fire, and make ready the gridiron or the spider?
Or, without the knowledge even of this, or the patience to wait for the
tedious process of cooking to be completed, would he eat raw the
precious morsel? Does any one believe this? Can any one--I repeat the
question--can any one believe it?

On the contrary, would not every living human being revolt, at first,
from the idea, let it be suggested as it might, of plunging his hands in
blood? Can there be a doubt that he would direct his attention at
first--yes, and for a long time afterward--to the vegetable world for
his food? Would it not take months and years to reconcile his
feelings--his moral nature--to the thought of flesh-mangling or
flesh-eating? At least, would not this be the result, if he were a
disciple of Christianity? Although professing Christians, as the world
is now constituted, do not hesitate to commit such depredations, would
they do so in the circumstances we have supposed?

I am sure there can be but one opinion on this subject; although I
confess it impossible for me to say how it may strike other minds
constituted somewhat differently from my own. With me, this
consideration of the subject has weight and importance. It is not
necessary, however. The argument--the moral argument, I mean--is
sufficient, as it seems to me, without it. What then shall we say of the
anatomical, the physiological, the medical, the political, the
economical, the experimental, the Bible, the millennial, and the moral
arguments, when united? Have they not force? Are they not a nine-fold
cord, not easily broken? Is it not too late in the day of human
improvement to meet them with no argument but ignorance, and with no
other weapon but ridicule?

FOOTNOTES:

[21] For proof that arsenic or ratsbane is sometimes added to cheese,
see the Library of Health, volume ii., page 69. In proof of the
poisonous tendency of milk and butter, see Whitlaw's Theory of Fever,
and Clark's Treatise on Pulmonary Consumption.

[22] See Dunglison's Hygiene, page 250.

[23] The Young Housekeeper.

[24] Or, more nearly, perhaps, a year and a half, in this country. In
England, it is one year and five-sevenths.

OUTLINES

OF A

NEW SYSTEM OF FOOD AND COOKERY.

In the work of revising and preparing the foregoing volume for
publication, the writer was requested to add to it a system of vegetable
cookery. At first he refused to do so, both on account of the difficulty
of bringing so