men may the understanding, the morals, and the industry of the people: it debases and brutifies them; and what probably some of our statesthink of more consequence, it makes them bad citizens and disloyal subjects, by the surliness and ferocity which are the immediate effects of drinking spirits, and by that impatience and discontent which are the necessary consequence of idleness and profligacy, disease and poverty."-" If I am rightly informed, one company of Scotch distillers sent last year to England six hundred thousand gallons of whiskey, which of course would soon be baptized by the names of gin and British brandy, but would not be the less poisonous for that." "I need not tell you that there are very few diseases for which we have nearly certain cures: that the use of remedies of great and general efficacy, for the cure of particular diseases, is at least precarious, often unavailing, and sometimes pernicious: that many diseases, at least in the present state of our science, seem to be incurable; and that our means of relieving such diseases are very inadequate. In consequence of this imperfect state of medicine, vast numbers every year languish long, and at last die of consumption, dropsy, palsy, gout, stone, king's-evil, cancer, asthma, &c. &c. in spite of all our faculty can do for them. Many thousands suffer miserably from imaginary diseases, and vapors, and low spirits; which of course can neither kill them, nor be cured by us. Many thousands suffer miserably from diseases produced by their own idleness, laziness, luxury, and intemperance, who might be cured by proper regimen, if they would submit to it, which they will not do; I mean by temperance and exercise but they cannot be cured by any medicines that I know of. Then, all mankind must die at last, which very few of them are inclined to do; and most of them must die of diseases, not of good old age: but as they grow old, they become infirm and The distance between the two states of life and death is so great, the gulph between them so immeasurable, that it is highly preposterous, and most inconsistent with all our ideas of the benevolence of the Deity, to suppose a creature framed both to suffer death, and to contemplate its approaching miseries; to bend his mind forcibly, as a great many do, upon all its regrets and its horrors. Are such as this the privileges which we proudly call the distinctions of our species? It seems, on the other hand, very much to be expected that the placid motion of the spirits, the exemption from restlessness and turbulence of mind, which would be produced by our tranquillising regimen, would go further towards reconciling mankind to death, than all that Blair, Tillotson, or even Sherlock, ever wrote on that subject. 2 The question is, whether it is unavoidable that they should die of diseases. I would wish to take more cheerful views than those of the physician of Edinburgh, who seems to represent the greater part of us as a sort of criminals under condemnation of torture, which indeed is but too much the case as we now proceed. In respect of the unfailing efficacy sickly; and they expect a cure which we cannot give them for such diseases; nay, we can give them but very imperfect relief.”. p. 23. The writer, in charitably endeavouring to moderate the indignation of the faculty against the quack-doctors, and after observing that he considers their spirituous tinctures and their analeptic and antibilious pills quite as useful as those prescribed by the physicians, composed as they generally are of the same materials, is decidedly for leaving the poor consolation of confidence in these mountebanks to sufferers who are not likely to find true relief any where. He adds, "you should consider also that England is a free country, and that the freedom which every free-born Englishman chiefly values, is the freedom of doing what is foolish and wrong, and going to the devil his own way." "Quack medicines and quacks are necessaries of life to such people, who would be more indignant than the quacks themselves if quackery was abolished by law." "I heartily wish, not only for the good of mankind, but for the honor, the comfort, and the permanent interest of all men of merit in our profession, that there were no deceit in the practice of physic."-p. 27. The doctor, who appears to be a man of candor and ability, concludes his letter with an animated sentence dictated in the spirit of despair, after remarking that while there is so much deceit in the practice of medicine, while the bulk of mankind will not believe that it is so imperfect, and eagerly wish to deceive themselves and be deceived by others on that point, the difficulties in the way of medical reform are insurmountable. To return to the "Acetaria" of John Evelyn. After glancing at Cardan's opinion in favor of meat, he says, "But this his learned antagonist utterly denies; whole nations, flesh-devourers (such as the farthest northern) becoming heavy, dull, inactive, and much more stupid than the southern; and such as feed much on plants are more acute, subtil, and of deeper penetration: witness the Chaldæans, Assyrians, Ægyptians, &c." And he further argues from the short lives of most carnivorous animals, compared with grassfeeders, and the ruminating kind, as the hart, camel, of temperance, as it is usually understood, and exercise, it has been my lot to be intimately acquainted with several individuals whose life was temperate, and who took a sufficient quantity of exercise; but they drank common water and dined moderately every day on meat and other things, without either warding off violent attacks, or arriving at a good old age. 'We live in an age which witnesses the triumph of empiricism; and as according to Fontenelle's remark, "Men cannot, on any subject, arrive at what is rational, until they have first, on that very subject, exhausted all imaginable folly," we may now hope to retread our steps, having an indisputable claim to do so from a full performance of the annexed condition. and the longævous elephant, and other feeders on roots and tables-p.138. vege "As soon as old Parr came to change his simple homely diet1 to that of the Court and Arundel House, he quickly sunk and dropt away: for, as we have showed, the stomach easily concocts plain and familiar food, but finds it a hard and difficult task to vanquish and overcome meats of different substances: whence we so often see temperate and abstemious persons, of a collegiate diet, very healthy; husbandmen and laborious people more robust and longer lived, than others of an uncertain extravagant diet." "Certain it is, Almighty God ordaining herbs and fruit for the food of man, speaks not a word concerning flesh for two thousand years. And when after, by the Mosaic constitution, there were distinctions and prohibitions about the legal uncleanness of animals, plants of what kind soever were left free and indifferent for every one to choose what best he liked. And what if it was held indecent and unbecoming the excellency of man's nature, before sin entered and grew enormously wicked, that any creature should be put to death and pain for him who had such infinite store of the most delicious and nourishing fruit to delight, and the tree of life to sustain him? Doubtless there was no need of it. Infants sought the mother's nipple as soon as born; and when grown and able to feed themselves, ran naturally to fruit; and still will choose to eat it rather than flesh; and certainly might so persist to do, did not custom prevail, even against the very dictates of nature. question I but that what the heathen poets recount of the happiness of the golden age, sprang from some tradition they had received of the Paradisian fare, their innocent and healthful lives in that delightful garden."-p. 146. Nor "And now to recapitulate what other prerogatives the hortulan provision has been celebrated for, besides its antiquity, and the health and longevity of the antediluvians, viz. that temperance, frugality, leisure, ease, and innumerable other virtues and advantages which accompany it, are no less attributable to it. Let us hear our excellent botanist, Mr. Ray: "The use of plants," says he, " is all our life long of that universal importance and concern, that we can neither live nor subsist with any decency and convenience, or be said to live indeed at all without them. Whatsoever food is necessary to sustain us, whatsoever contributes to delight and refresh us, are supplied and brought forth out of that plentiful and abundant store. And ah! how much more innocent, sweet, and healthful, is a table covered with these than Taylor, the water-poet, who celebrates Parr's praises, says of him, "He was of old Pythagoras' opinion." with all the reeking flesh of butchered and slaughtered animals. Certainly man by nature was never made to be a carnivorous animal, nor is he armed at all for prey and rapine, with jagged and pointed teeth, and crooked claws, sharpened to rend and tear; but with gentle hands to gather fruit and vegetables, and with teeth to chew and eat them."p. 170. "To this might we add that transporting consideration becoming both our veneration and admiration of the infinitely wise and glorious Author of Nature, who has given to plants such astonishing properties; such fiery heat in some to warm and cherish, such coolness in others to temper and refresh, such pinguid juice to nourish and feed the body, such quickening acids to compel the appetite, and grateful vehicles to court the obedience of the palate; such vigor to renew and support our natural strength, such ravishing flavor and perfumes to recreate and delight us: in short, such spirituous and active force to animate and revive every part and faculty to all kinds of human, and I had almost said of heavenly capacity. What shall we add more? Our gardens present us with them all; and while the shambles are covered with gore and stench, our salads escape the insults of the summer fly, and purify and warm the blood against winter rage. Nor wants there variety in more abundance than any of the former ages could show.”p. 172. In one of Milton's Latin elegies, addressed to his friend Deodati, there are some beautiful lines so decidedly favorable to temperance, that I will here insert them with the translation. "At qui bella refert, et adulto sub Jove cœlum, Et nunc sancta canit, superum consulta deorum, Additur huic scelerisque vacans, et casta juventus, Perque tuas rex ime domos, ubi sanguine nigro Diis etenim sacer est vates, divumque sacerdos, "But he whose verse records the battle's roar, The recommendation contained in these verses, of pure water and the Pythagorean fare, is so much to our point, that it is with great pleasure I quote them. In the Latin classics there are many passages which prove that living on the fruits of the earth was considered by the ancients as natural to man, and best adapted to the preservation of his health, his life, and his morals. I will recall one or two of those passages to the reader's recollection, after remarking that to reform, or abandon one's errors and become virtuous, was proverbially expressed by the words "redire ad frugem bonam. "Equidem multos et vidi in hac civitate et audivi, non modo qui primoribus labris gustassent hoc genus vitæ et extremis digitis attigissent, sed qui totam adolescentiam voluptatibus dedissent, emergisse aliquando, et se ad frugem bonam, ut dicitur, recepisse, "I have indeed both gravesque homines atque illustres fuisse." known and heard of many men in this city, who, after not merely a slight taste of this kind of life, but after having dedicated their whole youth to pleasure, at length raised their heads, betook themselves to the good and wholesome fruits of the earth, as the proverb is, and became substantial and illustrious characters." In Horace too there is an application of the term frugi, which I believe has never been satisfactorily explained. |