matter of course that he will eat it and be satisfied. The child grows
to think that he must have what he likes, whether it is good for him or
not. It is not strange that an appetite thus pampered in childhood
becomes uncontrollable at maturity; for the step from gormandizing to
intoxication is much shorter than most people imagine. The natural,
unperverted taste of a child will lead him to eat that which is good for
him. But how can we expect the children to reform when the parents
continually set them bad examples in the matter of eating and drinking?

The cultivation of a taste for spices is a degradation of the sense of
taste. Nature never designed that pleasure should be divorced from use.
The effects of gratifying the sense of taste differ materially from
those of gratifying the higher senses of sight and hearing. What we see
is gone; nothing remains but the memory, and the same is true of the
sweetest sounds which may reach us through the ears. But what we taste
is taken into the stomach and what has thus given us brief pleasure
through the gratification of the palate, must make work in the
alimentary canal for fourteen hours before it is disposed of.

VARIETY IN FOOD.--Simplicity of diet should be a point of first
consideration with all persons upon whom falls the responsibility of
providing the family bills of fare, since the simplest foods are, as a
rule, the most healthful. Variety is needed; that is, a judicious
mingling of fruits, grains, and vegetables; but the general tendency is
to supply our tables with too many kinds and to prepare each dish in the
most elaborate manner, until, in many households, the cooking of food
has come to be almost the chief end of life. While the preparation of
food should be looked upon as of so much importance as to demand the
most careful consideration and thought as to its suitability,
wholesomeness, nutritive qualities, and digestibility, it should by no