solve the problem.”[58] In denouncing active exertion of mind or body immediately after eating, as inimical to digestion, it is not meant that we should go to sleep, or indulge in absolute listlessness. A weak constitution may require something like complete repose, but a person in ordinary health may indulge in a leisurely saunter or pleasant conversation not only without injury but with positive benefit; and perhaps there is no situation in which digestion goes on so favourably as during the cheerful play of sentiment in the after-dinner small-talk of a well-assorted circle. The nervous stimulus sent to the stomach is then of the most healthful and invigorating description, and ever the dyspeptic, if on his guard against a heavy meal, forgets his woes amidst the unwonted vigour of his functions. It is true that thousands who habitually neglect the observance of the condition here adverted to, continue to live and digest for years without appearing to suffer much from their conduct. But it is not less true that there are many more who bring wretchedness and disease upon themselves and their offspring, in the vain attempt to counteract the intentions of Nature, and that there are comparatively few even of the former so happily constituted as to escape entirely unscathed. Most frequently the evil consequences are only accumulating, and when they are summed up at the end of years, the victim finds himself more severely punished than he had ever expected to be. In this respect, the consequence resembles that arising from breathing in a vitiated atmosphere. The effect may not be perceptible for a time; but if God has ordained a pure air to be best adapted for respiration, we have the infallible authority of His omniscience for believing that one which is vitiated _must_ be less wholesome, although His beneficence has so constituted us, that the injury resulting from it is gradual in its infliction, for the very purpose of giving us time to escape. In like manner, if bodily and mental relaxation are favourable to digestion, we have the same infallible guarantee that every departure from them _must_ be in so far hurtful, however slowly the effect may develope itself. CHAPTER V. ON DRINKS.