Page:Fruits and Farinacea the Proper Food of Man.djvu/50

44 being. He must eat "of the tree of knowledge of good and evil;" he must learn wisdom and "obedience from the things which he suffers," and acquire his knowledge by painful experience, careful observation, comparison and analogy. The first fruit of knowledge (I will not say of wisdom) is to concentrate all care upon self; but a more enlarged experience teaches man that it is his true interest to share his possessions, first with "wife, children, and friends," and then to extend his benevolence to the whole human race. His motives to action are, in this state, of a utilitarian character, and cui bono? is the preface to all his exertions. As he advances in true wisdom, he discovers what is truth, and learns to practise it, not from self-interest, but from a regard to duty.

34. Thus have we seen that man may, originally, have been innocent, done justly, loved mercy, and walked obediently, because he had no motive to act otherwise; he gradually learns the same from a perception of self-interest, and finally from the highest motive that can actuate him, a conscientious regard to truth and duty; and under these three heads might have been arranged all the arguments which appear in this work in favor of a vegetable diet. By a primeval or natural state, however, we must not understand a state of barbarism, such as we witness in various degraded races of mankind at the present day; but a state wherein climate, productions, &c., are perfectly adapted to the organization of man, and antecedent to the conventionalities and corruptions of society.

35. intimate relations that exist between the organs of sense and food will be considered more at large when treating of the natural food of man; and I shall here merely refer to those more obvious relations which would influence man in his primeval state.

36. In all matters connected with organic life, comprehending the preservation of existence and the propagation of the species, man is directed by similar instinctive feelings, and governed by the same general laws, as inferior animals. Sensations yielding pleasure, without any intervention