ment of uninterrupted health.
Celsus affirms that the bodies which are filled with much animal food
become the most quickly old and diseased. It was proverbial that the
ancient athletae were the most stupid of men. The cynic Diogenes, being
asked what was the cause of this stupidity, is reported to have
answered, 'Because they are wholly formed of the flesh of swine and
oxen.' Theophrastus says that feeding upon flesh destroys the reason,
and makes the mind more dull.

"Animal food is unfavorable to the intellectual powers. The effect is,
in some measure, instantaneous; it being hardly possible to apply to any
thing requiring thought after a full meal of meat; so that it has been
not improperly said of vegetable feeders, that _with them it is morning
all day long_. But the senses, the memory, the understanding, and the
imagination have also been observed to improve by a vegetable diet.

"It will not be disputed that, for consumptive symptoms, a vegetable
diet, or at least a vegetable and milk diet, is the most proper.

"It has been said, that the great fondness men have for animal food, is
proof enough that nature intended them to eat it. As if men were not
fond of wine, ardent spirits, and other things which we know cut short
their days!

"In every period of history it has been known that vegetables alone are
sufficient for the support of life; and the bulk of mankind live upon
them at this hour. The adherence to the use of animal food is no more
than a gross persistence in the customs of savage life, and an
insensibility to the progress of reason and the operation of
intellectual improvement. This habit must be considered as one of the
numerous relics of that ancient barbarism which has overspread the face
of the globe, and which still taints the manners of civilized nations.

"The use of fermented liquors is, in some measure, a necessary
concomitant and appendage to the use of animal food. Animal food, in a
great number of persons, loads the stomach, causes some degree of
oppression, fullness, and uneasiness; and, if the measure of it be in
excess, some nausea and tendency to sickness. Such persons say meat is
too heavy for the stomach. Fish is still more apt to nauseate. The use
of fermented liquors takes off these uneasy feelings, and is thought to
assist digestion. In short, in the use of animal food, man having
deviated from the simple aliment offered him by the hand of nature, and
which is the best suited t