,a ,,vindication ,,of ,,natural ,,diet4 ,,by ,,percy ,,bysshe ,,shelley4 ,a ,,new ,,edition4 ,our simple life wants little1 and true taste ,hires not the pale drudge ,luxury to waste ,the scene it would adorn1 and therefore still ,nature1 with all her children1 haunts the hill4 ,epipsychidion4 ,,london3 ,f4 ,,pitman1 #bj1 ,,paternoster ,,row4 ,,manchester3 ,,john ,,heywood1 ,,ridgefield2 ,,and ,,offices ,,of ,,the ,,vegetarian ,,society1 #ge1 ,,princess ,,street4 #ahhd4 ,,prefatory ,,notice4 ,shelley's ,vindication of ,natural ,diet was first written as part of the notes to ,queen ,mab1 which was privately issued in #ahac4 ,later in the same year the ,vindication was separately published as a pamphlet1 and it is from this later publication that the present reprint is made4 ,the original pamphlet is now exceedingly scarce1 but it is said to have been reprinted in #ahce1 as an appendix to an ,american medical work1 the ,manual on ,health1 by ,dr4 ,turnbull1 of ,new ,york4 ,two copies only are known to have been preserved of this excessively rare pamphlet1 though possibly others may be hidden in unfrequented libraries and out of the way country houses4 ,one copy is in the ,british ,museum1 and the other is in the possession of ,mr4 ,h4 ,buxton ,forman1 who has reprinted it in his great edition of ,shelley1 where it forms the opening part of the second volume of the ,prose ,works4 ,the main object of ,shelley's pamphlet was to show that a vegetable diet is the most natural1 and therefore the best for mankind4 ,it is not an appeal to humanitarian sentiment1 but an argument based on individual experience1 concerning the intimate connection of health and morality with food4 ,it has no claim to originality in the arguments adduced2 its materials being avowedly drawn from the works of ,dr4 ,lambe and ,mr4 ,newton1 of whom an account may be read in ,mr4 ,howard ,williams' ,catena1 but the style is ,shelley's own1 and the pamphlet is in many ways one of the most interesting and characteristic of his prose works4 ,perhaps its most remarkable feature is to be found in the very pertinent remarks as to the bearing of ,vegetarianism on those questions of economy and social reform1 which are now forcing themselves more and more on the attention of the ,english people4#a ,at the time of writing his ,vindication of ,natural ,diet1 ,shelley had himself1 for some months past1 adopted a ,vegetarian diet1 chiefly1 no doubt1 through his intimacy with the ,newton family4 ,there seems no reason to doubt that he continued to practise ,vegetarianism during the rest of his stay in ,england1 that is from #ahac to the spring of #ahah4 ,leigh ,hunt's account of his life at ,marlow1 in #ahag1 is as follows3--,this was the round of his daily life4 ,he was up early1 breakfasted sparingly1 wrote this ',revolt of ,islam' all the morning2 went out in his boat1 or in the woods1 with some ,greek author or the ,bible in his hands2 came home to a dinner of vegetables 7for he took neither meat nor wine72 visited1 if necessary1 the sick and fatherless1 whom others gave ,bibles to and no help2 wrote or studied again1 or read to his wife and friends the whole evening2 took a crust of bread or a glass of whey for his supper1 and went early to bed4 ,in #ahah1 he left ,england for ,italy1 and during his last four years1 the most dreamy and speculative period of his life1 he seems to have been less strict in his observance of ,vegetarian practice4 ,it is not true however1 as has sometimes been asserted1 that ,shelley lost faith in the principles of ,vegetarianism2 for his change in diet was owing partly to his well-known carelessness about his food1 which became more marked at this time1 and partly to a desire to avoid giving trouble to the other members of his household1 which1 as we see from a line in his letter to ,maria ,gisborne1 written in #ahbj1 ,though we eat little flesh and drink no wine was not entirely a ,vegetarian one4 ,yet1 even at this period of his life1 he himself was practically1 if not systematically1 a ,vegetarian1 for all his biographers agree in informing us that bread was literally his staff of life4 ,we cannot doubt that if he had lived in the present time he would have taken a leading part in the movement towards ,food ,reform4 ,as it is1 he has left us an invaluable legacy in his ,vindication of ,natural ,diet1 perhaps the most powerful and eloquent plea ever put forward in favour of the ,vegetarian cause4 ,he found in this the presage of his ideal future4 ,to his enthusiastic faith in the transforming effect of the ,vegetarian principle1 we owe some of the finest passages in his poetry4 ,in the close of the eighth canto of ,queen ,mab1 we have a picture of a time when man no more ,slays the lamb that looks him in the face4 ,it is the same ideal of bloodless innocence as that of ,israel's prophet-poet1 who declares that in the ,holy ,mountain they shall not hurt nor destroy4 ,never did sage or singer1 prophet or priest1 or poet1 see a brighter vision of the future than that which is imaged in the description of a glorified earth1 from which cruelty1 bloodshed1 and tyranny1 have been banished4 ,my brethren1 we are free6 ,the fruits are glowing ,beneath the stars1 and the night-winds are flowing ,o'er the ripe corn4 ,the birds and beasts are dreaming4 ,never again may blood of bird or beast ,stain with its venomous stream a human feast1 ,to the pure skies in accusation steaming2 ,avenging poisons shall have ceased ,to feed disease and fear and madness2 ,the dwellers of the earth and air ,shall throng around our steps in gladness1 ,seeking their food or refuge there4 ,our toil from thought all glorious forms shall cull1 ,to make this earth1 our home1 more beautiful2 ,and ,science1 and her sister ,poesy1 ,shall clothe in light the fields and cities of the free6 99 99 99 99 99 ,over the plain the throngs were scattered then ,in groups around the fires1 which from the sea ,even to the gorge of the first mountain-glen ,blazed wide and far4 ,the banquet of the free ,was spread beneath many a dark cypress-tree2 ,beneath whose spires which swayed in the red flame ,reclining as they ate1 of liberty1 ,and hope1 and justice1 and ,laone's name1 ,earth's children did a woof of happy converse frame4 ,their feast was such as ,earth1 the general mother1 ,pours from her fairest bosom1 when she smiles ,in the embrace of ,autumn4 ,to each other ,as when some parent fondly reconciles ,her warring children1 she their wrath beguiles ,with her own sustenance2 they relenting weep3-- ,such was this festival1 which1 from their isles ,and continents and winds and oceans deep1 ,all shapes might throng to share that fly or walk or creep4 ,that this was no mere poetic sentiment is proved by this pamphlet1 which is an earnest vindication of ,vegetarianism4 ,h4 ,s4 ,s4 ,w4 ,e4 ,a4 ,a4 ,,original ,,title ,,page4 ,a ,,vindication ,,of ,,natural ,,diet4 ,,being ,,one ,,in ,a ,,series ,,of ,,notes ,,to ,,queen ,,mab 7,a ,,philosophical ,,poem74 ,greek3 ,iapetionide1 panton peri medea eidos1 ,chaireis pur klepsas1 kai emas phrenas eperopeusas2 ,soit' auto mega pema kai andrasin essomenoisi4 ,toisd'ego anti puros doso kakon1 o ken apantes ,terpontai kata thumon1 eon kakon amphagapontes4 ,greek3 ,,esiod4 ,op4 et ,dies4 #a1 #ed4 ,,london3 ,,printed ,,for ,j4 ,,callow1 ,,medical ,,bookseller1 ,,crown ,,court1 ,,prince',s ,,street1 ,,soho1 ,,by ,,smith ,,davy1 ,,queen ,,street1 ,,seven ,,dials4 #ahac4 ,,price ,,one ,,shilling ,,and ,,sixpence4 ,a ,,vindication ,,of ,,natural ,,diet4 ,i hold that the depravity of the physical and moral nature of man originated in his unnatural habits of life4 ,the origin of man1 like that of the universe of which he is a part1 is enveloped in impenetrable mystery4 ,his generations either had a beginning1 or they had not4 ,the weight of evidence in favour of each of these suppositions seems tolerably equal2 and it is perfectly unimportant to the present argument which is assumed4 ,the language spoken1 however1 by the mythology of nearly all religions seems to prove1 that at some distant period man forsook the path of nature1 and sacrificed the purity and happiness of his being to unnatural appetites4 ,the date of this event seems to have also been that of some great change in the climates of the earth1 with which it has an obvious correspondence4 ,the allegory of ,adam and ,eve eating of the tree of evil1 and entailing upon their posterity the wrath of ,god1 and the loss of everlasting life1 admits of no other explanation than the disease and crime that have flowed from unnatural diet4 ,milton was so well aware of this1 that he makes ,raphael thus exhibit to ,adam the consequence of his disobedience3-- 444 ,immediately a place ,before his eyes appeared3 sad1 noisome1 dark3 ,a lazar-house it seemed2 wherein were laid ,numbers of all diseased3 all maladies ,of ghastly spasm1 or racking torture1 qualms ,of heart-sick agony1 all feverous kinds1 ,convulsions1 epilepsies1 fierce catarrhs2 ,intestine stone and ulcer1 cholic pangs1 ,daemoniac frenzy1 moping melancholy1 ,and moon-struck madness1 pining atrophy1 ,marasmus1 and wide-wasting pestilence1 ,dropsies1 and asthmas1 and joint-racking rheums4 ,and how many thousands more might not be added to this frightful catalogue6 ,the story of ,prometheus is one likewise which1 although universally admitted to be allegorical1 has never been satisfactorily explained4 ,prometheus stole fire from heaven1 and was chained for this crime to ,mount ,caucasus1 where a vulture continually devoured his liver1 that grew to meet its hunger4 ,hesiod says1 that1 before the time of ,prometheus1 mankind were exempt from suffering2 that they enjoyed a vigorous youth1 and that death1 when at length it came1 approached like sleep1 and gently closed their eyes4 ,again1 so general was this opinion1 that ,horace1 a poet of the ,augustan age1 writes3-- ,audax omnia perpeti1 ,gens humana ruit per vetitum nefas1 ,audax ,iapeti genus ,ignem fraude mala gentibus intulit1 ,post ignem aetherea domo ,subductum1 macies et nova febrium ,terris incubuit cohors ,semotique prius tarda necessitas ,lethi corripuit gradum4 ,how plain a language is spoken by all this4 ,prometheus 7who represents the human race7 effected some great change in the condition of his nature1 and applied fire to culinary purposes2 thus inventing an expedient for screening from his disgust the horrors of the shambles4 ,from this moment his vitals were devoured by the vulture of disease4 ,it consumed his being in every shape of its loathsome and infinite variety1 inducing the soul-quelling sinkings of premature and violent death4 ,all vice arose from the ruin of healthful innocence4 ,tyranny1 superstition1 commerce1 and inequality1 were then first known1 when reason vainly attempted to guide the wanderings of exacerbated passion4 ,i conclude this part of the subject with an extract from ,mr4 ,newton's ,defence of ,vegetable ,regimen1 from whom ,i have borrowed this interpretation of the fable of ,prometheus4 ,making allowance for such transposition of the events of the allegory as time might produce after the important truths were forgotten1 which this portion of the ancient mythology was intended to transmit1 the drift of the fable seems to be this3 ,man at his creation was endowed with the gift of perpetual youth2 that is1 he was not formed to be a sickly suffering creature as we now see him1 but to enjoy health1 and to sink by slow degrees into the bosom of his parent earth without disease or pain4 ,prometheus first taught the use of animal food 7primus bovem occidit ,prometheus7#b and of fire1 with which to render it more digestible and pleasing to the taste4 ,jupiter1 and the rest of the gods1 foreseeing the consequences of these inventions1 were amused or irritated at the short-sighted devices of the newly-formed creature1 and left him to experience the sad effects of them4 ,thirst1 the necessary concomitant of a flesh diet1 7perhaps of all diet vitiated by culinary preparation7 ensued2 water was resorted to1 and man forfeited the inestimable gift of health which he had received from heaven2 he became diseased1 the partaker of a precarious existence and no longer descended slowly to his grave4#c ,but just disease to luxury succeeds1 ,and every death its own avenger breeds2 ,the fury passions from that blood began1 ,and turned on man a fiercer savage--,man4 ,man and the animals whom he has infected with his society1 or depraved by his dominion1 are alone diseased4 ,the wild hog1 the mouflon1 the bison1 and the wolf are perfectly exempt from malady1 and invariably die either from external violence or natural old age4 ,but the domestic hog1 the sheep1 the cow1 and the dog are subject to an incredible variety of distempers2 and1 like the corrupters of their nature1 have physicians who thrive upon their miseries4 ,the supereminence of man is like ,satan's1 a supereminence of pain2 and the majority of his species1 doomed to penury1 disease1 and crime1 have reason to curse the untoward event that1 by enabling him to communicate his sensations1 raised him above the level of his fellow animals4 ,but the steps that have been taken are irrevocable4 ,the whole of human science is comprised in one question--,how can the advantages of intellect and civilisation be reconciled with the liberty and pure pleasures of natural life8 ,how can we take the benefits and reject the evils of the system which is now interwoven with all the fibres of our being8 ,i believe that abstinence from animal food and spirituous liquors would in a great measure capacitate us for the solution of this important question4 ,comparative anatomy teaches us that man resembles frugivorous animals in everything1 and carnivorous in nothing3 he has neither claws wherewith to seize his prey1 nor distinct and pointed teeth to tear the living fibre4 ,a mandarin of the first class1 with nails two inches long1 would probably find them alone inefficient to hold even a hare4 ,after every subterfuge of gluttony1 the bull must be degraded into the ox1 and the ram into the wether1 by an unnatural and inhuman operation1 that the flaccid fibre may offer a fainter resistance to rebellious nature4 ,it is only by softening and disguising dead flesh by culinary preparation that it is rendered susceptible of mastication or digestion1 and that the sight of its bloody juices and raw horror does not excite intolerable loathing and disgust4 ,let the advocate of animal food force himself to a decisive experiment on its fitness1 and1 as ,plutarch recommends1 tear a living lamb with his teeth1 and plunging his head into its vitals1 slake his thirst with the steaming blood2 when fresh from the deed of horror1 let him revert to the irresistible instincts of nature that would rise in judgment against it1 and say1 ,nature formed me for such work as this4 ,then1 and then only1 would he be consistent4 ,man resembles no carnivorous animal4 ,there is no exception1 except man be one1 to the rule of herbivorous animals having cellulated colons4 ,the orang-outang perfectly resembles man both in the order and number of his teeth4 ,the orang-outang is the most anthropomorphous of the ape tribe1 all of which are strictly frugivorous4 ,there is no other species of animals in which this analogy exists4#d ,in many frugivorous animals1 the canine teeth are more pointed and distinct than those of man4 ,the resemblance also of the human stomach to that of the orang-outang is greater than to that of any other animal4 ,the intestines are also identical with those of herbivorous animals1 which present a large surface for absorption1 and have ample and cellulated colons4 ,the caecum also1 though short1 is larger than that of carnivorous animals2 and even here the orang-outang retains its accustomed similarity4 ,the structure of the human frame then is that of one fitted to a pure vegetable diet1 in every essential particular4 ,it is true that the reluctance to abstain from animal food1 in those who have been long accustomed to its stimulus1 is so great in some persons of weak minds1 as to be scarcely overcome2 but this is far from bringing any argument in its favour4 ,a lamb which was fed for some time on flesh by a ship's crew1 refused its natural diet at the end of the voyage4 ,there are numerous instances of horses1 sheep1 oxen1 and even wood-pigeons1 having been taught to live upon flesh1 until they have loathed their natural aliment4 ,young children evidently prefer pastry1 oranges1 apples1 and other fruit1 to the flesh of animals1 until1 by the gradual depravation of the digestive organs1 the free use of vegetables has1 for a time1 produced serious inconveniences2 for a time1 ,i say1 since there never was an instance wherein a change from spirituous liquors and animal food to vegetables and pure water1 has failed ultimately to invigorate the body1 by rendering its juices bland and consentaneous1 and to restore to the mind that cheerfulness and elasticity1 which not one in fifty possesses on the present system4 ,a love of strong liquors is also with difficulty taught to infants4 ,almost every one remembers the wry faces the first glass of port produced4 ,unsophisticated instinct is invariably unerring2 but to decide on the fitness of animal food1 from the perverted appetites which its constrained adoption produce1 is to make the criminal a judge in his own cause2 it is even worse1 it is appealing to the infatuated drunkard in a question of the salubrity of brandy4 ,what is the cause of morbid action in the animal system8 ,not the air we breathe1 for our fellow denizens of nature breathe the same uninjured2 not the water we drink1 if remote from the pollutions of man and his inventions1 for the animals drink it too2 not the earth we tread upon2 not the unobscured sight of glorious nature1 in the wood1 the field1 or the expanse of sky and ocean2 nothing that we are or do in common with the undiseased inhabitants of the forest4 ,something then wherein we differ from them2 our habit of altering our food by fire1 so that our appetite is no longer a just criterion for the fitness of its gratification4 ,except in children there remains no traces of that instinct which determines1 in all other animals1 what aliment is natural or otherwise2 and so perfectly obliterated are they in the reasoning adults of our species1 that it has become necessary to urge considerations1 drawn from comparative anatomy1 to prove that we are naturally frugivorous4 ,crime is madness4 ,madness is disease4 ,whenever the cause of disease shall be discovered1 the root1 from which all vice and misery have so long overshadowed the globe1 will lie bare to the axe4 ,all the exertions of man1 from that moment1 may be considered as tending to the clear profit of his species4 ,no sane mind in a sane body resolves upon a real crime4 ,it is a man of violent passions1 bloodshot eyes1 and swollen veins1 that alone can grasp the knife of murder4 ,the system of a simple diet promises no ,utopian advantages4 ,it is no mere reform of legislation1 whilst the furious passions and evil propensities of the human heart1 in which it had its origin1 are still unassuaged4 ,it strikes at the root of all evil1 and is an experiment which may be tried with success1 not alone by nations1 but by small societies1 families1 and even individuals4 ,in no cases has a return to vegetable diet produced the slightest injury3 in most it has been attended with changes undeniably beneficial4 ,should ever a physician be born with the genius of ,locke1 ,i am persuaded that he might trace all bodily and mental derangements to our unnatural habits1 as clearly as that philosopher has traced all knowledge to sensation4 ,what prolific sources of disease are not those mineral and vegetable poisons that have been introduced for its extirpation8 ,how many thousands have become murderers and robbers1 bigots and domestic tyrants1 dissolute and abandoned adventurers1 from the use of fermented liquors2 who had they slaked their thirst only at the mountain stream1 would have lived but to diffuse the happiness of their own unperverted feelings4 ,how many groundless opinions and absurd institutions have not received a general sanction from the sottishness and intemperance of individuals8 ,who will assert that1 had the populace of ,paris drank at the pure source of the ,seine1 and satisfied their hunger at the ever-furnished table of vegetable nature that they would have lent their brutal suffrage to the proscription-list of ,robespierre8 ,could a set of men1 whose passions were not perverted by unnatural stimuli1 look with coolness on an auto da fe8 ,is it to be believed that a being of gentle feelings1 rising from his meal of roots1 would take delight in sports of blood8 ,was ,nero a man of temperate life8 ,could you read calm health in his cheek1 flushed with ungovernable propensities of hatred for the human race8 ,did ,muley ,ismael's pulse beat evenly1 was his skin transparent1 did his eyes beam with healthfulness1 and its invariable concomitants1 cheerfulness and benignity8 ,though history has decided none of these questions1 a child could not hesitate to answer in the negative4 ,surely the bile-suffused cheek of ,buonaparte1 his wrinkled brow1 and yellow eye1 the ceaseless inquietude of his nervous system1 speak no less plainly the character of his unresting ambition than his murders and his victories4 ,it is impossible had ,bonaparte descended from a race of vegetable feeders1 that he could have either the inclination or the power to ascend the throne of the ,bourbons4 ,the desire of tyranny could scarcely be excited in the individual2 the power to tyrannise would certainly not be delegated by a society neither frenzied by inebriation1 nor rendered impotent or irrational by disease4 ,pregnant1 indeed1 with inexhaustible calamity is the renunciation of instinct1 as it concerns our physical nature2 arithmetic cannot enumerate1 nor reason perhaps suspect1 the multitudinous sources of disease in civilised life4 ,even common water1 that apparently innoxious pabulum1 when corrupted by the filth of populous cities1 is a deadly and insidious destroyer4#e ,who can wonder that all the inducements held out by ,god himself in the ,bible to virtue should have been vainer than a nurse's tale2 and that those dogmas1 apparently favourable to the intolerant and angry passions1 should have alone been deemed essential2 whilst ,christians are in the daily practice of all those habits which have infected with disease and crime1 not only the reprobate sons1 but these favoured children of the common ,father's love4 ,omnipotence itself could not save them from the consequences of this original and universal sin4 ,there is no disease1 bodily or mental1 which adoption of vegetable diet and pure water has not infallibly mitigated1 wherever the experiment has been fairly tried4 ,debility is gradually converted into strength1 disease into healthfulness3 madness1 in all its hideous variety1 from the ravings of the fettered maniac1 to the unaccountable irrationalities of ill-temper1 that make a hell of domestic life1 into a calm and considerable evenness of temper1 that alone might offer a certain pledge of the future moral reformation of society4 ,on a natural system of diet1 old age would be our last and our only malady3 the term of our existence would be protracted2 we should enjoy life1 and no longer preclude others from the enjoyment of it2 all sensational delights would be infinitely more exquisite and perfect2 the very sense of being would then be a continued pleasure1 such as we now feel it in some few and favoured moments of our youth4 ,by all that is sacred in our hopes for the human race1 ,i conjure those who love happiness and truth1 to give a fair trial to the vegetable system4 ,reasoning is surely superfluous on a subject whose merits an experience of six months would set for ever at rest4 ,but it is only among the enlightened and benevolent that so great a sacrifice of appetite and prejudice can be expected1 even though its ultimate excellence should not admit of dispute4 ,it is found easier1 by the short-sighted victims of disease1 to palliate their torments by medicine1 than to prevent them by regimen4 ,the vulgar of all ranks are invariably sensual and indocile2 yet ,i cannot but feel myself persuaded1 that when the benefits of vegetable diet are mathematically proved2 when it is as clear1 that those who live naturally are exempt from premature death1 as that nine is not one1 the most sottish of mankind will feel a preference towards a long and tranquil1 contrasted with a short and painful life4 ,on the average1 out of sixty persons1 four die in three years4 ,in ,april1 #ahad1 a statement will be given that sixty persons1 all having lived more than three years on vegetables and pure water1 are then in perfect health4 ,more than two years have now elapsed2 not one of them has died2 no such example will be found in any sixty persons taken at random4 ,seventeen persons of all ages 7the families of ,dr4 ,lambe and ,mr4 ,newton7 have lived for seven years on this diet without a death1 and almost without the slightest illness4 ,surely1 when we consider that some of these were infants1 and one a martyr to asthma1 now nearly subdued1 we may challenge any seventeen persons taken at random in this city to exhibit a parallel case4 ,those who may have been excited to question the rectitude of established habits of diet1 by these loose remarks1 should consult ,mr4 ,newton's luminous and eloquent essay4#f ,it is from that book1 and from the conversation of its excellent and enlightened author1 that ,i have derived the materials which ,i here present to the public4 ,when these proofs come fairly before the world1 and are clearly seen by all who understand arithmetic1 it is scarcely possible that abstinence from aliments demonstrably pernicious should not become universal4 ,in proportion to the number of proselytes1 so will be the weight of evidence2 and when a thousand persons can be produced1 living on vegetables and distilled water1 who have to dread no disease but old age1 the world will be compelled to regard animal flesh and fermented liquors as slow but certain poison4 ,the change which would be produced by simpler habits on political economy is sufficiently remarkable4 ,the monopolising eater of animal flesh would no longer destroy his constitution by devouring an acre at a meal1 and many loaves of bread would cease to contribute to gout1 madness1 and apoplexy1 in the shape of a pint of porter or a dram of gin1 when appeasing the long-protracted famine of the hard-working peasant's hungry babes4 ,the quantity of nutritious vegetable matter consumed in fattening the carcase of an ox1 would afford ten times the sustenance1 undepraving indeed1 and incapable of generating disease1 if gathered immediately from the bosom of the earth4 ,the most fertile districts of the habitable globe are now actually cultivated by men for animals1 at a delay and waste of aliment absolutely incapable of calculation4 ,it is only the wealthy that can1 to any great degree1 even now1 indulge the unnatural craving for dead flesh1 and they pay for the greater licence of the privilege1 by subjection to supernumerary diseases4 ,again1 the spirit of the nation that should take the lead in this great reform would insensibly become agricultural3 commerce1 with all its vice1 selfishness1 and corruption1 would gradually decline2 more natural habits would produce gentler manners1 and the excessive complication of political relations would be so far simplified that every individual might feel and understand why he loved his country1 and took a personal interest in its welfare4 ,how would ,england1 for example1 depend on the caprices of foreign rulers1 if she contained within herself all the necessaries1 and despised whatever they possessed of the luxuries of life8 ,how could they starve her into compliance with their views8 ,of what consequence would it be that they refused to take her woollen manufactures1 when large and fertile tracts of the island ceased to be allotted to the waste of pasturage8 ,on a natural system of diet1 we should require no spices from ,india2 no wines from ,portugal1 ,spain1 ,france1 or ,madeira2 none of those multitudinous articles of luxury1 for which every corner of the globe is rifled1 and which are the causes of so much individual rivalship1 such calamitous and sanguinary national disputes4 ,in the history of modern times1 the avarice of commercial monopoly1 no less than the ambition of weak and wicked chiefs1 seems to have fomented the universal discord1 to have added stubbornness to the mistakes of cabinets1 and indocility to the infatuation of the people4 ,let it ever be remembered1 that it is the direct influence of commerce to make the interval between the richest and the poorest man wider and more unconquerable4 ,let it be remembered that it is a foe to every thing of real worth and excellence in the human character4 ,the odious and disgusting aristocracy of wealth1 is built upon the ruins of all that is good in chivalry or republicanism2 and luxury is the forerunner of a barbarism scarce capable of cure4 ,is it impossible to realize a state of society1 where all the energies of man shall be directed to the production of his solid happiness8 ,certainly1 if this advantage 7the object of all political speculation7 be in any degree attainable1 it is attainable only by a community which holds out no factitious incentives to the avarice and ambition of the few1 and which is internally organized for the liberty1 security1 and comfort of the many4 ,none must be entrusted with power 7and money is the completest species of power7 who do not stand pledged to use it exclusively for the general benefit4 ,but the use of animal flesh and fermented liquors1 directly militates with this equality of the rights of man4 ,the peasant cannot gratify these fashionable cravings without leaving his family to starve4 ,without disease and war1 those sweeping curtailers of population1 pasturage would include a waste too great to be afforded4 ,the labour requisite to support a family is far lighter#g than is usually supposed4 ,the peasantry work1 not only for themselves1 but for the aristocracy1 the army1 and the manufacturers4 ,the advantage of a reform in diet is obviously greater than that of any other4 ,it strikes at the root of the evil4 ,to remedy the abuses of legislation1 before we annihilate the propensities by which they are produced1 is to suppose1 that by taking away the effect1 the cause will cease to operate4 ,but the efficacy of this system depends entirely on the proselytism of individuals1 and grounds its merits1 as a benefit to the community1 upon the total change of the dietetic habits in its members4 ,it proceeds securely from a number of particular cases to one that is universal1 and has this advantage over the contrary mode1 that one error does not invalidate all that has gone before4 ,let not too much1 however1 be expected from this system4 ,the healthiest among us is not exempt from hereditary disease4 ,the most symmetrical1 athletic1 and long-lived1 is a being inexpressibly inferior to what he would have been1 had not the unnatural habits of his ancestors accumulated for him a certain portion of malady and deformity4 ,in the most perfect specimen of civilized man something is still found wanting by the physiological critic4 ,can a return to nature1 then1 instantaneously eradicate predispositions that have been slowly taking root in the silence of innumerable ages8 ,indubitably not4 ,all that ,i contend for is1 that from the moment of the relinquishing all unnatural habits1 no new disease is generated2 and that the predisposition to hereditary maladies gradually perishes for want of its accustomed supply4 ,in cases of consumption1 cancer1 gout1 asthma1 and scrofula1 such is the invariable tendency of a diet of vegetables and pure water4 ,those who may be induced by these remarks to give the vegetable system a fair trial1 should1 in the first place1 date the commencement of their practice from the moment of their conviction4 ,all depends upon the breaking through a pernicious habit resolutely and at once4 ,dr4 ,trotter#h asserts that no drunkard was ever reformed by gradually relinquishing his dram4 ,animal flesh1 in its effects on the human stomach1 is analogous to a dram4 ,it is similar in the kind1 though differing in the degree1 of its operation4 ,the proselyte to a pure diet must be warned to expect a temporary diminution of muscular strength4 ,the subtraction of a powerful stimulus will suffice to account for this event4 ,but it is only temporary1 and is succeeded by an equable capability for exertion far surpassing his former various and fluctuating strength4 ,above all1 he will acquire an easiness of breathing1 by which the same exertion is performed with a remarkable exemption from that painful and difficult panting now felt by almost every one after hastily climbing an ordinary mountain4 ,he will be equally capable of bodily exertion or mental application after as before his simple meal4 ,he will feel none of the narcotic effects of ordinary diet4 ,irritability1 the direct consequence of exhausting stimuli1 would yield to the power of natural and tranquil impulses4 ,he will no longer pine under the lethargy of ennui1 that unconquerable weariness of life1 more dreaded than death itself4 ,he will escape the epidemic madness that broods over its own injurious notions of the ,deity1 and realizes the hell that priests and beldams feign4 ,every man forms1 as it were1 his god from his own character2 to the divinity of one of simple habits1 no offering would be more acceptable than the happiness of his creatures4 ,he would be incapable of hating or persecuting others for the love of ,god4 ,he will find1 moreover1 a system of simple diet to be a system of perfect epicurism4 ,he will no longer be incessantly occupied in blunting and destroying those organs from which he expects his gratification4 ,the pleasures of taste to be derived from a dinner of potatoes1 beans1 peas1 turnips1 lettuces1 with a dessert of apples1 gooseberries1 strawberries1 currants1 raspberries1 and in winter1 oranges1 apples1 and pears1 is far greater than is supposed4 ,those who wait until they can eat this plain fare with the sauce of appetite will scarcely join with the hypocritical sensualist at a lord mayor's feast1 who declaims against the pleasures of the table4 ,solomon kept a thousand concubines1 and owned in despair that all was vanity4 ,the man whose happiness is constituted by the society of one amiable woman would find some difficulty in sympathising with the disappointment of this venerable debauchee4 ,i address myself not only to the young enthusiast1 the ardent devotee of truth and virtue1 the pure and passionate moralist1 yet unvitiated by the contagion of the world4 ,he will embrace a pure system1 from its abstract truth1 its beauty1 its simplicity and its promise of wide-extended benefit2 unless custom has turned poison into food1 he will hate the brutal pleasures of the chase by instinct2 it will be a contemplation full of horror and disappointment to his mind1 that beings capable of the gentlest and most admirable sympathies1 should take delight in the death-pangs and last convulsions of dying animals4 ,the elderly man whose youth has been poisoned by intemperance1 or who has lived with apparent moderation1 and is afflicted with a variety of painful maladies1 would find his account in a beneficial change1 produced without the risk of poisonous medicines4#i,the mother1 to whom the perpetual restlessness of disease1 and unaccountable deaths incident to her children1 are the causes of incurable unhappiness1 would on this diet experience the satisfaction of beholding their perpetual health and natural playfulness4 ,the most valuable lives are daily destroyed by diseases1 that it is dangerous to palliate and impossible to cure by medicine4 ,how much longer will man continue to pimp for the gluttony of death1 his most insidious1 implacable1 and eternal foe8 ,the proselyte to a simple and natural diet1 who desires health1 must from the moment of his conversion attend to these rules-- ,,never ,,take ,,any ,,substance ,,into ,,the ,,stomach ,,that ,,once ,,had ,,life4 ,,drink ,,no ,,liquid ,,but ,,water ,,restored ,,to ,,its ,,original ,,purity ,,by ,,distillation4 ,,footnotes3 #a ,shelley's pamphlet appeared in #ahac4 ,the ,vegetarian ,society was not founded until #ahdg4 ,information as to this ,society1 with list of its publications1 can be had free on application to the ,secretary1 #ge1 ,princess ,street1 ,manchester4 #b ,plin4 ,nat ,hist41 ,lib4 vii1 ,soc4 #eg4 #c ,return to ,nature4 ,cadell1 #ahaa4 #d ,cuvier1 ,lecons d',anat4 ,comp4 tom4 iii41 pages #afi1 #cgc1 #ddh1 #dfe1 and #dhj4 ,rees's ,cyclopaedia1 article ,man4 #e ,see ,dr4 ,lambe's ,report on ,cancer4 #f ,return to ,nature1 or ,defence of ,vegetable ,regimen4 ,cadell1 #ahaa4 #g ,it has come under the author's experience that some of the workmen on an embankment in ,north ,wales who1 in consequence of the inability of the proprietor to pay them1 seldom received their wages1 have supported large families by cultivating small spots of sterile ground by moonlight4 ,in the notes to ,pratt's ,poem1 ,bread for the ,poor1 is an account of an industrious labourer1 who by working in a small garden1 before and after his day's task1 attained to an enviable state of independence4 #h ,see ,trotter on ,the ,nervous ,temperament4 #i ,see ,mr4 ,newton's book4 ,his children are the most beautiful and healthy creatures it is possible to conceive2 the girls are perfect models for a sculptor2 their dispositions are also the most gentle and conciliating2 the judicious treatment which they experience in other points1 may be a correlative cause of this4 ,in the first five years of their life1 of #ah1jjj children that are born1 #g1ejj die of various diseases2 and how many more of those that survive are rendered miserable by maladies not immediately mortal8 ,the quality and quantity of a woman's milk are materially injured by the use of dead flesh4 ,in an island1 near ,iceland1 where no vegetables are to be got1 the children invariably die of tetanus1 before they are three weeks old1 and the population is supplied from the mainland4--,sir ,g4 ,mackenzie's ,history of ,iceland4 ,see also ,emile1 chap1 i41 p4 #ec1 #ee1 #ef4 ,,appendix4 ,persons on vegetable diet have been remarkable for longevity4 ,the first ,christians practised abstinence from animal flesh1 on a principle of self mortification4 ,other instances are1 ,old ,parr #aeb2 ,mary ,patten #acf2 ,a ,shepherd in ,hungary #abf2 ,patrick ,o',neale #aac2 ,joseph ,elkins #ajc2 ,elizabeth de ,val #aja2 ,aurungzebe #ajj2 ,st4 ,anthony #aje2 ,james1 the ,hermit #ajd2 ,arsenius #abj2 ,st4 ,epiphanius #aae2 ,simeon #aab2 and ,rombald #abj4 ,mr4 ,newton's mode of reasoning on longevity is ingenious and conclusive4 ,old ,parr1 healthy as the wild animals1 attained to the age of #aeb years4 ,all men might be as healthy as the wild animals4 ,therefore all men might attain to the age of #aeb years4 ,the conclusion is sufficiently modest4 ,old ,parr cannot be supposed to have escaped the inheritance of disease1 amassed by the unnatural habits of his ancestors4 ,the term of human life may be expected to be infinitely greater1 taking into the consideration all the circumstances that must have contributed to abridge even that of ,parr4 ,it may be here remarked1 that the author and his wife have lived on vegetables for eight months4 ,the improvements of health and temper here stated1 is the result of his own experience4 ,,advertisements ,,the ,,ethics ,,of ,,diet4 ,a ,,catena ,,of ,,authorities ,,deprecatory ,,of ,,the ,,practice ,,of ,,flesh-,,eating4 #cdh pp41 #hvo4 ,,by ,,howard ,,williams1 ,m4,a4 ,i consider it a very valuable work4--,,colonel ,j4 ,m4 ,,earle4 ,,the ,,catena is good and useful4--,,frances ,e4 ,,hoggan1 ,m4,d4 ',the ,ethics of ,diet' much pleases me4--,t4 ,k4 ,,cheyne1 ,m4,a4 ,price ,five ,shillings2 ,post free from the ,office of the ,vegetarian ,society1 #ge1 ,princess ,street1 ,manchester4 ,,essays ,,on ,,diet1 ,,being ,collected ,lectures and ,papers on ,vegetarian ,diet4 ,,by ,,francis ,,william ,,newman4 ,,london3 ,,kegan ,,paul1 ,,trench1 ,,and ,,co42 ,,and ,,the ,,vegetarian ,,society1 #ge1 ,,princess ,,street1 ,,manchester4 ,,price ,,one ,,florin4 ,,the ,,perfect ,,way ,,in ,,diet3 ,a ,,treatise ,,advocating ,a ,,return ,,to ,,the ,,natural ,,and ,,ancient ,,food ,,of ,,our ,,race4 ,by ,,anna ,,kingsford1 ,doctor of ,medicine of the ,faculty of ,paris4 ,london3 ,kegan ,paul1 ,trench1 and ,co41 #a1 ,paternoster ,square2 or from the ,vegetarian ,society1 #ge1 ,princess ,street1 ,manchester4 ,,price ,,one ,,florin4 ,price #f;d4 #fdpp41 #hvo4 ,post free1 #g;d4 ,,almonds ,,and ,,raisins ,,for #ahhd4 ,edited by ,r4 ,,bailey ,,walker1 ,f4,s4,s4 ,,contains3-- ,mushrooms and ,toadstools4 ,by ,h4 ,s4 ,s4 ,a ,hunting of the ,deer4 ,by ,e4 ,dudley ,warner4 ,a ,christmas ,ghost4 ,by ,e4 ,grenville ,waller4 ,the ,ribblesdale ,papers--,nos4 ,i4-,,iv4 ,by ,dora4 ,rubies from ,ruskin4 ,the ,ministry of ,food4 ,by ,r4 ,bailey ,walker4 ,the ,abbot's ,reply4 ,by ,w4 ,e4 ,a4 ,axon4 ,almonds and ,raisins4 ,by ,e4 ,j4 ,baillie4 ,the ,torquoise ,ring4 ,a ,story by ,mrs4 ,anna ,kingsford1 ,m4,d4 ,kalendar and ,notes for #ahhd4 ,fruits in ,season for each ,month1 c41 c4 #ge1 ,princess ,street1 ,manchester4 ,,price ,,sixpence4 ,,post ,,free1 ,,sevenpence4 ,,the ,,hygeian ,,home ,,cook-,,book3 ,,healthful ,,and ,,palatable ,,food ,,without ,,condiments4 ,by ,r4 ,t4 ,,trall1 ,m4,d4 ,first ,english ,edition1 with ,chapters on ,bread1 ,pies1 ,puddings1 ,soups1 ,sauces1 ,vegetables1 ,fruits1 c4 ,also with ,appendix on ,hygienic ,bread-,making1 ,fruit ,preserving1 c4 ,by ,mrs4 ,,mattie ,,jones4 ,,vegetist',s ,,dietary ,,and ,,manual ,,of ,,vegetable ,,cookery4 ,by ,domestica4 ,fourth ,edition4 ,revised4 ,price ,sixpence4 ,cloth1 ,one ,shilling4 ,,price ,,sixpence4 ,,out-,,door ,,fruit ,,for ,,the ,,million3 ,,how ,,to ,,grow ,,it ,,in ,,large ,,and ,,continuous ,,quantity1 ,,by ,,simple ,,and ,,inexpensive ,,means4 ,,fifth1 ,,and ,,authorised ,,edition1 ,,revised ,,and ,,illustrated4 ,by ,head ,gardener4 ,manchester3 ,offices of the ,vegetarian ,society1 #ge1 ,princess ,street4 ,,the ,,shelley ,,society ,,publications ,,for #ahhf4 ,the ,society's ,publications for #ahhf will be at least twelve of the following fourteen3-- #a4 ,shelley's ,adonais3 an ,elegy on the ,death of ,john ,keats4 ,pisa1 #dto1 #ahba4 ,a ,facsimile ,reprint on hand-made ,paper1 edited1 with a ,bibliographical ,introduction1 by ,thomas ,j4 ,wise4 7,second ,edition1 ,revised47 #ajs4 ,issued4 #b4 ,shelley's ,review of ,hogg's novel1 ,memoirs of ,prince ,alexy ,haimatoff4 ,now first reprinted from ,the ,critical ,review1 ,dec4 #ahad1 on hand-made ,paper1 with an ,extract from ,prof4 ,dowden's article1 ,some ,early ,writings of ,shelley 7,contemp4 ,rev41 ,sept4 #ahhd74 ,edited1 with an ,introductory ,note1 by ,thos4 ,j4 ,wise4 7,second ,edition1 ,revised47 #bs4 #f;d4 ,issued4 #c4 ,shelley's ,alastor1 or ,the ,spirit of ,solitude2 and other ,poems4 ,london1 fcap4 #hvo41 #ahaf4 ,a ,facsimile ,reprint on hand-made ,paper1 with a new ,preface by ,bertram ,dobell4 7,second ,edition1 ,revised47 #fs4 ,issued4 #d4 ,a ,shelley ,bibliography1 or ,the ,shelley ,library4 ,part ,i4 ,first ,editions and their ,reproductions4 ,by ,h4 ,buxton ,forman4 ,issued4 #e4 ,shelley's ,vindication of ,natural ,diet4 ,london1 #abmo1 #ahac4 ,a ,reprint1 #ahhb1 with a ,prefatory ,note by ,h4 ,s4 ,salt and ,w4 ,e4 ,a4 ,axon4 ,presented by ,mr4 ,axon4 7,second ,edition47 ,issued4 #f4 ,a ,memoir of ,shelley1 with a fresh ,preface1 by ,william ,michael ,rossetti2 a ,portrait of ,shelley2 and an engraving of his ,tomb4 ,issued4 #g4 ,shelley's ,cenci1 7for the ,society's performance in ,may71 with a prologue by ,dr4 ,john ,todhunter1 and an ,introduction and ,notes by ,harry ,buxton ,forman and ,alfred ,forman2 and a ,portrait of ,beatrice ,cenci4 #bs4 #f;d4 ,issued4