القرن التاسع عشر ، رقم ١٨٢، أبريل ١٨٩٢ [ظ‎‎٤‎٧] (٢٤٤/٩٩)

584
THE NINETEENTH
April
is directed almost exclusively to animal food, and vegetarians are
quite right when they teach that spirit-drinking and excessive use of
animal food are in connection with each other.'
Vegetarianism is often called a fad, but it is a healthy and an
innocent one and the natural reaction against the present state of
things. It imparts lightness and elasticity to the body, brightness
and clearness to the mind. The vegetarians I know are all unusu
ally strong, active, and young-looking people for their age: one of
them walked without stopping for thirty-four, and another time
twenty-seven hours, without a rest, whilst on an excursion in Norway,
feats not easily equalled by the most inveterate beef-eater. Travelling,
mountain-climbing, all seems easier and less fatiguing on this light
and soothing diet; and why should it not give strength to the limbs
and sinews if one reflects that all the strongest animals who do the
heaviest work in the world, like horses, oxen, and elephants, are
entirely herbivorous ?
There is, of course, a great deal more to say on so wide a subject,
but I have in these pages confined myself almost entirely to my own
experiences. Being but a beginner myself there is much for me to
learn, and I have not even touched on the possibilities and probabili
ties this theme opens out into the domain of psychology. But only a
few days ago one whose experience and knowledge on this subject
are greater than those of most men told me he owed almost every
thing he had attained in his domain to his strict adherence to vege
table diet. It certainly gives, to those who live on these lines, a kind
of detachment from material things, a sense of calm and content.
It is in the hope of helping some who may feel nervous and worried
in mind, or ill in body, that I write these lines, to point out a simple
remedy everybody can apply. It not only costs nothing, but even
puts money in our pockets—only, like everything else, it must be
governed by good sense and reason in order to be successful.
It is not my intention to be understood to say that I look upon
vegetable diet, even with its necessary accompaniments of fresh air,
frequent ablutions, gymnastics, and exercise, as a panacea for every
thing, and that medicines become useless. We are mortal, and there
is no perfection in this imperfect world. Nobody has a greater belief
than I have in remedies judiciously given during illness, but it is the
many who are out of health and below par, without hardly knowing
what is the matter with them, who would be all the better for trying
whether their discomforts spring from too high and rich a diet or
from the inability to procure any but inferior meat or fish. In the
first case they would soon feel their tired digestions rested and their
irritated nerves calming down, whilst in the latter they would find
out that it is easy to get a healthier and an equally satisfying meal
for half the cost of what they were in the habit of spending before.
Though these motives are not perhaps the highest which ought