o. All is cheerful and happy with him, even then. Nor, lastly, is
he subject to hypochondria or depression of spirits. He is always lively
and cheerful; and all with him is bright and happy. As it has been
expressed elsewhere, with the truly temperate man it is "morning all
day."

The system of diet in question, greatly improves, exalts, and perfects
the senses. The sight, smell, and taste are rendered greatly superior by
it. The difference in favor of the hearing and the touch may not be so
obvious; nevertheless, it is believed to be considerable. But the change
in the other senses--the first three which I have named--even when we
reform as late as at thirty-five or forty, is wonderful. I do not wish
to encourage, by this, a delay of the work of reformation; we can never
begin it too early.

Vegetable diet favors beauty of form and feature. The forms of the
natives of some of the South Sea Islands, to say nothing of their
features, are exceedingly fine. They are tall and well proportioned. So
it is with the Japanese and Chinese, especially of the interior, where
they subsist almost wholly on rice and fruits. The Japanese are the
finest men, physically speaking, in Asia. The New Hollanders, on the
contrary, who live almost wholly on flesh and fish, are among the most
meagre and ugly of the human race, if we except the flesh-eating savages
of the north, and the Greenlanders and Laplanders. In short, the
principle I have here advanced will hold, as a _general rule_, I
believe, other things being equal, throughout the world. If it be asked
whether I would exalt beauty and symmetry into virtues, I will only say
that they are not without their use in a virtuous people; and I look
forward to a period in the world's history, when all will be
comparatively well formed and beautiful. Beauty is exceedingly
influential, as every one must have observed who has been long in the
world; at least, if he has had his eyes open. And it is probably right
that it should be so. Our beauty is almost as much within our control,
as a race, as our conduct.

A vegetable diet, moreover, promotes and preserves a clearness and a
generally healthful state of the mental faculties. I believe that much
of the moral as well as intellectual error in the world, arises from a
state of mind which is produced by the introduction of improper liquids
and solids into the stomach, or, at least, by their application to the
nervous system. Be this as it may, how