Page:Substance of the Work Entitled Fruits and Farinacea The Proper Food of Man.djvu/16

 animal food and other luxuries, except on the occasion of some great festival, or on the arrival of a stranger. For a common guest bread and flour paste suffice; a greater man has coffee and rice milk; but, for a man of some rank, a kid or lamb is killed."

Mr. Newton, the author of the "Return to Nature," interprets the Greek fable of Prometheus (who first slaughtered the ox) to mean that the use of animal food drew after it an endless train of diseases.

Haller (the founder of modern physiology) expresses substantially the same views concerning the history of human food.

we believe that man was created in the divine image, we must believe that the thoughts of killing or of cruelty could find no place in him. At peace with the whole animal creation, his presence would excite neither the fears of the timid nor the resentment or ferocity of the strong. Let us picture to ourselves the primeval pair watching the sportive gambols of the lamb; and let us imagine, if we can, the first mother of our race thus addressing the partner of her joys: "Adam, I am becoming weary of these insipid fruits, that are so common; klll for me that little lamb; let me satiate my appetite with its flesh. Let not its painful struggles, nor its plaintive cries, disappoint the gratification of my desires." Or let us suppose her, if we can, thus addressing the dove that nestles in her bosom: "My peaceful bird, I admire your plumage and your faithful attachment, but appetite prompts me to deprive you of the life that seems to you so sweet, in order that I may feast on your little limbs." No; for, as Matthew Henry observes, "though we read of her coveting forbidden fruit for the wisdom and knowledge which she promised herself from it, yet we never read that she coveted forbidden flesh." Even in our degenerate state the man of cultivated moral feelings shrinks from the task of the butcher; how much more must man have shrunk from it while the state of innocence continued! But when blood had stained his hands, and gullt had hardened his heart, he ruled with a rod of iron instead of a sceptre of peace; so that the language of Deity concerning him became—"The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast and every fowl."

Some there are who doubt or deny that man was originally perfect, and believe that his condition has been progressive in mental and moral qualifications. With such the arguments hitherto advanced will have little weight, and for these I shall adduce other evidence.