TABLE TOPICS.


"Let appetite wear reason's golden chain,
and find in due restrain its luxury."

A man's food, when he has the means and opportunity of selecting it,
suggests his moral nature. Many a Christian is trying to do by
prayer that which cannot be done except through corrected
diet.--_Talmage._

Our pious ancestors enacted a law that suicides should be buried
where four roads meet, and that a cart-load of stones should be
thrown upon the body. Yet, when gentlemen or ladies commit suicide,
not by cord or steel, but by turtle soup or lobster salad, they may
be buried on consecrated ground, and the public are not ashamed to
read an epitaph upon their tombstones false enough to make the
marble blush.--_Horace Mann._

It is related by a gentleman who had an appointment to breakfast
with the late A.T. Stewart, that the butler placed before them both
an elaborate bill of fare; the visitor selected a list of rare
dishes, and was quite abashed when Mr. Stewart said, "Bring me my
usual breakfast,--oatmeal and boiled eggs." He then explained to his
friend that he found simple food a necessity to him, otherwise he
could not think clearly. That unobscured brain applied to nobler
ends would have won higher results, but the principle remains the