96 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



from his lips, and though the voice was scarcely raised it appeared 

 to search out the remotest corners of the hall. Every rounded-off 

 sentence presented a vivid picture to the mind. The subject was 

 the chancellor Prince Metternich, and we all felt when, after an 

 hour and a half, Prof. O- ended apparently quite as fresh and 

 collected as when he began, that we not only knew the prince 

 personally, but that we understood his politics and the workings 

 of his mind far better than his contemporaries had done. The 

 thing which, however, impressed me most, was the sense of power 

 held back, and to the good as it were, which the professor gave 

 me while speaking, and even after he had finished. When, 

 therefore, the next day he told me that he never touched animal 

 food, I was very curious to hear his experiences. 



He told me that some years before he had been very ill, nigh 

 unto death, and given up by all the doctors. Then came one who 

 said he could cure him. All the strong soups and beef jellies and 

 raw minced meat were eliminated and replaced by fruit and light 

 farinaceous food, but fruit especially, and he soon got well and 

 strong so well and strong, indeed, that he determined to go on 

 with his simple fare, especially as he felt an unwonted ease and 

 extraordinary lucidity of the intellect when working. His wife, 

 he told me, soon followed his example, and also his daughters and 

 sons-in-law. At last his servants came and said they would like 

 to be vegetarians too, as it seemed to agree so well with their mas- 

 ters. I felt that where so clever a man was so fully convinced of 

 the expediency and efficiency of this diet that he carried his whole 

 family and household with him, he must have gone into the ques- 

 tion deeply, and have the very best reasons upon which to found 

 his belief. I could not enter with him into further discussion, as 

 he had to leave Vienna, but he sent me some books on the sub- 

 ject. These books were German, and they would be well worth 

 translating, for their whole tone is like a bracing mountain air. 

 In every one of them vegetable diet is the foundation whereon is 

 built an edifice of hygiene, which if we could or would but strictly 

 follow might bring us to a pinnacle of animal spirits and bodily 

 vigor only to be compared to the centaur of Henri de Guerin. To 

 those who have not read this charming fragment, let me recom- 

 mend it as a tonic on a day of languor and prostration. The 

 thorough enjoyment of life and strength in which the centaur 

 revels while careering over wind-swept plains, down breezy 

 mountain-sides, plunging into deep green forests with the scent 

 of the earth and wood flowers in the air, is better than any dose 

 of sal volatile or quinine. These little German books, for none of 

 them are very long, have mainly for their object to bring us back 

 to a healthier and simpler mode of life. They are full of cold 

 water and open windows by day and by night. Sun-baths and 



