230 MORE POT-POURRI 



the goal were vegetarians, the first finishing in fourteen 

 and a quarter hours. The two other vegetarians 

 missed their way and walked five miles more. All 

 reached the goal in splendid condition. Not till an hour 

 after the last vegetarian arrived did the first meat-eater 

 appear, and he was then completely exhausted. He, 

 moreover, was the only one, the others having dropped 

 off after thirty-five miles. This does not look as if power 

 of endurance were necessarily diminished by non-meat- 

 eating, and a great many people who have tried non- 

 stimulating food find, as I do, that their brains are 

 immensely clearer, their capacity for work restored and 

 increased, they are much less affected by changes of 

 temperature, and their general powers of endurance are 

 much greater than before. In short, my belief that 

 wrong diet in some form or other is the cause of all the 

 hundred and one complaints which are called by different 

 names, and that they do not originate from external 

 germs, is as great, and some will say of the same nature, 

 as that of Mrs. Crow, the ghost-seer in the old story. 

 This lady had unbounded faith that certain acts would 

 make her invisible, and so went out into the streets of 

 Edinburgh with nothing on and a prayer book in one 

 hand. A policeman rushed at her with his cape. She 

 was not disconcerted, but said : ' What, you see me ? Then 

 I must have put the book into the wrong hand.' 



I have noticed before the fact of the extraordinary 

 economy brought about by reduction in food, wine, etc. ; 

 but this is not necessarily an argument in favour of a simple 

 diet. The money people have must go somewhere ; and if 

 they like meat and drink better than most things, but for the 

 injury to the body it might as well go in that way as in 

 any of the other luxuries of life which are not essentials. 

 Much as I enjoy providing food for others, I now feel that 

 it is anything but a true kindness to them. It is difficult 



