sease is the consequence.
Besides, when thus overfilled, the stomach presses on the diaphragm,
prevents the proper play of the lungs, and occasions difficulty and
uneasiness in breathing. Hence arise various bad symptoms and effects,
throughout the whole of the animal economy; prostrating the strength,
impairing the senses, hastening old age, and shortening life. Though
these unhappy consequences may not be immediately perceived, yet they
are the certain attendants of intemperance; and it has been generally
observed in great eaters, that though from custom, a state of youth, and
a strong constitution, they suffer no present inconvenience, but have
digested their food, and sustained the surfeit; yet if they have not
been unexpectedly cut off, they have found the symptoms of old age come
on early in life, attended with pains and innumerable disorders. If
health is to be regarded, we must ever make it a rule not to eat to
satiety or fulness, but desist while the stomach feels quite easy. Thus
we shall be refreshed, light, and cheerful; not dull, heavy, or
indisposed. Should we ever be tempted to eat too much at one time, we
should eat the less at another: abstinence is the best remedy for
repletion. If our dinner has been larger than usual, let our supper be
less, or rather, quite omitted. With regard to the times of eating, they
must to a certain degree be conformed to family convenience, but ought
to be quite independent of the caprice of fashion, instead of being as
they are, governed by it. This, and a want of punctuality to the dinner
hour, are the cause of more real harm to the constitution than
thoughtless people of fashion, and their more thoughtless imitators, are
apt to imagine. When a dinner is dressed, nothing can prevent its being
injured by standing. It may be kept hot, and this imposes on those who
think no farther upon the subject; but the very means made use of for
this purpose, only help to spoil it the more. If things boiled are kept
in the water after they are done enough, they become sodden, vapid, and
heavy. The invention of hot closets for keeping other things hot, dry
away the juices, and make them strong and rancid. From such dinners,
indigestions will ensue, frequent head-aches, nervousness, and many
other uneasy sensations, which finally bring on maladies of a more
serious nature. The great points to be guarded against, respecting the
times of eating, are either eating too soon after a former meal,