being distinguifh'd by any thing but his violent fpeeches. He live'd in a small hut, a fhort distance from Paris, and dureing his obfcurity he was driveën to fuch distress, that it is fay'd, being truely reduce'd to fans-culottes in their clotheing, he turn'd out both his fons to feed on what they could pick up in the neighbouring gardens and forefts, for they posfefs'd an equal antipathy with the father to animal food.

"Soon after this, Fortune, fmile'd on him. He propose'd to the convention to introduce the use of the pike, not onely in the army, but among the people. This propofal being accepted, he had under tuition an immenfe concourfe of both fexes, to instruct in the use of that inftrument. He was appointed colonel-commandant; and thus he was fuddenly advance'd from the greatest poverty to a state of affluence.

"In 1793 he is fay'd to have met his fate, for he was kil'd, together with both his fons, in an action with the advocates of royalty in La Vendée."* The name of "colonel Oswald" occuring in the campaign of 1796, this fact has been disputeëd; but the officer intended may be. colonel Ebenezer Oswald, of America.

Secret bistory of the green room, London, 1795, II, 222 (a note).

The active and benevolent Howard utterly discarded animal foods, as wel as fermented and fpirituous drinks, from his diet: water and the plaineft vegetables fufficeing him.*

In the village of Weft-Harlfey, near NorthAllerton, lives a farmer, who is fay'd not to have tafteëd any kind of animal food from his cradle. He is a very lufty, good-looking man, wel known in Allerton market.

Mister Richard Phillips, the publisher of this compilation, a lufty, healthy, active and wellooking man, has defifted from animal food for upward of twenty years: and the compileër himself, induce'd to ferious reflection, by the perufal of Mandevilles Fable of the bees, in the year 1772, being the 19th year of his age, has ever fince, to the reviseal of this sheet, firmly adhere'd to a milk and vegetable diet, haveing, at least, never tafteëd, dureing the whole courfe of those thirty years, a morfel of flesh, fish, of fowl, or any thing, to his knowlege, prepare'd in or with those substanceës or any extract thereof, unless, on one occafion, when tempted, by wet, cold and hunger, in the fouth of Scotland, he venture'd to eat a few potatos, drefs'd under the roaft; nothing, lefs repugnant to his feelings,

* Aikins View of his character, &c. p. 222.

being to be had; or except by ignorance or impofition; unless, it may be, in eating egs, which, however, deprives no animal of life, though it may prevent fome from comeing into the world to be murder'd and devour'd by others.

It is the lefs to be wonder'd at that Christians fhould addict themselves to animal food, as they cat blood and things ftrangle'd in direct oppofition to their own religion, and the exprefs prohibition of god himself. After the flood, when he declares to Noah and his fons, "Every moveing thing that liveëth shal be meat for you ; even as the green herb have i giveën you all things;' the gift is upon this immediate condition: "But flesh, with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, fhall you not eat." Again, in the law dictateed by god to Mofes, he fays, "It fhal be a perpetual ftatute for your generations, throughout all your dwelings, that ye eat neither fat nor blood."+ Again; "Moreover ye shal eat no manner of blood, whether it be of fowl or of beast, in any of your dwelings. "I wil even," he declares, " fet my face against that foul that eateth blood; and wil cut him off from among his people for the life of the flesh," he ads, "is

* Genefis, IX, 3. † Leviticus, III, 17.‡ Ibi, VII, 26.

in the blood, and i have giveën it to you' upon the altar, to make an atonement for your fouls."* This prohibition, it is wel known, the Jews themselves have all along obey'd and obferve'd down to the prefent time. That fuch allfo was the practice of the primitive or early Christians we learn from The acts; where they are.told, in a letter from the apostles, "For it feem'd good to the holy ghoft, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than thefe necesfary things; THAT YE ABSTAIN from meats offer'd to idols, and FROM BLOOD."t

"We Christians," fays Octavius, in Minucius Felix, dread the thoughts of murder, and cannot bear to look upon a carcafe; and we so abhor human blood, that we abstain from that of beasts." "We are fo cautious," fays Tertullian, "of tasteing blood, that we abstain, from things ftrangle'd, and even fuffocateed beafts; and, therefor, when you have a mind to try whether we be Christians, you offer us puddings fluf'd

* Ibi, XVII, 10, 11. (The original is lives (as above, the life of the flesh) not fouls, for the Jews of that period did not know they had fouls, nor believe'd in their immortality.) This injunction is repeated in two other verfeës of the fame chapter; and, again, in Deuteronomy, XII, 16, 23; and XV, 23.

† XV, 28, 29.

with blood."* That this practice continue'd in the western church, to, at leaft, the middle of the eleventh century (for it is ftil obferve'd in the eastern) is manifeft from the words of cardinal Humbert: "for retaining," fays he, " the ancient ufeage or tradition of our ancestors, we, in, like manner, do abominate these things: infomuch that a fevere penance is impose'd on thofe, who, without extreme peril of life, do at any time feed on blood, or any animal dead of itsfelf." The reverend doctor Grabe, an eminent Engleifh divine, acknowlegeës certain "abufees and defects" to have crept into our church, particularly baptifm by bare fprinkleing, not mixing water with wine in the lords supper, and the eating of things ftrangle'd: all which

*

Apology. Thefe, it is prefume'd, were what we now call black-puddings: a great luxury of modern Christians, at leaft in this country, at the anniverfary of the birth of Chrift, who, by the way, would not have touch'd one himfelf.

+ Tolands Nazarenus, p. 44. " N'eft-il pas bien fingulier," fays M. Boulanger, "que les Chrêtiens l'abstiennent de viande [on faft-days], abstinence qui n'eft ordonnée nulle part dans le nouveau testament, tandis qu'ils ne s'abstiennent point du fang, de boudin, et de la chair des animaux étouffés, qui font abfolument défendus par les apôtres, & ausfi févérement que la fornication ?" Christianifme devoilé, p. 176.