its raw horror excites loathing and disgust, and it is only by culinary
preparation, it can be softened and rendered somewhat more susceptible
of mastication and digestion; it must be completely transformed by
roasting, boiling, &c., and afterwards so disguised by salts, spices,
and various sauces, that the natural taste is gone, the palate is
deceived into the admission of such uncouth fare, and finds a flavour in
the taste of these cadaverous morsels.

May we be allowed to take for granted, that health may be preserved
through the same means by which it is recovered? If so, animal food is
clearly an impediment to a healthy state of body, for health is restored
by a simple and fleshless diet, and therefore may be preserved by the
same regimen. That animal food is highly stimulant there can be no
doubt; but like all other stimulants, it produces weakness eventually,
for when excitement has been brought to its acme, debility must of
necessity succeed.

The grand objection to an animal diet, is its detrimental effect upon
the mind: it is well known that flesh-eating makes the body strong and
lusty, (and it is for that reason recommended to pugilists who are in a
course of training,) but the mind becomes weak and inactive; for it must
needs happen, where a muddy and clogged body is shackled down by heavy
and unnatural nourishment, that all the vigour and brilliancy of the
understanding must be confused and made dull, and that, wanting
clearness for nobler things, it must ramble after little and unworthy
objects. The passions cannot fail to be excited, and thus the whole of
the irrational nature becoming fattened as it were, the soul is drawn
downward and abandons its proper love of true being. The truth of this
we must all more or less have experienced: we are never so lively when
we have dined, and the studious man knows well that the morning is the