A VEGETARIAN'S DREAM.

Evening Post, Volume LVII, Issue 23, 28 January 1899, Page 10 (Supplement)

A VEGETARIAN'S DREAM.

Writing in the New Century Review on the " Dietary of the Twentieth Century," Dr. J. Oldneld concludes his article in these words: — Either the primitive savage was right in his practices or the modern scientist is wrong in his theories. 1 believe that the dietary of the 20th century will be the result of a combination of experience, science, instinct, and ethics. Experience proves that the best physique is obtained, and the best and most sustained work is done, by thjat part of the human race which subsists upon fruits, grains, nuts, pulses, vegetables, and animal products. It proves that, for spasmodic efforts of leonine strength, a flesh dietary is best fitted, but for untiring, patient energy and real, sustained stamina, the vegetarian animal carries away the palm. The hard work of the world is done by horses, oxen, asses, camels, elephants, reindeer, and not lions, tigers, cats, and dogs. The German long-dis-tanca walking matches have proved the superior stay and stamina of vegetarians. The Scottish peasantry have been for centuries practically vegetarians, and now their national constitution is so developed that Scotchmen are found at the top all the world over. Science proves that man, by his anatomy, should be classed at the head of the anthropoid apes among the frugirores, and not with the carnivorous tiger or the omnivorous hog ! The type remains permanent, even after centuries of experimenting with flesh foods. If these foods had been for the good of the human race, we should have expected to have found a gradual adaptation towards the carnivorous type. Instinct remains as the guide of every child that is born. Instinct bids the kitten to eat flesh, the lamb to eat grass, and the child to eat fruits ! Finally, ethics are pleading with a voice growing daily in force as in sweetness, for a realisation of the dream of prophet, poet, and painter alike — p'eading for the incoming of the Golden Age of Humanity when the lion, in man, shall lie down beside the lamb, and no longer thirst for its flesh and blood — when affection shall take beneath the human aegis all that can suffer and feel pain, and when the kinship of all beautiful lives shall be recognised and reverenced. The dietary of the coming century shall be in harmony with its aspirations and the human race will vegetate.