VEGETABLE FOOD.

FOR centuries it has been, and it still is, a subject
of controversy amongst the learned, whether animal
or vegetable food is best for man. The fruits of
the earth, it is quite clear, were originally his only
food; it is equally certain, however, that in very
early times the Almighty permitted the slaying of
animals for food. This appears from the following
Divine mandate" Every moving thing that liveth
shall be meat for you: even as
even as the green herb,
have I given you all these things." Nevertheless,
the most eminent writers of antiquity agree that
the first generations of men abstained from eating
flesh. This golden age (first mentioned by Hesiod)
is more beautifully described by Ovid :-

"The teeming earth, yet guiltless of the plough,
And unprovoked, did fruitful stores allow;
Content with food which nature freely bred,
On wilding and on strawberries they fed:
Kernels and bramble-berries gave the rest;
And falling acorns furnished out a feast."

Or, as the inimitable Thomson expresses it:

"The food of man,

While yet he lived in innocence, and told
A length of golden years; unfleshed in blood,
A stranger to the savage arts of life,
Death, rapine, carnage, surfeit, and disease,
The lord, and not the tyrant, of the world."

Pythagoras, the Samian philosopher, appears also to have condemned the use of animal food, and rigidly enforced universal moderation and temperance.

It is at least certain, that animal food, to the exclusion of vegetables, has a tendency to render the body liable to putrefaction. Man could not therefore long exist entirely upon flesh; but there are well-known examples to prove, that he can exist solely on vegetable food, without incurring any danger or injurious effects whatever, except, occasionally, trifling affections of the stomach, never extending to the systemg enerally. The intermixture of vegetables corrects the putrefactive tendency of animal food; and perhaps, upon the whole, a combination of the two is most conducive to health and the prolongation of life.

Age, constitution, and habits, however, should be taken into consideration in determining upon diet, in which we ought not to observe a rigid uniformity, at least not for any considerable time.

BEVERAGE.

"We curse not wine-the vile excess we blame."

THE sympathetic excitement produced by convivial wine-drinking ought not to be confounded with the glow of well-principled friendship and affection, which does not expire like the other, shortlived effect of a temporary stimulus. The winedrinker, no doubt, realises seasons of seemingly generous emotion, and feels in excellent humour with himzelf and every one around him; but these adscititious feelings are speedily succeeded by weary hours of depression and disgust. If we strike the balance of enjoyment between a devotee to the bottle and one who uses it sparingly, we shall find it to be decidedly in favour of the temperate man. The excessive use of wine has been productive of great evils; but the most fatal art ever invented, is that of distillation. Thousands of our fellow-creatures have already fallen sacri

fices to the liquid fire, as ardent spirits have been aptly styled, and thousands more are now languishing in disease which can be traced to no other source. It would be conferring a vast benefit were the proposal of the celebrated Hanway adopted in reference to this bane of the working classes: "I would propose that it should be sold only in quart bottles, sealed up with the King's seal, with a very high duty, and never sold without being mixed with a strong emetic."

Indeed, to drink too much liquid of whatever kind, impoverishes the blood. It likewise tends by too great a dilutation, to weaken the alimentary fluids, hastening the food unnaturally in its course, and occasioning relaxation of the urinary and other passages.

To drink when we are not thirsty, can obviously afford us no real refreshment. The glass should never be pressed upon any one: a man might just as rationally insist upon his guests swallowing as much beef and other viands as he himself, as make it obligatory upon them to drink glass for glass as much as he.

From copious potations of strong liquors, madness not unfrequently ensues. Persons at all disposed to febrile affections would do well to

abstain entirely from wine. They should at least limit themselves to very small quantities, and never taste without previously taking exercise. The practice of drinking whole bottles of wine after dinner is very censurable. To healthy persons even it cannot but be hurtful. How much more to those whose health is infirm! I will not say that he who lives according to nature, walking in the open air from at least five to ten miles daily, and rising with the sun, may not drink two or three glasses of good wine with his dinner; but even that small quantity would be highly injurious to a man of contrary habits. In indolent and inactive persons, it would inflame the blood, take away appetite, weaken the digestive powers, and probably superinduce the most inveterate diseases.

I am afraid we are not much wiser in this matter than our more immediate ancestors; for, though we have discarded some of the objectionable items in their hospitality, we have unfortunately supplied the place of them by others almost equally pernicious. They used to present their guests with a glass of spirits after particular

66

* "I never heard," observes Lord Burleigh to his son, praise ascribed to a drunkard, but for bearing of his drink, which is a commendation for a brewer's horse or a drayman, rather than a gentleman." Eschines having commended Philip of Macedon, as a man that would drink freely, Demosthenes replied, "that it was a good quality in a sponge, but not in a human being."