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a humane and benevolent director, there is such an appearance, during crop-time, of health, plenty, and busy cheerfulness, as to soften, in a great measure, the hardships of slavery, and induce the spectator to hope, when the miseries of life are represented as insupportable, that they are sometimes exaggerated, through the medium of fancy."* He might have said, more truly, and more piously, that the benevolence of the Creator has implanted in the human mind such elasticity, and such natural resources for enjoyment, that even the worst condition cannot altogether crush the one, nor destroy the other.

It has already been observed, that sugar is found, in a greater or less proportion, very generally diffused throughout the vegetable creation. I have, in the 'Summer' volume, alluded to the attempt made in France to cultivate the beet, with the view of employing it in the manufacture of sugar; but there is another substitute for the cane, the production of a temperate region, whose properties entitle it to enter much more successfully into competition with it,—I mean, the maple-tree of America. This tree grows in great quantities in the western parts of all the middle states of America, and is also found in the northern states, and in the Canadas. In twenty years, it arrives at its full growth, and is then as tall as an oak, and from two to three feet in diameter. Cattle and sheep feed on the branches, in the winter season; and Dr. Rush supposes that it was this food, on which the domestic animals of the first settlers chiefly subsisted during that inclement-season, before the cultivation of forage.

The maple-tree yields a copious sap, when the bark is wounded in spring. The usual way of collecting it, is by making a hole with an auger, and then inserting a spout formed of the sumach or elder, which is made to project some inches from the tree. A tree of an ordinary size will yield, in a good season, from twenty to thirty gallons of sap, which quantity produces from four to five pounds of sugar. The sugar is made from the sap either by freezing, by spontaneous evaporation, or by boiling;

* Edwards's History of the West Indies, vol. ii. p. 221, 222.

but the last is the most advantageous practice, for, when kept more than twenty-four hours without boiling, the sap becomes injured by exposure to the atmosphere.

Dr. Rush has earnestly recommended the manufacture of sugar from the maple-tree, as an article of commerce, and has given reasons to prove that it could be brought to market at a much cheaper rate than that produced by the sugar-cane. The peculiar taste of the maple-sugar, however, will probably prevent it from ever superseding the use of the latter, at least in countries where it is not produced.

I have already stated that the use of sugar, as an article of food, is believed to be highly salubrious. Sir John Pringle says, the plague was never known to visit any country where sugar composes a material part of the diet of the inhabitants. Drs. Rush, Cullen, and other eminent physicians, are of opinion, that the frequency of malignant fevers of all kinds, is lessened by the use of sugar. It is said to be an effectual remedy in the case of scurvy, and highly beneficial in various other diseases. But whatever may be its medicinal virtues, there can be no doubt that it is a most beneficent gift of Creative goodness, for which we cannot be sufficiently thankful.

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It is painful to think, however, how frequently the perverseness of human beings converts the best gifts of Heaven into curses; and I cannot conclude this paper without remarking another means, by which man has contrived to render pernicious what was so admirably adapted to his benefit I allude to the conversion of the refuse of the sugar into an intoxicating liquor, by means of fermentation and distillation. That this, and other intoxicating liquors, have their use in the system of creation, I am well aware; but, when taken to excess, they at once destroy the body and demoralize the mind; and no person, who reflects on the effects actually produced by them, will venture to deny, that the evils they have occasioned, by being abused by reckless and unprincipled creatures, unspeakably exceed any good effects which have attended them. The pious mind, in reflecting on the ways of Providence, will derive from this source a new evidence, both of the de

pravity of the human heart, and of the system of discipline, so peculiar, and, to those who improve it, so salutary, to which it has pleased the Creator to subject the children of men.

FIFTH WEEK-FRIDAY.

HUMAN FOOD.-THE ENJOYMENT IT AFFORDS.

IN considering the provisions of a bountiful Creator, relative to food, I must not omit to notice the enjoyment, which He has attached to the instinctive appetite. It may be truly said of this, as of other instincts, that its being attended with agreeable sensations, was not necessary, for the accomplishment of the specific end, which the Deity had in view, in bestowing it. A feeling of want, and a craving directed towards the object capable of supplying that want,—that is to say, the sense of hunger, would have been quite sufficient for all the purposes connected with the repairing of the waste of the body, and the preservation of life, as well as for the fulfilment of various other intentions, already alluded to. That enjoyment in the use of the appetite should have been superadded, as it was not an essential, was clearly a benevolent provision.

Before examining the nature of this provision, it seems necessary to remark, that the abuse, to which the selfish indulgences of men have subjected it, has excited a prejudice, in many minds, against the pleasure itself. But the inference is false, as it is drawn from another law of our nature, the existence of which depends upon facts of a moral, and not a physical, kind. If gluttony and epicurism have been induced by the pleasures of the table, this is but an instance in which we have converted a gift of Heaven into a source of evil; and the folly and selfishness of man must not be brought to depreciate the bounties provided for his use. I have already remarked, that it is the ordinance of Providence, throughout all the

departments of Nature, that while the moderate and rational use of created things shall administer to the comfort and improvement of man, a profligate abuse of them shall degrade his nature, and shall defeat its own object by counteracting, in various ways, that pleasure which the sordid mind expects to derive from unrestrained indulgence. This is one of those provisions of the Divine. administration, begun, but not fully developed on earth, by which, while virtue becomes its own reward, vice becomes its own punishment. We shall not, therefore, find it necessary to take it into account in the present inquiry.

On the nature of the pleasure derived from the taste and flavor of food, I need not dwell; and I shall only remark, that, while the taste depends on the organization of the tongue, the flavor is some way connected with the sense of smelling. That both exist in man, our own personal experience testifies; and we cannot doubt. that the former, at least, exists also among the lower animals, and forms, indeed, the chief source of their enjoyment.

The adaptation of the external world to the gratification of this sense, is very remarkable. For the mere purpose of subsistence, a single vegetable esculent would have been sufficient, or, if more had for some cause been necessary, it was not necessary to vary the taste. The organ of this sense might have been so formed, that all substances, animal as well as vegetable, should have produced one uniform sensation when masticated for food. That this is not the case, arises from peculiar and obviously intentional contrivances, both in the edible substances, and in the organs of perception.

On running over in the mind, the various animals and vegetables which form the food of man, we find that every kind has its own distinctive taste, and that, generally speaking, there is a peculiar pleasure attached to the peculiar taste of each wholesome species. The very variety pleases; and although it be impossible to analyze the enjoyment, that there is enjoyment, is nevertheless the object of every person's consciousness. One might

expect that those animals, which feed on the same substances, would afford a similar taste; and a corresponding effect might be supposed to be produced on vegetables growing on the same soil, or, at least, belonging to the same order. But this is very far from being the fact. It is, indeed, true, that we may classify tastes; and this is itself a proof of the delicacy of the sense. There is one kind of taste of fish, another of flesh, and another of vegetables; and under each of these classes there are distinct varieties; the shellfish, for example, are distinguished from the finny tribes; the fowl, from the quadruped; the produce of the cereal plants, from the roots, and those again from pulse, from alliacious plants, [the onion tribe,] and from spices. Each of these classes, again, may be subdivided; and under each subdivision, we shall find a taste belonging to every individual species. This enumeration points out a very remarkable variety in the objects of taste, and a delicacy not less remarkable in the organ by which the minute distinctions are perceived.

But there is another source of the enjoyment belonging to food, which arises from flavor. This is a principle I still more mysterious than that of taste, of which chemistry can give no account, as it escapes all power of analysis. It seems to be almost peculiar to man, or, at all events, the lower animals are very differently affected by it, sometimes showing a total indifference, and at other times, but less frequently, a dislike to the flavor or odor which affords pleasure to human beings.

It is from flavor, that fruits derive their chief delicacy and attraction. Their discernible chemical qualities are very simple. These are nothing more, fundamentally, than a mixture of sugar and acid, differently proportioned, and more or less diluted with water and mucilage. "No power but the Highest," says Mr. Macculloch, speaking of flavor, "could have created what it passes human imagination to conceive, as well as human knowledge to assign; and no wisdom but His could, through the addition of things imponderable, inseparable, unintelligible, have wrought out such a variety of ends.'

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