nd coffee--poisonous
things, as he calls them--forty-seven years. His only drinks are water
and sage tea. These, with bread, milk, and fruits, and perhaps a little
salt, are the only things that enter his stomach. How long he has
abstained from flesh and fish I have not learned, but I believe some
thirty or forty years.

Such is the appearance of this venerable man, that no one is surprised
to find in him those gigantic powers of mind, and that readiness to give
wise counsel on every important occasion, for which he has so long been
distinguished. It has sometimes seemed to me that no one would doubt the
efficacy of a well-selected vegetable diet to give strength, mental or
bodily, who had known Father Sewall.

MAGLIABECCHI,

An Italian, who died in the beginning of the eighteenth century, abjured
cookery at the age of forty years, and confined himself chiefly to
fruits, grains, and water. He never allowed himself a bed, but slept on
a kind of settee, wrapped in a long morning gown, which served him for
blanket and clothing the year round.

I would not be understood as encouraging the anti-cookery system of Dr.
Schlemmer and Magliabecchi; but it is interesting to know _what can be
done_. Magliabecchi lived to the age of from eighty to one hundred
years.

OBERLIN AND SWARTZ.

These two distinguished men were essentially vegetable eaters. Of the
habits of Oberlin, the venerable pastor and father of Waldbach, I am not
able to speak, however, with so much certainty as of those of Swartz.
His income, during the early part of his residence in India, was only
forty-eight pounds a year, which, being estimated by its ability to
procure supplies for his necessities, was only equal to about one
hundred dollars. He not only accepted of very narrow quarters, but ate,
drank, and dressed, in the plainest manner. "A dish of rice and
vegetables," says his biographer, "satisfied his appetite for food."

THE IRISH.

Much has been said of the dietetic habits of the Irish, of late years,
especially of their potato. Now, we have abundant facts which go to
prove that good potatoes form a wholesome aliment, equal, if not
superior, to many forms of European and American diet. Yet it cannot be
that a diet consisting wholly of potatoes is as well for the race as one
partaking of greater variety.

Mr. Gamble, a traveler in Ireland, in his work on Irish "Society and
Manners," gives the following statement of an old friend of his,