made dishes, to all persons_, are so directly injurious as many suppose.
God has made man, in a certain sense, omnivorous. His physical stomach
can receive and assimilate, like his mental stomach, a great variety of
substances; and both can go on, without apparent disease, for a great
many years, and perhaps for a tolerably long life in this way.

There is, however, a higher question for man to ask as a rational being
and as a Christian, than whether this or that dish will hurt him
directly. It is, whether a dish or article is _best_ for him--best for
body, mind, and heart--best for the whole human nature--best for the
whole interests of the whole race--best for time, and best for eternity.
Startle not, reader, at this assertion. If West could properly say, "I
paint for eternity," the true disciple of Christ and truth can say, "I
eat and drink for eternity." And a higher authority than any that is
merely human has even required us to do so.

This places the subject of preparing food on high ground. And were I to
carry out my plan fully, I should exclude from a Christian system of
food and cookery all mixtures, properly so called, and all medicines or
condiments. Not that all mixtures are equally hurtful to the well-being
of the race, nor all medicines. Indeed, considering our training and
habits, some of both, to most persons, have become necessary. I know of
many whose physical inheritance is such, that salt, if not a few other
medicinal substances, have become at least present necessaries to them.
And to those mixtures of substances closely allied, as farina with
farina--meal of one kind with meal of another--I could scarcely have any
objection, myself. Nature objects to incompatibles, and therefore I do;
and medicine, and all those kinds of food which are opposed one to
another, are incompatible with each other. When one is in the stomach,
the other should not be.

I have spoken of carrying out my plan, but this I cannot now fully do.
It would not be borne, till, as Lord Bacon used to say, "some time be
passed over." But, on the other hand, I am unwilling to give directions,
as I did ten or twelve years ago, in my Young Housekeeper, such as shall
pander to a perverted--most abominably perverted--public taste. Man is
made for progress, and it is high time the public standard were raised
in regard to food and cookery.

Although grains and fruits are the natural food of man, yet there are a
variety of shapes in whi