INTRODUCTION.

THE FATHER OF THE FAMILY.

86 Indigestion is the conscience of the stomach."-Owen Meredith.

IT is a fact which no one will be inclined to dispute, that the whole household suffers, and is made to suffer, when the father of the family is out of sorts, out of spirits, or out of temper. From him generates the social atmosphere of the circle; around him -as their centre, their sun, their light, their heathis satellites revolve.

Is he bland, genial, jocose?—they bask in sunshine. Is he surly and mute?- they hang their heads and cower before the anticipated storm. Above all things, it is necessary to the happiness of their daily life that his equanimity should be undisturbed that his spirit should be at ease; not vexed by any adverse winds-not provoked to wrath by any unreasonable irritations.

Great is his position; absolute his authority.

Heavens! what a sceptre he wields! Hasten to bow the knee before him, underlings.

Propitiate the monarch with soothing flatteries, well-timed ministrations. Thrust forth from his sight aught that would ruffle or annoy.

Father of the family! It is a noble appellation. And within each mortal frame there dwells-exalted on this pedestal, exercising this prerogative—an invisible corporeal engine for good or ill,—a power accessible to every outward influence,—yet, in himself, influencing more directly and inflexibly all the other members of the body.

Has he been fatigued or overtaxed?—they pay the penalty. Has he been neglected and despised? -they smart. Has he been insulted with gross, unsuitable, ill-advised offerings ?-they reap in tears.

Friends and readers, whatever else you have, and whatever you have not, each, even to the poorest among you, possesses (oft doth he wish he did not!) a stomach.

It is this stomach who, "monarch of all he surveys," determines, more than any outward circumstance-more than literature, or science, or the fine arts, or riches, or fame, or beauty, or kinsfolk, or country, or climate-the content or uneasiness of your days as they pass.

You want but "daily bread"; and if you offer your inward potentate that bread, soaked in ill-nurtured compounds, sodden in grease, you had need

beware! You desire to save your time-a precious gift, it is true, when turned to good and useful purposes; but if you scrimp it from your hasty meals, gulping down the food before you, hot, reeking, and but half masticated, you had best beware! You are anxious to keep a clear head during the day, and to enjoy well-earned repose subsequently; but if you defer your hour of dining till the weary brain is worn out, till the limbs fail, and you are so faint with fasting that you take no pleasure in the companionship of those dearest to you, no interest in their pursuits, are impatient even of their voices, you may well beware, if you never stood upon your guard until that moment.

The heavy, long-sustained banquet may indeed stave off your ill-humour for the nonce, and render you less of a bear in your demeanour to those present, less snarling and sarcastic in your remarks on those absent, than you have been throughout the previous hours; but the Nemesis is at your heels, dogging every onward step.

Trifle with your business, your property, your time, and your friends-trifle, I say, with all of these if you are fool enough; but, fool or not, lend an ear to him who would warn you from trifling with your stomach.

It is too weighty a matter this. Your words, your actions, your very thoughts and motives, come within his jurisdiction. Temper owns his sway;

sleep is his subject. He prompts the bitter jest, the fretful complaint.

The letter, which was so much more indignant and reproachful than it need have been,-the sarcasm, which its recipient will never forget, since it pierced between the very joints of the armour,-was due to his intervention.

Presently you will yourself acknowledge that you wrote in haste, unadvisedly; that you said more than you meant; that you did not know what possessed you at the moment to be so wrathful. And by-and-by, on this reflection, supervenes the memory of a headache, and the thought of that aching head suggests the very root of the matter, though it be only casually, and in parenthesis, that you observe that you "fancy something had disagreed" with you.

Even so, friendships are blasted, opportunities are slighted, appointments are broken, and misunderstandings are rife,-yea, lives themselves, here and there, are marred throughout, from the seed sown by some tiny germ of indigestion "something having disagreed" with the eater.

Give heed, then, to these three precepts, sufferers: Eat regularly, eat moderately, eat properly.

Each of these rules is essential to keep the father of the family in that state of health and complacency which shall diffuse joy and gladness throughout his lawful territory.

Let four hours, as a customary thing, pass be