btedly for
reasonable beings; these are the Gods and men, who are certainly the
most perfect of all beings, as nothing is equal to reason. It is
therefore credible that the universe, and all things in it, were made
for the Gods and for men.

But we may yet more easily comprehend that the Gods have taken great
care of the interests and welfare of men, if we examine thoroughly into
the structure of the body, and the form and perfection of human nature.
There are three things absolutely necessary for the support of life--to
eat, to drink, and to breathe. For these operations the mouth is most
aptly framed, which, by the assistance of the nostrils, draws in the
more air.

LIV. The teeth are there placed to divide and grind the food.[231] The
fore-teeth, being sharp and opposite to each other, cut it asunder, and
the hind-teeth (called the grinders) chew it, in which office the
tongue seems to assist. At the root of the tongue is the gullet, which
receives whatever is swallowed: it touches the tonsils on each side,
and terminates at the interior extremity of the palate. When, by the
motions of the tongue, the food is forced into this passage, it
descends, and those parts of the gullet which are below it are dilated,
and those above are contracted. There is another passage, called by
physicians the rough artery,[232] which reaches to the lungs, for the
entrance and return of the air we breathe; and as its orifice is joined
to the roots of the tongue a little above the part to which the gullet
is annexed, it is furnished with a sort of coverlid,[233] lest, by the
accidental falling of any food into it, the respiration should be
stopped.

As the stomach, which is beneath the gullet, receives the meat and
drink, so the lungs and the heart draw in the air from without. The
stomach is wonderfully composed, consisting almost wholly of nerves; it
abounds with membranes and fibres, and detains what it receives,
whether solid or liquid, till it is altered and digested. It sometimes
contracts, sometimes dilates. It blends and mixes the food together, so
that it is easily concocted and digested by its force of heat, and by
the animal spirits is distributed into the other parts of the body.

LV. As to the lungs, they are of a soft and spongy substance, which
renders them the most commodious for respiration; they alternately
dilate and contract to receive and return the air, that what is the
chief animal sustenance may be always fres