The Belly and the Members


037. THE BELLY AND THE MEMBERS. In former days, when the belly and other parts of the body enjoyed the faculty of speech, and had separate views and designs of their own, each part, it seems, in particular for himself, and in the name of the whole, took exception at the conduct of the belly, and were resolved to grant him supplies no longer. They said they thought it very hard that he should lead an idle, good-for-nothing life, spending and squandering away, upon his own ungodly guts, all the fruits of their labour; and that, in short, they were resolved for the future to strike off his allowance, and let him shift for himself as well as he could. The hands protested that they would not lift up a finger to keep him from starving; and the mouth wished he might never speak again, if he took in the least bit of nourishment for him as long as he lived; and, says the teeth, may we be rotten if ever we chew a morsel for him for the future.
This solemn league and covenant was kept as long as anything of that kind can be kept, which was, until each of the rebel members pined away to skin and bone, and could hold out no longer. They then found there was no doing without the belly, and that as idle and insignificant as he seemed, he contributed as much to the maintenance and welfare of all the other parts, as they did to his. [more info]

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