I address myself not only to the young enthusiast, the ardent devotee of truth and virtue, the pure and passionate moralist, yet unvitiated by the contagion of the world. He will embrace a pure system, from its abstract truth, its beauty, its simplicity, and its promise of wide-extended benefit; unless custom has turned poison into food, he will hate the brutal pleasures of the chase by instinct; it will be a contemplation full of horror and disappointment to his mind, that beings capable of the gentlest and most admirable sympathies should take delight in the death-pangs and last convulsions of dying animals. The elderly man whose youth has been poisoned by intemperance, or who has lived with apparent moderation, and is afflicted with a variety of painful maladies, would find his account in a beneficial change produced without the risk of poisonous medicines. The mother to whom the perpetual restlessness of disease, and unaccountable deaths incident to her children, are the causes of incurable unhappiness, would on this diet experience the satisfaction of beholding their perpetual healths and natural playfulness. The most valuable lives are daily destroyed by diseases that it is dangerous to palliate, and impossible to cure, by medicine. How much longer will man continue to pimp for the gluttony of death, his most insidious, implacable and eternal foe? 1 See Mr. Newton's book. His children are the most beautiful and healthy creatures it is possible to conceive; the girls are perfect models for a sculptor; their dispositions are also the most gentle and conciliating; the judicious treatment, which they experience in other points, may be a correlative cause of this. In the first five years of their life, of 18,000 children that are born, 7,500 die of various diseases; and how many more of those that survive are not rendered miserable by maladies not immediately mortal? The quality and quantity of a woman's milk are materially injured by the use of dead flesh. an island near Iceland, where no vegetables are to be got, the children invariably die of tetanus, before they are three weeks old, and the population is supplied from the main land.-Sir G. Mackenzie's Hist. of Iceland. See also Emile, chap. i. pages 53, 54, 56. In ̓Αλλὰ δράκοντας ἀγρίους καλεῖτε καὶ παρδάλεις καὶ λέοντας, αὐτοὶ δέ μιαιφονεῖτε εἰς ὠμότητα καταλιπόντες ἐκείνοις οὐδέν. ἐκείνοις μὲν γὰρ ὁ φόνος τροφὴ, ὑμῖν δ' ὄψον ἐστίν. Οτι γὰρ οὐκ ἔστιν ἀνθρώπῳ κατὰ φύσιν τὸ σαρκοφαγεῖν, πρῶτον μὲν ἀπὸ τῶν σωμάτων δηλοῦται τῆς κατασκευης. οὐδενὶ γὰρ ἔοικε τὸ ἀνθρώπου σῶμα τῶν ἐπὶ σαρκοφαγία γεγονότων, οὐ γρυπότης χείλους, οὐκ ὀξύτης, ὄνυχος, οὐ τραχύτης ὀδόντων πρόσεστιν, οὐ κοιλίας εὐτονία, καὶ πνεύματος θερμότης, τρέψαι καὶ κατεργάσασθαι δυνατὴ τὸ βαρὺ καὶ κρεῶδες· ἀλλ ̓ αὐτόθεν ἡ φύσις τῇ λειότητι τῶν ὀδόντων, καὶ τῷ σμικρότητι τοῦ στόματος, καὶ τῇ μαλακότητι τῆς γλώσσης, καὶ τῇ πρὸς πέψιν ἁμβλύτητι τοῦ πνέυματος, εξόμνυται τὴν σαρκοφαγίαν. εἰ δὲ λέγεις πεφυκέναι σεαυτὸν ἐπὶ τοιαύτην ἐδωδὴν, ὅ βούλει φαγεῖν, πρῶτον αὐτὸς ἀπόκτεινον· ἀλλ ̓ αὐτὸς διὰ σεαυτοῦ, μὴ χρησάμενος κοπίδι, μηδὲ τυσάνῳ τινὶ, μηδὲ πελέκει. ἀλλὰ ὡς λύκοι καὶ ἄρκτοι καὶ λεόντες αὐτοὶ ὡς ἐσθίουσι φονεύουσιν, ἄνελε δήγματι βοῦν, ἢ στόματι σῦν, ἤ ἄρνα, ἤ λαγων, διάῤῥηξον, καὶ φάγε προσπεσὼν ἔτι ζῶντος, ὡς ἐκεῖνα, * * * * * Ἡμεῖς δὲ οὕτως ἐν τῷ μιαιφόνῳ τρυφῶμεν, ὥστ ̓ ὄψον τὸ κρέας προσαγορεύομεν, εἶτ ̓ ὄψων πρὸς αὐτὸ τὸ κρέας δεόμεθα, ἀναμιγνύντες ἔλαιον, οἶνον, μέλι, γάρον, ὄξος, ἡδύσμασι Συριακοῖς, Αῤῥαβικοῖς, ὥσπερ ὄντως νεκρὸν ἐνταφιάζοντες. καὶ γὰρ οὕτως αὐτῶν διαλυθέντων καὶ μα λαχθέντων καὶ τρόπον τινὰ κρεοσαπέντων ἔργον ἐστὶ τὴν πέψιν κρατῆσαι· καὶ διακρατηθείσης δὲ δεινὰς βαρύτητας ἐμποιεῖ καὶ νοσώδεις ἀπεψίας. * * * Οὕτω τὸ πρῶτον ἄγριόν τι ζῶον ἐβρώθη καὶ κακοῦργον, εἶτ ̓ ὄρνις τις, ἢ ἰχθὺς, εἵλκυστο· καὶ γευόμενον οὕτω καὶ προμελετῆσαν ἐν ἐκείνοις τὸ νικοῦν, ἐπὶ βοῦν ἐργάτην ἦλθε, καὶ τὸ κοσμοῦν πρόβατον, καὶ τὸν οἰκουρὸν ἀλεκτρύονα· καὶ κατὰ μικρὸν οὕτω τὴν ἀπληστίαν τονώσαντες, ἐπί σφαγὰς ἀνθρώπων, καὶ φόνους καὶ πολέμους προῆλθον. Πλουτ. περὶ τῆς σαρκοφαγίας |