nary national disputes.

"Let it ever be remembered, that it is the direct influence of excess of
commerce to make the interval between the rich and the poor wider and
more unconquerable. Let it be remembered, that it is a foe to every
thing of real worth and excellence in the human character. The odious
and disgusting aristocracy of wealth, is built upon the ruins of all
that is good in chivalry or republicanism; and luxury is the forerunner
of a barbarism scarce capable of cure. Is it impossible to realize a
state of society, where all the energies of man shall be directed to the
production of his solid happiness?

"None must be intrusted with power (and money is the completest species
of power), who do not stand pledged to use it exclusively for the
general benefit. But the use of animal flesh and fermented liquors,
directly militates with this equality of the rights of man. The peasant
cannot gratify these fashionable cravings without leaving his family to
starve. Without disease and war, those sweeping curtailers of
population, pasturage would include a waste too great to be afforded.
The labor requisite to support a family is far lighter than is usually
supposed. The peasantry work, not only for themselves, but for the
aristocracy, the army, and the manufacturers.

"The advantage of a reform in diet is obviously greater than that of any
other. It strikes at the root of the evil. To remedy the abuses of
legislation, before we annihilate the propensities by which they are
produced, is to suppose that by taking away the effect, the cause will
cease to operate.

"But the efficacy of this system depends entirely on the proselytism of
individuals, and grounds its merits, as a benefit to the community, upon
the total change of the dietetic habits in its members. It proceeds
securely from a number of particular cases to one that is universal, and
has this advantage over the contrary mode, that one error does not
invalidate all that has gone before.

"Let not too much, however, be expected from this system. The
healthiest among us is not exempt from hereditary disease. The most
symmetrical, athletic, and long-lived is a being inexpressibly inferior
to what he would have been had not the unnatural habits of his ancestors
accumulated for him a certain portion of malady and deformity. In the
most perfect specimen of civilized man, something is still found wanting
by the physiological critic. Can a return to nature, then,