permitted a plurality of wives and concubines; but the Mediator of a better covenant ordains otherwise for his followers. Things may be lawful, that are not expedient; and man may be allowed the use of what it might be to his advantage and happiness to reject. Throughout the Scriptures we shall find the dispensations of God suited to the circumstances of His people; and the language in which His servants communicate His will, and a knowledge of His works, always condescendingly adapted to the information and mental capacity of those for whom it is intended. "I have yet many things to say unto you", observes the Saviour, "but ye cannot bear them now." Upon a careful examination of Scripture, we shall find that all things connected with man's duty to God and his neighbour, are revealed in such clear and simple language, "that a wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err therein"; but, with respect to meats and drinks, man is left to the guidance of those instincts and mental faculties with which he is endowed, with full permission to use all the " good creatures" of God as his wants may dictate ; -due regard being paid to mercy, truth, benevolence, moderation, and sobriety.

23. Without any disparagement to the cause of vegetable diet, therefore, it may be conceded, that animal food was permitted after the deluge, when "men began to multiply on the face of the earth." But long after this event, the Patriarchs and their descendants confined themselves principally to a vegetable diet; for fruits, honey, milk, butter, bread, and some simple preparations of seeds and mild herbs, were the plain, healthful food of

the people for many ages afterward.

On joyous and

festive occasions the fatted calf was killed; but their usual diet was derived from the vegetable kingdom, and the produce of their flocks and herds; and, even to this day, the inhabitants of Syria, Mesopotamia, and other countries, live after the same manner.

24. Assaad Yokoob Kayat, a native Syrian, in a speech at Exeter Hall, (May 16, 1838,) remarked, that he had lately visited Mount Lebanon, where he found the people as large as giants, and very strong and active. They lived almost entirely on dates, and drank only water; and there were many among them one hundred and one hundred and ten years of age. Buckhardt, also, in his remarks on the Bedouins, says :-"Their usual fare (called ayesh) consists of flour made into a paste with sour camel's milk. This is their daily and universal dish; and the richest Sheikh would think it disgraceful to order his wife to prepare any other dish, merely to please his own palate. The Arabs never indulge in animal food, and other luxuries, except on the occasion of some great festival, or on the arrival of a stranger. If the guest be a common person, bread is baked and served up with ayesh; if the guest be a person of some small consequence, coffee is prepared for him, and also the dish called behatta (rice or flour boiled with sweet camel's milk), or that called fteta (baked paste, kneaded up thoroughly with butter); but for a man of some rank, a kid or lamb is killed."

25. In process of time, however, the use of animal food became much more prevalent, particularly in tem

perate and cold climates; and there is every reason to believe, that cruelty, immorality, and disease, marked the progress of man in this unnatural diet. This period is characterised by the poets as the brazen and iron ages, when

Truth, modesty, and shame the world forsook ;
Fraud, avarice, and force, their places took.
Then sails were spread to every wind that blew ;-
Raw were the sailors, and the depths were new :
Trees, rudely hollow'd, did the waves sustain,
Ere ships in triumph plough'd the watʼry plain.
The land-marks limited to each his right,
For all before was common as the light;
Nor was the ground alone required to bear,
Her annual income to the crooked share;
But greedy mortals, rummaging her store,
Digg'd from her entrails first the precious ore,
(Which next to hell the prudent Gods had laid,)
And that alluring ill to sight display'd.

Thus cursed steel, and more accursed gold,
Gave mischief birth and made that mischief bold,
And double death did wretched man invade,-
By steel assaulted, and by gold betray'd:

Faith flies, and piety in exile mourns ;

And justice, here oppress'd, to heav'n returns."

26. The various changes to which the earth and its inhabitants have been subjected, are alluded to in the fables of Chaos, Tellus (or Terra), Coelus, Oceanus, Hyperion, Rhea, Japetus, Saturn, Jupiter, Prometheus, &c. 27. Prometheus (gounds) one who uses forethought,

* METAMORPHOSES, Book I. L. 165.

-a contriver, is represented as having stolen fire from heaven (which would be necessary to render animal food at all palatable to man); for which crime he was chained to Mount Caucasus, where a vulture continually devoured his liver, which was never diminished, but continued to increase as it was fed upon. Hesiod says that, before the time of Prometheus, mankind were exempt from suffering-enjoying a vigorous youth; and that when death did arrive it was without pain, and the eyes were gently closed as in sleep. Horace, in alluding to the theft of Prometheus, observes :

"Thus from the sun's ethereal beam,

When bold Prometheus stole th' enlivening flame,
Of fevers dire a ghastly brood,

(Till then unknown) th' unhappy fraud pursued ;
On earth their horrors baleful spread;

And the pale monarch of the dead,
Till then slow moving to his prey,
Precipitately rapid swept his way.'

28. Mr. Newton, the author of the "Return to Nature", gives the following interpretation of this fable, in which Prometheus is thought to represent the human race:— "Making allowance for such transposition of the events of the allegory as time might produce, after the important truths were forgotten, which this portion of the ancient mythology was intended to transmit, the drift of the fable seems to be this-Man, at his creation, was endowed with the gift of perpetual youth; that is, he was formed

* FRANCIS'S HORACE, Book I, Ode 3.

not to be a sickly, suffering creature, as we now see him ; but to enjoy health, and to sink by slow degrees into the bosom of his parent earth, without disease or pain. Prometheus first taught the use of animal food (primus bovem occidet Prometheus) and of fire, with which to render it more digestible and pleasing to the taste. Jupiter, and the rest of the Gods, foreseeing the consequences of these inventions, were amused or irritated at the short-sighted devices of the newly formed creature, and left him to experience the sad effects of them. Thirst, the necessary concomitant of a flesh diet, perhaps of all diet vitiated by culinary preparations, ensued; water was resorted to, and man forfeited the inestimable gift of health which he had received from heaven; he became diseased-the partaker of a precarious existence; and no longer descended slowly to his grave." *

29. Hallé, in his "Hygiène," entertained the same opinion here advocated, respecting the various articles successively employed as human food. "Moses, in his history of the world," says he, "described the different substances which man successively included in the range of alimentary matter. He represents him as at first faithful to reason; then transgressing the rules which it prescribes ; -obedient to the laws of necessity, but yielding to the charms of pleasure, with too faint a resistance; satisfying his hunger with the fruits with which the trees in a happy climate abundantly supplied them; then with the herbs and corn which he obtained from a more avaricious earth, as the reward of his labours; with the milk of his flocks; RETURN TO NATURE. P. 9.