ngs, which excite, for a time, more
pleasurable sensations than water and plain vegetables and fruits, will
be sought with more or less eagerness according to the education which
has been received, and according to our power of self-government.

I have said that most persons are vegetable-eaters from necessity, not
from choice. There are some tribes in the equatorial regions who seem to
be exceptions to this rule; and yet I am not quite satisfied they are
so. Some children, among us, who are trained to a very simple diet, will
seem to shrink from tea or coffee, or alcohol, or camphor, and even from
any thing which is much heated, when first presented to them. But, train
the same children to the ordinary, complex, high-seasoned diet of this
country, and it will not take long to find out that they are ready to
acquire the habit of relishing the excitement of almost all sorts of
_unnaturals_ which can be presented to them. And if there are tribes of
men who at first refuse flesh meat, I apprehend they do so for the same
reasons which lead a child among us, who is trained simply to refuse hot
food and drink, or at least, hot tea and coffee, when the latter are
first presented to him.

Gutzlaff, the Chinese traveler and missionary, has found that the
Chinese of the interior, who have scarcely ever tasted flesh or fish,
soon acquire a wonderful relish for it, just as our children do for
spirituous or exciting drinks and drugs, and as savages do for tobacco
and spirits. But he has also made another discovery, which is, that
flesh-eating almost ruins them for labor. Instead of being strong,
robust, and active, they soon become lazy, self-indulgent, and
effeminate. This is a specimen--perhaps a tolerably fair one--of the
natural tendency of such food in all ages and countries. Man every where
does best, nationally and individually, other things being equal, on a
well-chosen diet of vegetables, fruits, and water. In proportion as
individuals or families, or tribes or nations, depart from this--other
things being equal--in the same proportion do they degenerate
physically, intellectually, and morally.

Such a statement may startle some of my New England readers, perhaps,
who have never had opportunity to become acquainted with facts as they
are. But can it be successfully controverted? Is it not true, that, with
a few exceptions--and those more apparent than real--nations have
flourished, and continued to flourish, in proportion