262 OUT OF DOORS. 



all, are but the aggregates of individuals. As a general 

 rule, a hungry man becomes uncivilised in proportion 

 to his hunger, and his diminished powers of argument 

 are proverbial. Even the compulsory postponement of 

 dinner for an hour or two has a mightily injurious effect 

 on the best-tempered of Britons ; and it may easily be 

 imagined that in the primitive ages of society, where 

 no one ever has any dinner, and is always waiting for 

 his food, the general character will be wolfish, snappish, 

 tetchy, and selfish. Food and civilisation are connected 

 together by indissoluble bonds, and the first necessity 

 of a civilised country is that its food shall be plentiful 

 in quantity, good in quality, and readily procurable, so 

 as to insure the periodical recurrence of nutritious 

 meals. 



There can be no true civilisation where every man has 

 to hunt for, kill, carry home, and cook his meals, inas- 

 much as he thereby lowers himself to the grade of a 

 mere animal of chase, and is forced to give up all his 

 finer faculties to the one task of seeking and eating his 

 prey. 



The prosperity of every country depends chiefly 

 upon its supply of food, and a nation advances and re- 

 cedes exactly in proportion to the quantity and cheap- 

 ness of provisions. 



It is true that the present state of commerce enables 

 nations to interchange their commodities, and to supply 

 the non-harvesting lands with the food which they need 

 but cannot raise. But there are many turns in the 



