In these changes, however, it will be remarked that the laws of digestion were in reality much less infringed upon as to time than one might imagine from merely hearing that I dined one day at noon and the next day at eight o’clock in the evening. At whatever hour the meal was taken, the real wants of the system were supplied when they manifested themselves in the form of appetite, and the requisite intervals were observed. If a substantial breakfast was taken at eight o’clock, then a corresponding interval elapsed before another meal followed at one or two. If, again, the morning allowance was trifling, then the real breakfast followed at an interval correspondingly short, namely, at eleven o’clock. So also with dinner. And if dinner was at one o’clock, tea followed at the distance of six or seven hours; whereas, if it came at six or seven o’clock, a refreshment preceded and nothing followed it, and the results were comfort and sound digestion. If, however, we yield unguardedly to the impulse of appetite in travelling, and eat and drink plentifully instead of temperately, no arrangement of hours that we can make will render our situation either pleasant or healthful. While, therefore, it seems to be obvious beyond a doubt, that those who live according to the laws of Nature and begin their activity with the morning, should breakfast betimes, dine early in the day, and take a lighter meal in the evening, and that those who do so will reap a reward in health and vigour of mind and body, unattainable to the same extent by those who live differently, and convert night into day,--it would be not less hurtful than absurd to prescribe the same hours for meals to all, whatever their hours of activity, and whatever their modes of life; and I cannot help thinking, that it is the preposterous attempt to generalize too much, which, losing sight of true principle and the modifications which it requires in individual cases, has brought dietetic precepts into disrepute, and led to the belief that the rules laid down are merely arbitrary assumptions, resting on no solid foundation in the human constitution, or in the designs of our Creator.