the tea pot, and y bottle oil
port would then become sole mistress OF
his heart.