till they began to feel the consequences of their
ill-advised revolt. The several members lost their former
vigour, and the whole body was falling into a rapid decline.
It was then seen that the belly was formed for the good of
the whole; that it was by no means lazy, idle, and inactive;
but, while it was properly supported, took care to
distribute nourishment to every part, and having digested
the supplies, filled the veins with pure and wholesome
blood."

The analogy, which this fable bore to the sedition of the Roman
people, was understood and felt. The discontented multitude saw that
the state of man described by Menenius, was _like to an
insurrection_. They returned to Rome, and submitted to legal
government. _Tempore, quo in homine non, ut nunc, omnia in unum
consentiebant, sed singulis membris suum cuique consilium, sum sermo
fuerat, indignatas reliquas partes, sua cura, suo labore, ac
ministerio, ventri omnia quaeri; ventrem in medio quietum, nihil aliud,
quam datis voluptatibus frui; conspirasse inde, ne manus ad os cibum
ferrent, nec os acciperit datum, nec dentes conficerent. Hac ira dum
ventrem fame domare vellent, ipsa una membra, totumque corpus ad
extremam tabem venisse. Inde apparuisse, ventris quoque haud segne
ministerium esse; nec magis ali quam alere eum; reddentem in omnes
corporis partes hunc, quo vivimus vigemusque, divisum, pariter in
venas, maturum confecto cibo sanguinem._ Livy, lib. ii. s. 32. St.
Paul has made use of a similar argument;

"The body is not one member, but many: if the foot shall
say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it,
therefore, not of the body? and if the ear shall say,
Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it,
therefore, not of the body? If the whole body were an eye,
where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where
were the smelling? But now hath God set the members everyone
of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they
were all one member, where were the body? But now are they
many members, yet but one body: and the eye cannot say unto
the hand, I have no need of thee; nor again, the head to the
feet, I have no need of you. And whether one member suffer,
all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured,
all the members rejoice with it."
_First Epistle to the Corinthians_, chap.