How To Eat Wisely
Mr Hall, in his journal, gives the following advice:
“1. Never sit down to table with an anxious or disturbed mind; better a hundred fold intermit that meal, for there will then be that much more food in the world for hungrier stomachs than yours; and besides, eating under such circumstances can only, and will always, prolong and aggravate the conditions of things.
2. Never sit down to a meal after any intense mental effort, for physical and mental injury are inevitable, and no man has a right to deliberately injure body, mind, or estate.
3. Never go to a full table during bodily exhaustion – designated by some as being worn out, tired to death, done over, and the like. The wisest thing you can do under such circumstances it to take a cracker and a cup of warm tea, either black or green, and no more. In ten minutes you will feel a degree of refreshment and liveliness which will be pleasantly surprising to you; not of the transient king which a glass of liquor afford; but permanent; for the tea gives present stimulus and a little strength, and before it subsides, nutriment begins to draw from the sugar, and cream, and bread, thus allowing the body gradually, and by safe degrees, to retain its usual vigour. Then, in a couple of hours, you make take a full meal, provided it does not bring it later than two hours before sundown; if later, then take nothing for that day in addition to the cracker and tea, and the next day you will feel a freshness and vigour not recently known.”
No reader will require to be advised a second time, who will make a trial as above; whilst it is a fact of no usual observation among intelligent physicians, that eating heartily, and under bodily exhaustion, is not unfrequently the cause of alarming and painful illness, and sometimes sudden death. These things being so, let every family make it a point to assemble around the family board with kindly feelings, - with a cheerful humour and a courteous spirit; and let that member of it be sent from it in disgrace who presumes to mar the ought-to-be blest reunion by sullen silence, or impatient look, or angry tone, or complaining tongue. Eat in thankful gladness, or away with you to the kitchen, your graceless churl, you pestilent lout that you are! – There was grand and good philosophy in the old-time custom of having a buffoon or music at the dinner-table.