ho would kill a sheep, an ox, or any
unsuspecting animal, would, but for the law, kill his neighbor.

HOMER.

Even Homer, three thousand years ago, says Dr. Cheyne, could observe
that the Homolgians--those Pythagoreans, those milk and vegetable
eaters--were the longest lived and the honestest of men.

DR. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

Dr. Franklin, in his younger days, often, for some time together, lived
exclusively on a vegetable diet, and that, too, in small quantity.
During his after life he also observed seasons of abstinence from animal
food, or _lents_, as he called them, of considerable length. His food
and drink were, moreover, especially in early life, exceedingly simple;
his meal often consisting of nothing but a biscuit and a slice of bread,
with a bunch of raisins, and perhaps a basin of gruel. Now, Dr. F.
testifies of himself; that he found his progress in science to be in
proportion to that clearness of mind and aptitude of conception which
can only be produced by total abstinence from animal food. He also
derived many other advantages from his abstinence, both physical and
moral.

MR. NEWTON.

This author wrote a work entitled "Defence of Vegetable Regimen." It is
often quoted by Shelley, the poet, and others. I know nothing of the
author or of his works, except through Shelley, who gives us some of his
views, and informs us that seventeen persons, of all ages, consisting of
Mr. Newton's family and the family of Dr. Lambe, who is elsewhere
mentioned in this work, had, at the time he wrote, lived seven years on
a pure vegetable diet, and without the slightest illness. Of the
seventeen, some of them were infants, and one of them was almost dead
with asthma when the experiment was commenced, but was already nearly
cured by it; and of the family of Mr. N., Shelley testifies that they
were "the most beautiful and healthy creatures it is possible to
conceive"--the girls "perfect models for a sculptor"--and their
dispositions "the most gentle and conciliating."

The following paragraph is extracted from Mr. Newton's "Defence," and
will give us an idea of his sentiments. He was speaking of the fable of
Prometheus:

"Making allowance for such transposition of the events of the allegory
as time might produce after the important truths were forgotten, the
drift of the fable seems to be this: Man, at his creation, was endowed
with the gift of perpetual youth, that is, he was not formed to be a
sickly, sufferi