quires much labor to break, grind, and digest it. And, indeed, if
day-laborers, and handicraftsmen were allowed the high, strong food of
men of condition, and the quiet and much-thinking persons were confined
to the farmer and ploughman's food, it would be much happier for both.

"Another objection, still, against a milk and vegetable diet is, that it
breeds phlegm, and so is unfit for tender persons, of cold
constitutions; especially those whose predominant failing is too much
phlegm. But this objection has as little foundation as either of the
preceding. Phlegm is nothing but superfluous chyle and nourishment, as
the taking down more food than the expenses of living and the waste of
the solids and fluids require. The people that live most on such
foods--the eastern and southern people and those of the northern I have
mentioned--are less troubled with phlegm than any others. Superfluity
will always produce redundancy, whether it be of phlegm or choler; and
that which will digest the most readily, will produce the least
phlegm--such as milk, seeds, and vegetables. By cooling and relaxing the
solids, the phlegm will be more readily thrown up and discharged--more,
I say, by such a diet than by a hot, high, caustic, and restringent one;
but that discharge is a benefit to the constitution, and will help it
the sooner and faster to become purified, and so to get into perfect
good health. Whereas, by shutting them up, the can or cask must fly and
burst so much the sooner.

"The only material and solid objections against a milk, seed, and
vegetable diet, are the following:

"_First_, That it is particular and unsocial, in a country where the
common diet is of another nature. But I am sure sickness, lowness, and
oppression, are much more so. These difficulties, after all, happen only
at first, while the cure is about; for, when good health comes, all
these oddnesses and specialities will vanish, and then all the contrary
to these will be the case.

"_Secondly_, That it is weakening, and gives a man less strength and
force, than common diet. It is true that this may be the result, at
first, while the cure is imperfect. But then the greater activity and
gayety which will ensue on the return of health, under a milk and
vegetable diet, will liberally supply that defect.

"_Thirdly_, The most material objection against such a diet is, that it
cools, relaxes, softens, and unbends the solids, at first, faster than
it corrects and