294 LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 



If this doctrine be sound, there is no article 

 of diet, however notoriously unwholesome, which 

 may not claim to be considered as the proper food 

 of man. And if it be asked, "Why?" the answer 

 is ready : " Because it was discovered by man's 

 ingenuity." 



The ingenuity of the poor old women who earn a 

 miserable subsistence by selling apples in the street 

 has discovered that the cravings of hunger may be 

 more cheaply allayed by a glass of gin than by 

 bread and meat ; THEREFORE, it was the design of 

 Nature, with regard to these poor souls, that their 

 appetites should be so appeased. 



To me it appears, that man was designed to 

 exist in that condition which the right exercise of 

 sound reason shews to be most consistent with his 

 nature. 



The design of Nature, with regard to the proper 

 mode of existence amongst brutes, is rendered evi- 

 dent by her having bound them within the limits 

 of their proper sphere by the force of an irresisti- 

 ble instinct. But to man was given reason, in the 

 place of instinct; leaving him to use it or abuse it, 

 at his option; otherwise, she would have defeated 

 her own design of making him a free agent. 



It seems to me, therefore, that man has a na- 



