Imatges de pàgina
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present gratification?" When men have been taught to think, they will learn to act in accordance with the dictates of nature and truth; they will dare to practise what their reason approves, and have the courage to refuse what they know to be pernicious. The conventional, and (in many cases) absurd usages of society, will no longer be binding: mankind will be sufficiently enlightened to excuse singularities, where neither principle nor good feeling is compromised; and that man will be most highly estimated whose appetites and passions are so regulated, that their highest gratification is in strict accordance with knowledge and prudence.

520. None but those who possess a salutary control over their appetites, can be expected to pay much attention to arguments in favour of a natural diet; nor, if convinced, can they put in execution the resolves, which a knowledge of the truth may have induced them to make. Few, then, at present are sufficiently convinced, or sufficiently resolute, to adopt a fruit and farinaceous diet, for the customs of society and the temptations that are daily offered to an appetite corrupted by long habit, prevent the requisite exercise of a temporary self-denial, and resolution gives way before habits of a different kind have been firmly established. Thus are the dictates of truth and reason unheeded, and a slavish submission to the authority of custom and fashion becomes the rule of our life; from which we have neither the will nor the power to emancipate ourselves. But, as society progresses in knowledge, these difficulties will be diminished; and the change from bad habits to good will become more

easy, in consequence of the majority being disposed to adopt those which promise the most permanent enjoyment and felicity. The physiological laws will be studied, and applied to the renovation of mankind, and to the production of the " mens sana in corpore sano.'

521. The concurrence of the many in the same pursuit, will encourage the timid and irresolute, and fewer temptations will then withstand the efforts of virtuous resolve. If, therefore, it can be proved, that a fruit and farinaceous diet is the best for man, (of which, I think, we already possess abundant evidence,) this truth, like every other, will finally prevail; the transition from a mixed to a pure vegetable diet, will become easy and pleasant; and its adoption will at last be universal. I finally infer the universality of a fruit and farinaceous diet, from the important social and moral changes which both the Bible and wise men assure us will hereafter take place ;—when men will no longer absurdly oppose and thwart each other, in their efforts to obtain the necessaries and luxuries of life; which would be sufficiently abundant for all, if mutual interest and Christian charity were the ruling principles of action. Already have both individuals and nations discovered the advantages to be derived from acting unanimously; and the various classes of society are uniting their resources, and combining their influence, for mutual protection, and the general benefit of the members they are economizing force, by unity of purpose; instead of neutralizing power, by individual competition and opposing efforts.

522. How far this harmony of action and consolidation

of interest, when accompanied by the general education and moral training of the people, may contribute towards the introduction of that happy state of mankind described as the millennium, is not for me to determine. But if such a state should ever arrive, when each shall find his own happiness enhanced by promoting that of others ;— when men shall vie with each other in doing good, and brotherly love shall actuate every breast, even if the population of the world were no denser than it is at present in this country, it would be impossible for all to be supplied with a mixed diet of vegetable and animal food; and, the very constitution of society being incompatible with a privileged class, feeding on an expensive kind of diet, while others submit to cheaper fare, it is reasonable to conclude, that all will then resort to a fruit and farinaceous diet; which is also best adapted to all the wants of the human economy.

523. The sensitive and moral feelings of man will also, in such a state of society, have their unrestrained and proper exercise; their admonitions will be carefully noted and obeyed; the sufferings of dumb animals will no longer be disregarded; and their plaintive cries will no longer reach the ear, without at the same time moving the heart of man. "To take the life of any sensitive being," observes Dr. Dick, "and to feed on its flesh, appears incompatible with a state of innocence: and therefore no such grant was given to Adam in Paradise, nor to the antediluvians. It appears to have been a grant suited only to the degraded state of man after the deluge ; and it is probable that, as he advances in the scale of

moral perfection in the future ages of the world, the use of animal food will be gradually laid aside; and he will return again to the productions of the vegetable kingdom, as the original food of man,—as that which is best suited to the rank of rational and moral intelligence." It has been shown, that the direct tendency of animal food is to irritate the temper, to inflame the passions, to strengthen the lower propensities, to blunt the moral feelings, and to render the heart callous; and as immunity from disease, bodily strength and activity, symmetry and beauty of form, perfection and acuteness of the senses, unalloyed pleasure and enjoyment, mental exertion, and intellectual culture, as well as longevity, are also favoured by a diet of fruit, roots, and other farinaceous substances; we may conclude, that these will constitute the diet of those who live during the second reign of peace and innocence on earth.

524. Then may it be said of man :—

"No longer now

He slays the lamb that looks him in the face,
And horribly devours his mangled flesh;
Which, still avenging nature's broken law,
Kindled all putrid humours in his frame,—
All evil passions, and all vain belief,
Hatred, despair, and loathing in his mind,—
The germs of misery, death, disease, and crime.

No longer now the winged habitants,

That in the woods their sweet lives sing away,
Flee from the form of man; but gather round,
And prune their sunny feathers on the hands
Which little children stretch, in friendly sport,

Towards these dreadless partners of their play.

All things are void of terror: man has lost

His terrible prerogative, and stands

An equal amidst equals: happiness

And science dawn, though late, upon the earth.

Peace cheers the mind, health renovates the frame; Disease and pleasure cease to mingle here;

Reason and passion cease to combat there;

While each, unfettered, o'er the earth extends
Its all-subduing energies, and wields

The sceptre of a vast dominion there;

While every shape and mode of matter lends

Its force to the omnipotence of mind,

Which from its dark mine drags the gem of truth,

To decorate its Paradise of Peace." *

* SHELLEY.

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