480. When Johannes de Temporibus, who is said to have lived three hundred years, was asked how he prolonged his life, he replied—“ By oil without, and honey within." It is told of John Bailes, who lived to the age of one hundred and twenty-eight, that his food, for the most part, consisted of brown bread and cheese, and his drink water and milk. Paul the hermit, who reached the vast age of one hundred and fifteen years, (of which he spent nearly one hundred in the desert,) lived for the first forty years on dates and water only, and the rest of the time on bread and water. St. Anthony, who reached the age of one hundred and five years, lived for eighty years in the wilderness on bread and water, with the addition of a little salad. St. Hilarian consumed daily only fifteen figs, or six ounces of barley bread and fresh roots; and retained his health, with corporeal and mental vigour, to a very advanced age. Dr. Hecquet of Paris, who lived to a very advanced age, touched neither flesh nor wine for thirty years. 481. J. J. Rousseau strenuously advocates the cause of a vegetable diet; and gives the following account of it, as extracted from an English paper :-"An individual, called Patrick O'Neil, born in 1647, was married in 1760, for the seventh time. He served in the dragoons in the seventeenth year of the reign of Charles the Second, and in different regiments till 1740, when he received his discharge. He served in all the campaigns of King William and the Duke of Marlborough. This man had never drunk any thing except ordinary beer; he always lived on vegetables, and never ate flesh, but at the feasts he gave his family. His custom has always been, to rise and retire with the sun; at least when duty has not prevented him. He is at present in his one hundred and thirteenth year, hearing well, carrying himself erect, and walking without a stick. Notwithstanding his great age, he is not a moment idle; and every Sunday attends his parish church, with his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren." * 482. On the 25th of December, 1772, died at Brussels, aged one hundred and one, Elizabeth de Val, who never ate a bit of flesh, or tasted any kind of broth or soup, during the whole course of her life. A few years ago, died at Coombe (in Northumberland), Joseph Ekins, aged one hundred and three; who never knew a week's illness; and subsisted entirely on bread, milk, and vegetables, for the last thirty years. A shepherd died, not long ago, at Gompus in Hungary, in the one hundred and twenty-sixth year of his age. His manner of living was very simple: he never ate animal food; but subsisted entirely on milk, butter, and cheese, and had never been ill in his life.§ 483. A writer in the "Gentleman's Magazine" for August 1787, under the signature of "Etonensis”, gives us an account of one John Williamson, alias Pythagoras of Moffat, whom he describes as one of the most original geniuses that ever existed. "He was well skilled in Natural Philosophy, and might be said to have been a "EMILIE." Vol. I. P. 70. SCOT'S MAGAZINE. Vol. XXXIX. P. 696. From a Newspaper. § MORNING POST. Jan. 27, 1800. moral philosopher, not in theory only, but in strict and uniform practice. He was remarkably humane and charitable; and, though poor, was a bold and avowed enemy to every species of oppression. He accounted the murder (as he called it) of the meanest animal, except in self-defence, a very criminal breach of the law of nature ;— insisting, that the Creator of all things had constituted man, not the tyrant, but the lawful and limited sovereign of the inferior animals; which (he contended) answered the ends of their creation better than their despotic little lord. During the last forty or fifty years of his life, he totally abstained from animal food; and was much offended when any was offered to him. He insisted that, at best, it served but to cloud the understanding, to blunt the feelings, and to inflame every bad passion; and that those nations who eat little or no flesh,-as the poor among the Scotch and Irish,—were not inferior in size, strength, or courage to other men. His vegetable and milk diet afforded him, in particular, very sufficient nourishment; for when I last saw him, he was still a tall, robust, and rather corpulent man, though upwards of fourscore. He died in 1768, or 1769, upwards of ninety years of age." 484. It will doubtless be objected, that there are many examples of people living to extreme age, in full possession of their faculties, who have not restricted themselves to vegetable diet; and who have even indulged freely in animal food. This is undoubtedly true; but we know not how much longer they might have continued to enjoy the pleasures of life, had their diet been regulated by correct principles, or had they followed the dictates of pure instinct. Examples are not wanting, of men of extremely intemperate habits living to a great age; yet who, except the wilfully blind, would contend (from this) that intoxication is favourable to long life? The constitutions of some men are naturally so strong, that they suffer much less from irregularities and indiscretions of any kind, than might be expected: but this cannot justify men of weaker stamina, in adopting their habits; nor do we judge correctly if we suppose, that the former escape injury, merely because we are unable to detect it. It is safer, therefore, to draw our inferences from a careful investigation of physiological laws, rather than to depend upon a numerical statement of instances of extreme old age; for the life of every man is modified by a multiplicity of circumstances; the separate and combined influence of which, it is impossible for us to calculate. There is not the least reason to doubt, from points already ascertained, that the more intimate our knowledge of the human frame and its relations, the stronger will be the conviction, that fruits and farinacea are the natural food of man. Every new discovery in physiology and organic chemistry, tends to confirm the opinion, that these are also his best food; and all experience shows, that the happiest results, both to body and mind, may be confidently expected, by the adoption of an exclusively fruit and farinaceous diet. 485. We have seen that upon this diet health and strength are maintained; recovery from disease is more certain; protection from epidemics more effectual; the physical powers more active; the senses of sight, smell and taste more acute; the skin more perspirable ; the body more symmetrical in its development; sensual enjoyment more exquisite; the intellectual faculties clearer; mental exertion less irksome; the passions and propensities more subdued; the dispositions more benevolent; the morals (so far as food is concerned) more pure, and life more extended. An animal or mixed diet, on the contrary, exposes man to many very painful and dangerous diseases; entails upon him much misery; and, no doubt, considerably abbreviates his existence. Can any one, then, who is capable of serious reflection and candid inquiry; who has sufficient self-command to exercise a few weeks' self-denial; sufficient moral courage to withstand the jeers of those who suffer themselves to be carried along the stream of popular opinion; who has an enlightened regard for his own happiness, and a proper feeling for the sufferings of dumb animals ;—can any one (I say) exercising these qualities, hesitate which diet he shall choose? From the one he has much to hope and expect; from the other he has much to fear. 486. "And yet the wholesome herb neglected dies, Of nutriment and health, and vital powers, And worse. The wolf, who from the nightly fold Nor wore her warming fleece: nor has the steer, At whose strong chest the deadly tiger hangs, E'er plough'd for him. They, too, are tempered high, |