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stimulate the palate slightly, or not at all, as water, the craving is simply satisfied, and there is no danger of excess; but the more stimulating the substance, either to the specific sense connected with the appetite, or to the nervous system generally, the more danger there is of excess from confounding the excitement of the sense, or the nerves, with the demand of the system.

According to Stewart, the appetites are distinguished by three circumstances. 1st. They take their rise from the body. 2d. They are periodical. 3d. They originally imply an uneasy sensation, afterwards, upon experience, a desire for their appropriate objects.

The appetites are usually said to be three, —— hunger, thirst, and the appetite of sex. But there are tendencies and cravings that may more properly be classed with the appetites than elsewhere. These are the craving for air, for exercise, for rest, and for sleep. These all take their rise from the body, are periodical, and originally imply an uneasy sensation; afterwards, upon experience, a desire of their appropriate objects. They also require to be regulated on precisely the same principles as those commonly ranked as appetites; and it may be well to place them here, as bringing them nearer the conscience, since all concede that the regulation of the appetites is a duty.

The necessity of the appetites for the accomplishment of their immediate ends is well stated by Reid. "Though a man knew," says he, "that his life must be supported by eating, reason could not direct him when to eat, or what, how much, or how often. In all these things appetite is a much better guide than reason. Were reason only to direct us in this matter, its calm voice would often be drowned in the hurry of business or the charms of amusement. But the voice of appetite rises gradually, and at

last becomes loud enough to call off our attention from any other employment."

As they are means of sustaining the body and continuing the race, the appetites are the condition for all that is above them. But besides the direct objects thus immediately secured, they are also closely related to industry and the social affections. The craving, which is the radical and constant element in the appetite, is related to industry, and the pleasure, the incidental and variable element, is related to the social affections.

When we observe how busy a scene this world is, and what human labor has accomplished, the forests it has cleared, the fields it has cultivated, the cities it has built, the ships it has constructed, the oceans it has navigated,— we are little apt to think how much of all this is owing to so simple a cause as the appetite of hurger. "All the labor of man," says Solomon, "is for the mouth, yet the appetite is not satisfied." Food is our first, and is a constantly recurring want; and probably the amount of labor for obtaining and preparing it is greater than for all other purposes. When the savage has plenty of food he does little but eat and sleep, and only the stimulus of hunger can goad him on to the labors of the chase. In civilized communities, those who turn the soil, and hew the wood, and lay the brick and mortar, are generally those who labor for their bread; nor is it probable that a less imperious motive would induce the effort. Nor is it bodily activity alone that is excited by this stimulus. Hunger, rather than any of the nine, has been the muse of some of the best poets. This connection of the appetites with industry, which is so indispensable to force of character and to all good habits, shows that they were intended by God to be ministers of human virtue, and not the occasions of vice.

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But the appetites are also connected with the affections. So naturally do our kind feelings rest upon those who share the same table with us that "to eat bread" with one, that is, to receive or furnish hospitality, has been regarded in many countries as a pledge of kindness and good faith. "He," says the Scripture, as if it aggravated the treachery,

"he that did eat bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me." It was from the connection of the appetites with the social feelings that the drinking customs of society derived much of their power and also of their danger. It was the social glass that led young men of generous affections to occasional excess, and the appetite was then cherished and justified on the ground of indulging the social nature, till the capacity for social enjoyment was diminished, and the man sunk into degrading habits of selfish, solitary, animal gratification.

It is from this natural and intended connection of the affections and virtues with the appetites that we are not degraded by them. We share them, indeed, in common with the brutes; but they so underlie our higher nature and may so blend with it as to become the occasions of some of its most beautiful manifestations, and when confined within the bounds of reason and religion are the occasion only of good. The man who eats that he may live and improve his higher faculties, and do good, is a But the man who lives that he may eat is a brute. A course of indulgence of the appetites has been called a life of pleasure. But retribution reaches to the body, and there could be no greater misnomer. Every excess is sure to be punished. Besides the penalties of immediate reaction and specific disease, by the law of habit already noticed, the capacity for enjoyment becomes gradually

man.

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less, and no object is more pitiable than a man who is beginning to taste the dregs of such a life.

At no point do the dictates of virtue and of an enlightened self-love more clearly coincide than in the regulation of the appetites. The proper notion of temperance with reference to them is not an abstinence from any particular thing, but such a control of all the appetites as will result in the greatest power and activity both of body and of mind, and as shall subject them most fully to our control. Anything short of this is criminal, and infallibly pernicious; and any use or enjoyment of the appetites compatible with this may be allowed.

From the above account it is most plain that the law of the appetites is to be found in their end. That end we have the capacity to see. We can also see the fitness of the appetites for its accomplishment, so that when we yield ourselves to the guidance of an unperverted appetite we are still governed by reason. It is reason committing the accomplishment of an end to a trustworthy servant, that can do it better than she. Let that end-the end indicated by the constitution of the appetites in their relative positions-be accomplished, no more, no less,-and both reason and conscience are satisfied.

But besides the natural appetites, there are those termed artificial, or, more properly, unnatural, as that for intoxicating drinks, for tobacco, and for opium. In all these the principle is the same. An unnatural stimulus is given to the nerves, followed by a corresponding depression, and an uneasiness which causes a desire of repetition, and which often becomes a craving so importunate as to overmaster and control every other principle of action.

Between these artificial appetites and those that are natural there are four important differences.

ARTIFICIAL APPETITES.

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The first is, that in the natural appetite the craving is an original part of the constitution, created by God with reference to an end intended by him. In the artificial appetite, the craving is wholly superinduced by man, and with reference to an end which God no more intended than he did murder.

The second difference is, that the objects of the artificial appetites are all violent poisons. They are incapable of assimilation with the system. Except as medicines they can contribute nothing to its health or well-being, and taken in any considerable quantity they cause death.

The third difference is, that the pleasure connected with the artificial appetites is purely and utterly selfish. It has no relation to the ulterior good of the man himself, or any other being. On the contrary, it lowers the tone of the system and the capacity for good; whereas the pleasure connected with the natural appetites has relation to the vigor which wields the axe and guides the plough, and even to the highest intellectual exertion.

The fourth difference is, that the artificial appetites have a tendency to increase. As the stimulus is continued, the quantity necessary to produce the desired effect becomes greater. It is this insidious tendency, this "facilis descensus averni," that has brought many gifted men to the verge of destruction before they were aware of it, and has prevented their return. The natural appetites have no such tendency.

Let no one, therefore, suppose that God has not given as many appetites as are for his best good, or that he shall be a gainer on the whole by attempting to reap where nature did not sow.

The wretchedness there is in the world from the abuse of the natural appetites, and from the expense and tyranny

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