truths that have in them so much of native light or evidence that by the personal distress of the proposer it cannot be hidden or restrained, but in spite of prisons it shines freely, and procures the teachers of it admiration even when it cannot procure them liberty. THEY THE POSSIBILITY OF THE RESURRECTION HEY who assent to the possibility of the resurrection of the same bodies, will, I presume, be much more easily induced to admit the possibility of the qualifications the Christian religion ascribes to the glorified bodies of the raised saints. For, supposing the truth of the history of the Scriptures, we may observe that the power of God has already extended itself to the performance of such things as import as much as we need infer, sometimes by suspending the natural actings of bodies upon one another, and sometimes by endowing human and other bodies. with preternatural qualities. And indeed, lightness, or rather agility, indifferent to gravity and levity, incorruption, transparency, and opacity, figure, color, etc., being but mechanical affections of matter, it cannot be incredible that the most free and powerful Author of those laws of nature according to which all the phenomena of qualities are regulated, may (as he thinks fit) introduce, establish, or change them in any assigned portion of matter, and consequently in that whereof a human body consists. Thus, though iron be a body above eight times heavier, bulk for bulk, than water, yet in the case of Elisha's behest its native gravity was rendered ineffectual, and it emerged from the bottom to the top of the water; and the gravitation of Saint Peter's body was suspended whilst his Master commanded him, and by that command enabled him to come to him walking on the sea. Thus the operation of the most active body in nature, flame, was suspended in Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace, whilst Daniel's three companions walked unharmed in those flames that, in a trice, consumed the kindlers of them. Thus did the Israelites' manna, which was of so perishable a nature that it would corrupt in a little above a day when gathered in any day of the week but that which preceded the Sabbath, keep good twice as long, and when laid up before the ark for a memorial would last whole ages uncorrupted. And to add a proof that comes more directly home to our purpose, the body of our Savior after his resurrection, though it retained the very impressions that the nails of the cross had made in his hands and feet, and the wound that the spear had made in his side, and was still called in the Scripture his body, as indeed it was, and more so than according to our past discourse it is necessary that every body should be that is rejoined to the soul in the resurrection and yet this glorified body had the same qualifications that are promised to the saints in their state of glory,-Saint Paul informing us "that our vile bodies shall be transformed into the likeness of his glorious body," which the history of the Gospel assures us was endowed with far nobler qualities than before his death. And whereas the Apostle adds, as we formerly noted, that this great change of schematism in the saints' bodies will be effected by the irresistible power of Christ, we shall not much scruple at the admission of such an effect from such an agent, if we consider how much the bare, slight, mechanical alteration of the texture of a body may change its sensible qualities for the better. For without any visible additament, I have several times changed dark and opacous lead into finely colored transparent and specifically lighter glass. And there is another instance, which, though because of its obviousness it is less heeded, is yet more considerable, for who will distrust what advantageous changes such an agent as God can work by changing the texture of a portion of matter, if he but observe what happens merely upon the account of such a mechanical change in the lighting of a candle, that is newly blown out, by the applying another to the ascending smoke. For in the twinkling of an eye an opacous, dark, languid, and stinking smoke loses all its smell and is changed into a most active, penetrant, and shining body. From His Collected Works, 1772. THE THE KNOWLEDGE OF NATURE HE two great advantages which a real acquaintance with nature brings to our minds are, first, by instructing our understandings and gratifying our curiosities, and next, by exciting and cherishing our devotion. And for the first of these; since, as Aristotle teacheth, and was taught himself by common experience, all men are naturally desirous to know; that propensity cannot but be powerfully engaged to the works of nature, which, being incessantly present to our senses, do continually solicit our curiosities; of whose potent inclining us to the contemplation of nature's wonders, it is not, perhaps, the inconsiderablest instance, that, though the natural philosophy hitherto taught in most schools hath been so litigious in its theory, and so barren as to its productions, yet it hath found numbers of zealous and learned cultivators, whom sure nothing but men's inbred fondness for the object it converses with, and the end it pretends to, could so passionately devote to it. And since that (as the same Aristotle, taught by his master Plato, well observes) admiration is the parent of philosophy, by engaging us to inquire into the causes of things at which we marvel, we cannot but be powerfully invited to the contemplation of nature, by living and conversing among wonders, some of which are obvious and conspicuous enough to amaze even ordinary beholders, and others admirable and abstruse enough to astonish the most inquisitive spectators. The bare prospect of this magnificent fabric of the universe, furnished and adorned with such strange variety of curious and useful creatures, would suffice to transport us both with wonder and joy if their commonness did not hinder their operations. Of which truth Mr. Stepkins, the famous oculist, did not long since supply us with a memorable instance; for (as both himself and an illustrious person that was present at the cure, informed me) a maid of about eighteen years of age, having by a couple of cataracts that she brought with her into the world, lived absolutely blind from the moment of her birth, being brought to the free use of her eyes, was so ravished at the surprising spectacle of so many and various objects as presented themselves to her unacquainted sight, that almost everything she saw transported her with such admiration and delight that she was in danger to lose the eyes of her mind by those of her body. From "Usefulness of Natural Philosophy.» ANTHELME BRILLAT-SAVARIN (1755-1826) AD Izaak Walton been a Parisian he might have written "The Physiology of Taste" as well as it was actually done by Brillat-Savarin, but it is not imaginable that it could have been done at all by any one else. The extreme seriousness of the humor with which Brillat-Savarin makes everything else in the range of human experience depend on gastronomy has never been equaled. elsewhere, though Charles Lamb approaches it in his suggestion that pineapple is a flavor "almost too transcendent,- a delight, if not sinful, yet so like sinning that a tender-conscienced person would do well to pause." In much the same spirit the author of "The Physiology of Taste gave Paris a new emotion by inquiring into the true relations of gastronomy to the other sciences,- even endeavoring to reconcile mankind to death itself, as the climax and consummation of good living. In this he is truly Horatian, and when he dismisses us at last, it is as sated guests from whom he expects to hear without regret his "Lusisti satis, edisti satis atque bibisti," Arise and go! You've had your will Of all that most your life endeared: Born at Belley, France, April 1st, 1755, Brillat-Savarin had the philosophical quiet necessary for the best possible digestion rudely interrupted by the French Revolution. He emigrated to America in 1793, but returned to France in 1796, and spent the rest of his life in fitting himself for his great work which appeared in 1825 as "La Physiologie du Goût," and at once demonstrated by its world-wide success its right to immortality. Its author died in 1826 without writing anything else comparable to it,-leaving it thus forever incomparable, not only among kitchen classics, but in literature at large. TH GASTRONOMY AND THE OTHER SCIENCES HE sciences are not like Minerva who started ready armed from the brain of Jupiter. They are children of time and are formed insensibly by the collection of the methods. pointed out by experience, and at a later day by the principles deduced from the combination of those methods. Thus old men, the prudence of whom caused them to be called to the bedside of invalids, whose compassion taught to wounds, were the first physicians. The shepherds of Egypt, who observed that certain stars after the lapse of a certain period of time met in the heavens, were the first astronomers. The person who first uttered in simple language the truth 2+2=4 created mathematics, that mighty science which really placed man on the throne of the universe. In the course of the last sixty years, many new sciences have taken their place in the category of our knowledge, among which is stereotomy, descriptive geometry, and the chemistry of gas. All sciences cultivated for a long time must advance, especially as the art of printing makes retrogression impossible. Who knows, for instance, if the chemistry of gases will not ultimately overcome those, as yet, rebellious substances, mingle and combine. them in proportions not as yet attempted, and thence obtain substances and effects which would remove many restrictions in our powers. Gastronomy has at last appeared, and all the sister sciences have made a way for it. Well; what could be refused to that which sustains us from the cradle to the grave, which increases the gratifications of love and the confidence of friendship which disarms hatred and offers us, in the short passage of our lives, the only pleasure which not being followed by fatigue makes us weary of all others? Certainly, as long as it was confided to merely hired attendants, as long as the secret was kept in cellars, and where dispensaries were written, the results were but the products of an art. At last, too late, perhaps, savants drew near. They examined, analyzed, and classified alimentary substances, and reduced them to simple elements. |