22.
Furthermore, not confining his attention to these arts, he even degrades the wise man by sending him to the mill.
For he tells us how the sage, by imitating the processes of nature, began to make bread. “The grain,” he says, “once taken into the mouth, is crushed by the flinty teeth, which meet in hostile encounter, and whatever grain slips out the tongue turns back to the selfsame teeth.
Then it is blended into a mass, that it may the more easily pass down the slippery throat.
When this has reached the stomach, it is digested by the stomach’s equable heat; then, and not till then, it is assimilated with the body.
Book: Moral Letters Vol II
Subtitle: Seneca's timeless letters of advice and wisdom.
Author: Seneca
Chapter: On the part played by philosophy in the progress of man
Location: Chapter 90, Section 22
Content:
22.
Furthermore, not confining his attention to these arts, he even degrades the wise man by sending him to the mill.
For he tells us how the sage, by imitating the processes of nature, began to make bread. “The grain,” he says, “once taken into the mouth, is crushed by the flinty teeth, which meet in hostile encounter, and whatever grain slips out the tongue turns back to the selfsame teeth.
Then it is blended into a mass, that it may the more easily pass down the slippery throat.
When this has reached the stomach, it is digested by the stomach’s equable heat; then, and not till then, it is assimilated with the body.