Page:Fruits and Farinacea the Proper Food of Man.djvu/49

Rh conclusions. All natural evidence respecting human diet, and all influences and motives directing man in the choice of his food, would be elicited by contemplating him in the threefold character of an instinctive, a self-interested, and a rational being. We shall find, upon careful examination, that each of these three motive-powers urge man in the same direction, not only as regards food, but as to all other means of producing health and happiness. We are to suppose, then, that man did not originally possess what we call knowledge—the fruit of long experience, and of a careful and long-continued observation of the laws of nature, or the result of ratiocination,—but that his perceptions, feelings, and actions, (being uncontrolled by acquired knowledge, artificially-formed habits or gross selfishness,) were intuitive, and, therefore, perfect as far as they extended; such as those we observe in the bee and many other animals, whose achievements frequently surpass those of man enlightened by reason. We must also admit, what few scientific and candid inquirers will be disposed to deny, that man is indigenous to the warmer regions of the earth, where fruits, his natural diet, as we shall shortly find, are most abundant and in greatest perfection. From a careful comparison, therefore, of man's instincts, his organization, his native climate and other related circumstances, we shall be justified in concluding that, though neither learned nor scientific, it is highly improbable he would be savage, ferocious, or immoral: these debasing qualities are the offspring of scarcity and selfishness,—the fruitful sources of almost every vice. Before mankind began to multiply on the earth in a favorable climate, their wants would be few; and, fruits of delicious flavor being plenteously supplied, there is every probability that they would be simple and innocent in their habits and manners; mild, frank, and generous in their conduct towards each other;—and that they would practise, from native impulse, all the more general virtues which we learn as matters of duty or expedience. At this period they would be uncontaminated by the envy, strife, malice, treachery, and cruelty which too frequently characterize a life of constant competition in civilized society; where "each seeks his own," regardless of the wants, and frequently of the rights of his neighbor. In each state of society there is plenty for all; but, in the latter, an individualizing and ambitious spirit leaves enough to none. As an instinctive being, then, man would be directed by the senses of sight, smell, and taste, to fruit as his natural diet; (Chap. III.;) and his social and sensitive feelings would deter him from killing animals and feeding on their flesh, so long as he was able to meet with more congenial food. But, however instinctive and mechanical man may have been originally, it is evident that he was not to remain in this state, but to become a rational and