SUPPLEMENTAL HISTORY OP MAN. H3 



able to his constitution and climate, to frame asso- 

 ciations for mutual assistance and defence ; to cul- 

 tivate arts, to convert the two great kingdoms of 

 organized matter into the means of subsistence, and 

 extend his species commensurately with the limits 

 of the globe. His physical capabilities of sustaining 

 the varieties of climate, and of being sustained on 

 every variety of nutriment, correspond with his in- 

 tellectual powers. 



Connected with this question, there are positions 

 laid down by different writers, respecting the in- 

 fluence of animal or vegetable food, on the moral 

 and physical development of man, that are equally 

 at variance with reason and experience. Some, 

 among whom is Buffon, have asserted that man, 

 without the use of flesh-diet, could neither exist nor 

 propagate his kind in these climates. That he re- 

 quires not only the solid nourishment of animal 

 food, but a variety of it, to stimulate him to acti- 

 vity, to give vivacity to his senses, perfect strength, 

 and vigour to his frame, courage and energy to his 

 mind. Others, with more fantastic absurdity, have 

 portrayed a state of ideal innocence that never ex- 

 isted, but in their own imaginations, and the fictions 

 of the poets : a golden age, when man lived in a 

 delicious state of idleness and independence, " his 

 food the fruits, his drink the crystal spring." But 

 unluckily a hankering after forbidden flesh seized 

 suddenly upon him : he deserted the vegetable 

 banquet spread for him by the bounteous hand of 

 nature, and in those fatal carnivorous propensities, 



