SUPPLEMENTAL HISTORY OF MAN. 141 



species of nutriment, that he did so in his natural 

 state, and that his present omnivorous character is 

 a proof of his degeneracy. 



This, like all reasoning from wide analogies, leads 

 to erroneous and absurd conclusions. We never, 

 indeed, should forget for an instant, that all argu- 

 ments drawn from analogies between man and the 

 brutes, ought to be received with the utmost cau- 

 tion. Their specific differences are so numerous, 

 extend to such a variety of particulars, and often 

 present such striking points of opposition, that 

 in reasoning from one to another, the chances 

 are generally against the correctness of our infer- 

 ences. Experience is the best and safest guide ; 

 and, in the present question, experience decides in 

 favour of the omnivorous propensities of man, and 

 of their perfect accordance with his constitution. 

 We conclude that man is naturally omnivorous, 

 when we find him possessed of instruments to pro- 

 cure, masticate, and digest food of all kinds, and 

 that he can subsist in perfect health on vegetable 

 or on. animal nutriment, or on a mixture of one and 

 the other. 



What is the natural state of man? Is it bar- 

 barism ? If so, animal food must be deemed most 

 natural to him. The savage who roams the forest, 

 or who paddles in his canoe down the rivers, or 

 along the sea-coast, subsists on the produce of hunt- 

 ing or fishing. In the unsettled state of savage life, 

 vegetable productions cannot be raised with suffi- 

 cient certainty of abundance for the support of the 



