the contrary, yet the women never destroy the life of any creature.
Whether this custom were founded by some of their ancient legislators,
or whether it originated from accidental circumstances, is uncertain;
but however that be, nothing can be more suitable to the gentleness and
timidity which form the most beautiful and engaging part of the female
character.” (_Dr. Alexander’s History of Women_, Vol. I. p. 366.)
“The Indian Bramins neither kill nor eat any sort of animal; and it is
certain they have not done it for more than two thousand years.” (_Dr.
Clarke’s Fleury_, p. 87.)
“As a proof of the havoc committed by more savage man on the creatures
of his prey, it is said, that in Paris there are four thousand sellers
of oysters, and that fifteen hundred large oxen, and above sixteen
thousand sheep, calves, or hogs, besides a prodigious quantity of
poultry and wild fowls, are eaten daily.” (_Bayle’s Dictionary.--Art.
Ovid._)
“When children are barbarous towards innocent animals, they will soon
become the same towards men. Caligula, before imbruing his hands in
human blood, had made a practice of destroying flies. It may be said,
that the moral behavior of man to man commences, in some measure,
with that of an infant towards insects. Never, therefore, let a child
acquire a truth by means of a vice; nor extend its understanding at the
expense of its heart. Let it not study the laws of nature in the pangs
of sentient beings; but rather in the succession of their enjoyments.”
(_St. Pierre’s Harmonies of Nature_, Vol. I. p. 411.)
The celebrated Mr. John Tweddell, in one of his letters, thus
beautifully expresses himself:--“I no longer eat flesh meat, nor drink
fermented liquors. As for the latter, it is merely because I do not
believe that they can ever be good for the constitution, and still
more especially with a vegetable diet. With regard to the flesh of
animals, I have many times thought on the subject. I am persuaded we
have no other right than the right of the strongest, to sacrifice to
our monstrous appetites the bodies of living things, of whose qualities
and relations we are ignorant. Different objections which struck me, as
to the probability of good from the universality of this practice, have
hitherto held me in indecision.
“I doubted whether, if this abstinence were universal, the animals
which we now devour might not devour, in their turn, the fruits and
vegetables reserved for our sustenance. I do not know whether this
would be so; but I do not believe it: it seems to me that their numbers
would not augment in the proportion which is apprehended. If, on the
one hand, we now consume them with our teeth, on the other, we might
then abandon our schemes and inventions for augmenting the means of
propagation. Let nature follow her own course with regard to all that
lives. I am told that they would destroy each other:--In the first
place, the two objections cannot exist together: if they would destroy
each other, their numbers would not be excessive. And what is this
mutual destruction to me? Who has constituted me dictator of the realms
of nature? Why am I umpire between the mistress and her servants?
Because two chickens fight till one dies, am I obliged to worry one of
them to prevent the engagement? Exquisite and well imagined humanity!
“On the other hand, let precautions be adopted against famine, when
experience shall have shown the necessity of them; in the mean while,
we are not called upon to bury in our bowels the carcasses of animals,
which, a few hours before, lowed or bleated; to flay and to dismember
a defenceless creature; to pamper the unsuspecting beast that grazes
before us, with the single view of sucking its blood and grinding its
bones; and to become the unnatural murderers of beings, of whose powers
and faculties, of whose modes of communication and mutual intercourse,
of whose degree of sensibility and extent of pain and pleasure, we
are necessarily and fundamentally ignorant.” (_Life and Remains of J.
Tweddell_, p. 215.)
(22) _Suspend forever all their songs of love!_
“Abstinence,” says Shelley, “from animal food, subtilizes and clears
the intellectual faculties.” For all the sensualities of the table he
had an ineffable contempt, and, like Newton, used sometimes to ask if
he had dined. (_Vide Life of Shelley._)
“So many dishes, so many disorders.”
SENECA.
----“Well observe
The rule of _not too much_, by temperance taught,
In what thou eat’st and drink’st; seeking from thence
Due nourishment, not gluttonous delight.”
MILTON.
“By salt, Cayenne pepper, and other high seasonings, they stimulate the
appetite, turn round the wheels of life too rapidly, and wear out the
body, or machine, before its time; whereas, those who abstain from such
wine, spirituous liquors, and hot spicy aliments, acquire an exquisite
degree of delicacy in the sense of tasting; their spirits are more
equal, their feelings more pleasurable, and, generally, they are much
longer lived.” (_Dr. Abernethy._)
“Temperance and exercise are the parents of health.”
MASON.
The common ingredients of health and long life are:--
“Great temperance--open air,
Easy labor, and little care.”
ANON.
“It appears that the structure and uses of the teeth are more perfectly
equalized in the human subject, than in any other animal. It is true
that, in some tribes of animals, whose habits require the greatest
possible extension of the office of a particular class of the teeth, a
corresponding development of that class is found to take place, to a
much greater degree than in man.
“Thus, in the _carnivora_, the cuspidati are greatly elongated and
strengthened, in order to enable them to seize their food and to tear
it in pieces; in the _rodentia_, or gnawing animals, as in the beaver,
for instance, the incisors are remarkably long, and exhibit that
extraordinary development which their peculiar habits demand, and in
the graminivorous animals, the _ruminantia_ especially, the molares are
found to occupy the most conspicuous situation. But, in each of these
instances, the other kinds of teeth are found to be proportionably
of less importance, and in some cases, are actually wanting. In man,
on the contrary, every class appears to be equally developed, to a
moderate, though a sufficient degree, and to exhibit a perfection of
structure which may be considered as being the true type, from which
all other forms are mere deviations. It becomes, therefore, a question
of some interest, and perhaps of no less difficulty, to what food the
structure which has just been demonstrated is particularly adapted.
The opinion which I venture to give has not been hastily formed, nor
without what appeared to me sufficient grounds; I advance it, however,
with diffidence, and do not profess to consider it much more than
hypothetical.
“The endowment of reason, that greatest, best gift of the Creator,
appears, if we consider the perfection of human organization, to be
particularly, and, in its highest degree, even exclusively, adapted
to the conformation and requirements of man. This high and divine
endowment should never be lost sight of in our reasonings on the human
structure, and the physiology and habits of our species, as it is only
with the allowances and modifications which the possession of a quality
so infinitely higher than the instinct of other animals necessarily
supposes, that the actual habits of man can be viewed as compatible
with his organization. Although these habits, now essentially arising
from, and combined with a state of civilization, which, in a greater
or less degree, must be allowed to exist in every known tribe of our
species, cannot be considered, in any one instance, as actual and
exclusively _natural_; yet we may be led, by a careful examination of
the structure of the different organs, and by an analogical comparison
of them, as they exist in man, with the same organs in those animals
which most nearly resemble him in structure, but which are still found
in a perfectly natural state, to a plausible supposition, at least,
of what were originally his natural habits; and which would have
still continued so, but for those changes which have arisen from the
possession of this very endowment.
“With this view of the subject, it is not, I think, going too far
to say, that every fact connected with the human organization goes
to prove, that man was originally formed a frugivorous animal,
and therefore probably tropical, or nearly so, with regard to his
geographical situation. This opinion is principally derived from the
formation of his teeth and digestive organs, as well as from the
character of his skin, and the general structure of his limbs. It is
not my intention now to go farther into the discussion of this subject
than to observe, that if analogy be allowed to have any weight in
the argument, it is wholly on that side of the question which I have
just taken.--Those animals whose teeth and digestive apparatus most
nearly resemble our own, namely, the apes and monkeys, are undoubtedly
frugivorous; but as, from their organization, they are necessarily
tropical animals, and without the gift of reason, by which they might
have overcome the difference of temperature by artificial means, they
remain still restricted to their original food, and confined to the
very limited climate to which their structure peculiarly adapted them.
The reasoning powers of man, on the contrary, have enabled him to
set climate at defiance, and have rendered him, in all cases, more or
less an artificial being. No longer restrained within that range of
temperature to which the delicacy of his frame, no less than the nature
of his original nutriment would have confined him, he becomes the
denizen of every climate, and the lord of terrestrial creation.” (_Bell
on the Teeth_, pp. 33--36.)
(23) _Of bloody banquet for the monster--man!_
“Temperance, cleanliness, and abstinence, have greater power over the
soul and body than most in our days imagine. Some of the ancients have
delivered it as a maxim, ‘That none could understand God and his works,
and enjoy perfect health and long life, but those that abstain from
flesh, wine, and vices, bounding their desires according to the ends
and necessities of nature.’ Most men will in words confess, that there
is no blessing this world affords comparable to health, yet rarely do
any of them value it as they ought to do, till they feel the want of
it. To him that has obtained this goodly gift, the meanest food, even
bread and water, are most pleasant, and all sorts of labor and exercise
delightful. But the contrary makes all things nauseous and distasteful.
What are full-spread tables, riches, and honors, to him that is
tormented with distempers? Happy it were, if men did but use the tenth
part of the care and diligence to perserve their minds and bodies in
health, as they do to procure riches, which serve them chiefly to
procure those dainties and superfluities which generate disease, and
are the causes of many other evils, there being but few men that know
how to use riches as they ought. As little and as mean food and drink,
will maintain a lord in perfect health as the poorest peasant. But,
alas! the momentary pleasures of the appetite entice most people to
exceed the bounds of necessity or convenience, and many are seduced by
a false opinion of nature, childishly imagining that the richer the
food, and the more they consume, the more they shall be strengthened
thereby. But experience proves the reverse; for the persons who
accustom themselves to the richest compound food, and most cordial
drinks, are uniformly the most infirm and diseased. People much mistake
in supposing, that, so long as the appetite desires and the pleasure
of eating continues strong, they may eat on without damage to their
health. The truth is, this is one of the chief reasons why men are
gluttons; and there is little difficulty in temperance, save only in
this particular; it being somewhat hard for a healthy man to give off
eating in the midst of the pleasure he receives by it, especially when
meats by art are made on purpose, not only to prolong the appetite,
but also to delight it. Varieties of food are always dangerous, if
great care and temperance be not observed. He that limits his desire by
wisdom, and has the understanding both of the quality and the quantity,
may eat of sundry sorts of food at once; but the ignorant and unwise
very rarely do it without prejudice to their health.” (_Tryon’s Way to
Health, Long Life, and Happiness, London_, 1691, pp. 41, 42, 43.)
The same very ingenious writer remarks, page 137, “If you will be so
habituated and wedded to your unhealthy customs, that you, ask not
whether nature be weak and impotent, then you may mix your food with
all the varieties that the East and West Indies produce; you may make
your drink as strong and cordial as you wish; you may wrap yourselves
at night in beds of down; and when it is nine or ten o’clock in the
morning, look that you have a good, rousing fire in your chambers, and
breakfast ready; and two or three hours afterwards, let a plentiful
dinner of varieties be made ready, with strong and inflaming liquors.
This is the trade that many thousands of this nation pursue, as if they
studied to bring diseases upon themselves, and dig their graves with
their own teeth; for, in the midst of all their affluence, wherein they
esteem themselves happy, they are yet most miserable.”
(24) _The safe and luscious diet of mankind._
Of all the forms of vegetable matter proper to this climate, the
farinaceous grains are undoubtedly the most important; but in making
them into bread, the following rules from Tryon should be well
observed;--and his advice will be found to have lost none of its value
by coming from a writer in the reign of William and Mary.
“If you set any value on health, and have a mind to preserve nature,
you must not separate the finest from the coarsest flour, because that
which is fine is naturally of an obstructive quality; but, on the
contrary, the other, which is coarse, is of a cleansing and opening
nature; therefore, that bread is best which is made of both together.
In the inward bean and skin of the wheat is contained an oily quality,
of a sweet nature, by reason whereof, bread made of fine and coarse
together will not only be sweeter, and keep longer moist, but is also
more wholesome; easier of concoction. It must be confessed, that the
nutritive quality is contained in the fine flour, yet, in the branny
part is contained the opening and digestive quality and there is as
great a necessity for the one as for the other, for the support of
health. By what has been said, we may gather that the eating of fine
bread is inimical to health, and contrary both to nature and reason;
and was at first invented to gratify luxurious persons, who are
ignorant both of themselves and of the true virtue and efficacy of
natural things.” (_Tryon’s Way to Health_, pp. 147, 148.)
The same author, pp. 286, 287, relates the following anecdote of Henry
VIII. “There is a pleasant story of king Henry VIII., in the first part
of his reign, riding a hunting; and being hungry, he strayed from his
attendants, and came alone to a monastery about dinner time. The fat,
lazy abbot, welcomed him very kindly, for hearing that the king was in
that country, he concluded this was one of his guards. At dinner they
had great varieties, and the king fed like a farmer on a piece of roast
beef. But the abbot, who daily crammed himself with delicacies, could
scarce relish a bit of any thing before him; and pleasantly said to
the king:--‘Honest friend, I would give five hundred pounds if I could
pick so heartily as you do on a piece of roast beef.’ The king returned
him some small compliment, and after dinner took his leave. About a
fortnight after, the king sent a messenger for the old fulsome abbot,
and ordered him to be carried to the tower, there to be close prisoner,
and allowed a given quantity of small beer and bread every day, but no
other food. The abbot could not imagine what he had done to occasion
such an imprisonment; and being thus dieted, he soon came to have a
good stomach. After about a month, the king ordered the keeper to carry
him in a good piece of hot roast beef, on which the abbot fell with
such violence as if he would have eaten it at a mouthful. The king, who
was stationed in a room where he could see how he laid about, at last
stepped in and demanded his five hundred pounds. ‘For,’ said he, ‘you
said you would give it; and I have performed the cure, and got you a
better stomach than all the doctors in England would have done:’--and
so upon payment of the five hundred pounds, discharged him.”
“No flocks that range the valley free,
To slaughter I condemn,
Taught by the Power that pities me,
I learn to pity them.
“But from the mountain’s grassy side,
A guiltless feast I bring;
A scrip with herbs and fruits supplied,
And water from the spring.”
_Goldsmith’s Hermit._
“To mix the food by vicious rules of art,
To kill the stomach, and to sink the heart,
To make mankind in social virtue sour,
Cram o’er each dish, and be what they devour;
For this the kitchen muse first framed her book,
Commanding sweat to stream form every cook:
Children no more their antic gambols tried,
And friends to physic wondered why they died.”
_Barlow’s Hasty Pudding_, CANTO II.
“In China, a single acre of land sown with rice, produces sufficient
for the consumption of five persons for a year, allowing two pounds and
a half a day to each.” (_Breton’s China_, Vol. IX. p. 29.)
“The peculiar property of the corn plant, is that of being produced,
in some shape or other, in every part of the world, from the rice of
the Ganges to the barley of Finland. It is, however remarkable, that
it no where grows spontaneously, like other plants, so that providence
appears to have devolved altogether on our species the charge of
maintaining and extending its cultivation. Bread is, of all vegetable
nourishment, the most substantial and durable.” (_St. Pierre’s Studies
of Nature_, Vol. I. p. 22.)
“The living herbs spring up prefusely wild,
O’er all the deep green earth, beyond the power
Of botanist to number up their tribes:
But who their virtues can declare? who pierce
With vision pure, into the secret stores
Of health, and life, and joy! The food of man,
While yet he lived in innocence, and told
A length of golden years unfleshed in blood,
A stranger to the savage arts of life,
Death, rapine, carnage, surfeit, and disease,
The lord, and not the tyrant of the world.”
THOMSON.
“Milk is in part vegetable food; and as such is used by all pastoral
nations, and serves in a measure as a substitute for it.” (_Dr. Lambe’s
Reports on Regimen_, p. 167.)
“To prevent indigestion, milk ought not to be eat together with flesh.”
(_Dr. Willet._)
“Eggs contain a larger proportion of pure nourishment than any other
food. They are a most valuable article, not only when consumed by
themselves, but when mixed with other things. Raw, poached, soft
boiled, or in any ways lightly cooked, they are gently laxative, and
sit easy on most stomachs.” (_Sir John Sinclair’s Code of Health_, Vol.
I. p. 414.)
“An entire diet of vegetable matter gives to the disposition a
gentleness, softness, and mildness of feeling, directly the reverse
of that ferocity of mind and fierceness of character which form the
leading feature of all carnivorous animals, it has also a particular
influence on the powers of the mind, producing liveliness of
imagination and acuteness of judgment in an eminent degree. (_Sir John
Sinclair’s Code of Health_, Vol. I. p. 423.)
(25) _Nor meet one star that gilds the glowing pole!_
“Mœnenius Agrippa dispelled the prejudice of the Roman people, by a
fabulous allusion to the absurdity and blindness of all the members of
the human body joining in rebellion against the stomach:--and if fable
or fact could be adduced with such successful persuasion to dispel the
blindness of modern luxury, the stomach would not so perpetually be
excited as it is, to the contrary office of waging war against all the
members of the body.” (_Thomas Hare on the Stomach_, &c., _London_,
1821, p. 300.)
“The man who perceives in his own soul the supreme soul present in all
creatures, acquires kindness towards all, and shall be absorbed at last
in the highest essence, even in that of the Almighty himself.” (_Laws
of Menu._)
(26) _Where health and purity should ever reign._
Tartar is an accumulation of acrimonious earthy matter, round the necks
of the teeth. This accretion arises from the fluid secretions of the
mouth, and consequently, few persons are entirely free from it, though
some, from the state of their general health, may be more subject to
it than others. The teeth to which it is generally attached, are those
that are the least acted upon in the process of mastication; and the
molares of the upper, as well as the incisors of the under jaw, being
situated nearer to the salivary ducts, more readily become affected.
Whenever tartar is permitted to accumulate around the teeth, the gums,
the membrane lining the alveoli, and even the aveolar process itself,
are liable to suffer through the powers of absorption being increased
by inflammatory action. It thus not unfrequently happens, that persons
through want of proper care and attention to the removal of tartar,
have lost the whole of their teeth.
“The formation of a calculous deposit upon the teeth, in a greater
or less degree, may almost be said to be universal; for, although in
many persons of sound health and temperate habits, it is possible,
by care, to remove it so immediately after its deposition, that the
teeth are kept generally free from it, still, I believe it is in all
cases produced, and would accumulate, but for constant attention to
the proper means for its removal. It consists of calcareous substance,
which, when first deposited, is soft, friable, and readily crumbling
under the finger; but gradually, and, as it were, by a slow kind of
crystallization, acquires almost a rocky hardness. Its usual color is a
dull, whitish yellow, or buff; though in some cases it is dark brown,
or black, and in others has a greenish hue. It also varies in the
character of its surface, being generally smooth, especially in those
parts where the tongue acts constantly upon it; but occasionally, in
other parts, exceedingly rough and rugged. It is susceptible of being
stained by any coloring matter frequently taken into the mouth during
its deposition; as, for instance, from smoking tobacco, or from the
long continued use of colored gargles, especially such as are composed
of articles which are not capable of perfect solution in aqueous
menstrua.
“With the exception of gangrene, there is no kind of injury to which
the teeth are exposed, so commonly and so extensively destructive as
this concretion.” (_Bell on Human Teeth_, p. 192.)
(27) _As death disparts the body from the soul._
“It will be objected, perhaps, to what we have said, that many people
who have beautiful teeth, and a healthy mouth, pay no attention to
these parts; whilst those who attach a great value to them, and take
the greatest care of them, have much trouble in preserving them. But it
will also be an easy matter to reply to these objections, by making a
comparison between children born of parents of sound constitution, and
reared in the country, and those born in cities, whom an ill conducted
education has predisposed to a debility of organization often to be
recognised by the state of their teeth alone.--It ought, therefore,
perhaps to be remarked, that diseased teeth with many individuals,
originate in an organic disposition, which may be transmitted from
fathers to their children.” (_Gerbaux on the Teeth, Edinburgh Edition_,
p. 23.)
(28) _The brush, the dentrifice, and, from the spring._