184 MAN NATURALLY OMNIVOROUS. 



uniformity and restriction to one species of aliment are to 

 any animals. 



In discussing this question, we sometimes meet with po- 

 sitions respecting the influence of animal or vegetable diet, 

 on the developement of the bodily and mental powers, which 

 are quite unsupported by direct proof: and some have even 

 sought for a support to their systems in the fictions of poetry. 



" The Pythagorean diet,'' says Buffon, " though extolled 

 by ancient and modern philosophers, and even recommended 

 by certain physicians, was never indicated by nature. If 

 man were obliged to abstain totally from flesh, he would 

 not, at least in our climates, either exist or multiply. An 

 entire abstinence from flesh can have no etfect but to 

 enfeeble nature. To preserve himself in proper plight, 

 man requires not only the use of this solid nourishment, 

 but even to vary it. To obtain complete vigour, he must 

 choose that species of food which is most agreeable to his 

 constitution ; and, as he cannot preserve himself in a state of 

 activity, but by procuring new sensations, he must give his 

 senses their full stretch, and eat a variety of meats, to prevent 

 the disgust arising from an uniformity of nourishment." 



We are told, on the other hand, that in the golden age 

 man was as innocent as the dove ; his food was acorns, and 

 his beverage pure water from the fountain. Finding every 

 where abundant subsistence, he felt no anxieties, but lived 

 independent, and always in peace, both with his own 

 species and the other animals. But he no sooner forgot 

 his native dignity, and sacrificed his liberty to the bonds of 

 society, than war and the iron age succeeded that of gold 

 and of peace. Cruelty and an insatiable appetite for flesh 

 and blood were the first fruits of a depraved nature, the 

 corruption of which was completed by the invention of 

 manners, arts, and sciences. Either immediately, or re- 

 motely, all the physical and moral evil, by which indivi- 

 duals are afilicted, and society laid waste, arose from these 

 carnivorous practices. 



Both these representations are contradicted by the only 

 criterion in such questions, an appeal to exj)erience. That 



