Civilisation : Its Cause and Cure 



under this diet endures work with less fatigue, 

 is less susceptible to pain, and to cold ; and heals 

 its wounds with extraordinary celerity ; all of 

 which facts point in the same direction. It may 

 be noted, too, that foods of the seed kind — by 

 which I mean all manner of fruits, nuts, tubers, 

 grains, eggs, etc. (and I may include milk in its 

 various forms of butter, cheese, curds, and so 

 forth), not only contain by their nature the elements 

 of life in their most condensed forms, but have 

 the additional advantage that they can be appro- 

 priated without injury to any living creature — for 

 even the cabbage may inaudibly scream when torn 

 up by the roots and boiled, but the strawberry 

 plant asks us to take of its fruit, and paints it red 

 expressly that we may see and devour it ! Both 

 of which considerations must convince us that 

 this kind of food is most fitted to develop the kernel 

 of man's life. 



Which all means cleanness. The unity of our 

 nature being restored, the instinct of bodily clean- 

 ness, both within and without, which is such a 

 marked characteristic of the animals, will again 

 characterise mankind — only now instead of a 

 blind instinct it will be a conscious, joyous one ; 

 dirt being only disorder and obstruction. And 

 thus the whole human being, mind and body, 

 becoming clean and radiant from its inmost centre 

 to its farthest circumference — " transfigured " — 

 the distinction between the words spiritual and 

 material disappears. In the words of Whitman, 

 " objects gross and the unseen soul are one." 



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