ware, are contrary to the received and current
opinion; but that they are true, can be proved, not by one person
merely,--though if that person were to be entirely relied on, his
positive affirmation would outweigh a thousand _negative_
testimonies,--but by many hundreds. It is more generally supposed that
he who confines himself to a simple diet, soon brings his stomach into
such a state that the slightest departure from his usual habits for once
only, produces serious inconveniences; and this indeed is urged as an
argument against simplicity itself. Yet, how strange! How much more
natural to suppose that the more perfect the health of the stomach, the
better it will bear, for a time, with slight or even serious departures
from truth and nature! How much more natural to suppose that perfect
health is the very best defence against all the causes which tend to
invite or to provoke disease! And what it would be natural to infer, is
proved by experience to be strictly true. The thorough-going
vegetable-eater can make a meal for once, or perhaps feed for a day or
so, on substances which would almost kill many others; and can do so
with comparative impunity. He can make a whole meal of cheese, cabbage,
fried pudding, fried dough-nuts, etc., etc.; and if it be not in
remarkable excess, he will feel no immediate inconvenience, unless from
the mental conviction that he must pay the full penalty at some distant
day.

I repeat it, the appetite of the vegetable-eater, if true to his
principles, and temperate in regard to quantity, is always, at all
moments of his life, perfect. To be sure, he is not always _hungry_.
Hunger, indeed, as I have already intimated--what most people call
hunger, a morbid sensation, or gnawing--is unknown to him. But there is
scarce a moment of his life, at least, when he is awake, in which he
could not enjoy the pleasures of eating, even the coarsest viands, with
a high relish; provided, however, he knew it was _proper_ for him to
eat. Nor is his appetite fickle, demanding this or that particular
article, and disconcerted if it cannot be obtained. It is satisfied with
any thing to which the judgment directs; and though gratified, in a high
degree, with dainties, when nothing better and more wholesome cannot be
obtained, never demanding them in a peremptory manner.

The vegetable-eater has a more quiet, happy, and perfect digestion than
the flesh-eater. On this point there has been much mistake, even am