estined to devour animal food, is
evident from the construction of the human frame, which bears no
resemblance to wild beasts or birds of prey. Man is not provided with
claws or talons, with sharpness of fang or tusk, so well adapted to tear
and lacerate; nor is his stomach so well braced and muscular, nor his
animal spirits so warm, as to enable him to digest this solid mass of
animal flesh. On the contrary, nature has made his teeth smooth, his
mouth narrow, and his tongue soft; and has contrived, by the slowness of
his digestion, to divert him from devouring a species of food so ill
adapted to his frame and constitution. But, if you still maintain that
such is your natural mode of subsistence, then follow nature in your
mode of killing your prey, and employ neither knife, hammer, nor
hatchet--but, like wolves, bears, and lions, seize an ox with your
teeth, grasp a boar round the body, or tear asunder a lamb or a hare,
and, like the savage tribe, devour them still panting in the agonies of
death.

"We carry our luxury still farther, by the variety of sauces and
seasonings which we add to our beastly banquets--mixing together oil,
wine, honey, pickles, vinegar, and Syrian and Arabian ointments and
perfumes, as if we intended to bury and embalm the carcasses on which we
feed. The difficulty of digesting such a mass of matter, reduced in our
stomachs to a state of liquefaction and putrefaction, is the source of
endless disorders in the human frame.

"First of all, the wild, mischievous animals were selected for food; and
then the birds and fishes were dragged to slaughter; next, the human
appetite directed itself against the laborious ox, the useful and
fleece-bearing sheep, and the cock, the guardian of the house. At last,
by this preparatory discipline, man became matured for human massacres,
slaughters, and wars."

PLUTARCH.

"It is best to accustom ourselves to eat no flesh at all, for the earth
affords plenty enough of things not only fit for nourishment, but for
enjoyment and delight; some of which may be eaten without much
preparation, and others may be made pleasant by adding divers other
things to them.

"You ask me," continues Plutarch, "'for what reason Pythagoras abstained
from eating the flesh of brutes?' For my part, I am astonished to think,
on the contrary, what appetite first induced man to taste of a dead
carcass; or what motive could suggest the notion of nourishing himself
with the flesh of a