"I wonder why it is that Mother Nature makes such a mystery of her blessings. She never advertises and never exhibits her best things plainly. All her precious metals are hidden away in narrow seams in the ground; her pearls are guarded by close-mouthed oysters at the bottom of the ocean; electricity is as slippery as an eel and absolutely invisible; in fact, Nature is the most retiring, in her habits, of all the expressions of Deity; and, consistent with herself, she has put me in here, in the dark and speechless, provided with powers of selection and discrimination, which, if understood and made thorough use of, will do for man all that he can desire. "The funny part of it is that the animals, other than man, use me instinctively and live their appointed time; while man, in his usual big-headed way, centuries and centuries ago, gave me the lowest place among the Senses, classed my chief agent and assistant, Saliva, as merely a 'pusher' of food into the stomach, and ever since he has been in too much of a hurry to live _quick_ to take the time to live _long_; and that's what's the matter with the world."[17] [Footnote 17: Thus ended the first edition; but in the revision its position has been changed.] IMPORTANT CONFIRMATION COMMANDANTE CESARE AGNELLI Commandante Cesare Agnelli, of His Italian Majesty's battleship, "Garibaldi," has been an earnest colleague of the authors in the Nutrition Study since the summer of 1900. Like the authors, he received in the course of experimentation such personal benefits that the continued observations have been a source of great pleasure ever since. I take from a letter, dated Taranto, Italy, some excerpts that are good evidence of the caprice of appetite under different climatic conditions together with some irrelevant matter, quoted for its good reading:-- "What a good, long, friendly letter! If it was your intention to spoil me, it certainly proved a success; and I feel so much obliged and thank you so much for the interesting description of all you saw and did during your absence from Venice this summer. "You are too good in remembering the few words of encouragement I said to you when you first spoke to me about your experiments. The fact is that I have always regretted that my assistance in the experiments could not be of greater service; and, really, of us two I am the indebted for gratitude for the great service your discovery has done to me since the lucky day I had the pleasure of your acquaintance. "My bad luck would not have it to allow my ship to go to England for the Coronation, though at first she was selected to be one of the three. Only two days ago I met one of our officers who was on the 'Carlo Alberto,' and he confirmed all that you wrote and all that has been printed about the magnificence of the naval review at Spithead.