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 MERTEN J. MANDEVILLE 
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 A COLLECTION OF ARTICLES CONTRIBUTED 7'G 
 
 “THE VEGETARIAN,” 
 
 BY 
 
 ARNOLD FRANK HILLS, 
 
 President of the London Vegetarian Society* 
 
 v 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 THE VEGETARIAN” PUBLISHING OFFICE, MEMORIAL HALL 
 
 FARRINGDON STREET, E.C. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
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(o ) 3, & Ip 
 
 M 5 5^ 
 
 preface. 
 
 Go little booke ; God send thee good passage, 
 And specially let this be thy prayer, 
 
 Unto them all that will thee reade and heare 
 When thou art wrong after their help to call 
 Thee to correct in any part or all. 
 
 Ch&uetr, 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 SONSHIP. 
 
 Atonement 
 
 Life ... ... ... 
 
 Vital Food . 
 
 Natural Food of Man 
 Specific Values 
 Reaction 
 
 Principles and Practice 
 Vaccination 
 Fruit Culture 
 Flower Farming 
 A System of Diet Without Starch 
 Individualism and Socialism. 
 
 The Function of Legislation 
 The Perfect Law of Liberty 
 
 Health... 
 
 page. 
 
 5 
 
 37 - 
 
 53 
 
 66 
 
 7B 
 
 129- 
 
 144 
 
 180- 
 
 213 
 
 230 
 
 237 
 
 *43 
 
 255 
 
 280 
 
 291 
 
 298 
 
Soqsljip ! 
 
 Part I. 
 
 , And because ye are sons, Godha f h sent forth the 
 Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Ahl>a Father. 
 Wherefore th >u art no more a servant, but a son ; and 
 if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.” 
 
 HEPE is no more blessed word in the 
 whole Bible than that of Father. It 
 touches all the chords of human happi¬ 
 ness—it reaches across the stormy 
 waters of the world’s failure, to rescue 
 and redeem—it brings back the broken¬ 
 hearted prodigal to his home and to 
 his God. “ My Son, give me thine 
 heart! ” There is the beginning of all 
 true religion. “ And when he was yet 
 a great way off, his father saw him, and 
 had compassion, and ran, and fell on his 
 neck and kissed him.” There is the welcome for all who have gone 
 astray. It matters not that the Past is black with doom ; all 
 self-abasement, all the hopeless humiliation, vanishes before the 
 Father’s longing love. 
 
 In the far-off country of the wanderer’s exile there is perennial 
 famine. To-day, as ever, the poverty-stricken prodigal is fain to fill 
 his belly with the husks that the swine do eat. He is excommuni- 
 cated from the heavenly communion, and no man gives unto him 
 the bread of life. He feasts with death, and his body is fulfilled 
 with its decay. Sorrow and Suffering wait upon him, sad sisters 
 from the shadow-land of Sin. Disease and Despair clutch at 
 him, twin brothers from the charnel-house of Pain. And then at 
 
6 
 
 SONS HIP. 
 
 last, when all his substance has been wasted in riotous living, the 
 Son recalls his Home. He takes the first step along the high-road 
 of return—he repents—he is, in the best sense of the word, “ con¬ 
 verted.” In the simpler phrase of the parable, he “ comes to him¬ 
 self.” 
 
 Gnothi seauton , said the Greek sage of old ; and the secret of all 
 such self-knowledge is the divine Sonship which makes Man the child 
 of God. And what are the firstfruits of such spiritual illumination ? 
 The prodigal resolves to return. I will arise and go to my Father, 
 and will say unto him, “ Father, I have sinned against heaven and 
 before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy Son.” What 
 a wonderful revelation of joy must the Father’s reception have been. 
 No reproaches—no punishment—no formal forgiveness, as men 
 forgive those who have offended them. No—nothing but the wel¬ 
 come of overflowing love. The prodigal’s return, instead of being 
 made the opportunity of malignant moralising, became the source 
 of festal mirth. Everything of the best for the wanderer come 
 home : “ But the Father said to his servants, Bring forth the best 
 robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on 
 his feet. And bring hither the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat 
 and be merry, for this my son was dead and is alive again, he was 
 lost and is found.” 
 
 Such is the message for us all to-day—Why will ye die! We 
 are all the children of the great King—heirs of God and joint- 
 heirs with Christ—and our Father bids us come. What a wonder¬ 
 ful joy lingers in this thought of Sonship, to stir our lives to 
 nobler purpose ! It summons us forth with the splendid inspiration 
 of hope ; it exalts us to the right hand of God. What message so 
 sweet, what gospel so glorious, as this ? It is the Bible’s central 
 truth ; it is the clarion-call of Christ. 
 
 Only as we begin to understand that we are the very children 
 of God—not in fiction, but in fact—shall we touch the meaning of 
 life. Till we know our relationship with our Father which is in 
 heaven—not mystically, not metaphorically, but in very word and 
 truth—till then we linger in the outer darkness of separation from 
 
SONSHIP. 
 
 7 
 
 God, we are exiles from home, we are of all men most miserable. 
 Ah, the sorrow of such orphanhood—the pain of such solitude! 
 What wonder that the pessimist is abroad, and that the mourners 
 go about the street! Atheism, Agnosticism, Infidelity—what are 
 they all but different echoes of the same bitter cry, “ Who shall 
 show us any good ? We have lost our way—we are as infants 
 crying in the night, as infants crying for the light, and with no 
 language but a cry.” But, thanks be to God, who giveth us the 
 victory through our Lord Jesus Christ, the answer to the cry of 
 yearning Humanity was given long ago. Only we are deaf and 
 blind. As it was in the beginning, so it is now: “ In Him was 
 
 life, and the life was the light of men ; and the light shineth in 
 darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. That was the 
 true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. 
 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the 
 world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received 
 him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to 
 become the Sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, 
 which are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the 
 will of Man, but of God.” 
 
 What a revelation of joy for us all, when we can receive the 
 message of our Brotherhood with Christ ! So sweet, so simple, 
 and yet so infinitely glorious—“ Children of God, and heirs of 
 eternal life.” That is our inheritance, but the covenant of promise 
 is linked with one condition—we must become subject to the 
 , perfect laws of God, else were the harmonies of divinest music 
 iangled out of tune, else were Chaos the nemesis of Creation. Why 
 is it so hard to receive this beatitude of Obedience ? Why must 
 we weave irrational mysteries, and make a stumbling-stone of the 
 simplicity of Christ ? What mean these sin-saddened “ schemes of 
 salvation ” ? Whence comes the hideous suggestion of propitiation 
 by blood—this hateful dogma of the cruel cross ? 
 
 Our eyes are blinded with the mists of death, or our hearts would 
 be glad with the true Sonship of Salvation. Hearken what the 
 Lord God hath said, in the person of his Son: “ He that doeth the 
 
8 
 
 S0NSH1P. 
 
 will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my mother and 
 sister and brother. ,, “ He that doeth righteousness is righteous.” 
 “ Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is 
 perfect.” How wonderful it is, when the divine vision breaks upon 
 our ravished gaze ! “We are the Sons of God ”—this is the message 
 that Christ came to proclaim, but no man understood. Oh, splendid 
 deliverance from a false and foolish fatalism ! We are all children 
 of God, free to work out our own salvation in fear and trembling. 
 When once we have come to ourselves—when once our eyes are 
 opened—when once our ears are unstopped—we shall see our Father 
 waiting with outstretched arms to welcome us home ; we shall hear 
 the Saviour’s gracious benediction, “ Come, ye blessed of my Father, 
 inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the 
 world.” 
 
 Part II. 
 
 “ My God, my Father, while I stray 
 Far from my home on life’s rough way, 
 
 O teach me from my heart to say, 
 
 Thy will be done ! 
 
 “ Renew my will from day to day, 
 
 Blend it with thine, and take away 
 All that now makes it hard to say, 
 
 Thy will be done ! ” 
 
 The master-key for all sound biblical interpretation is this essen¬ 
 tial Divinity of Man. Son of God, and master of the material 
 universe, man stands forward as the heir of all the ages, the lord of 
 creation. This is the inspiration which shall change the face of 
 the world. “ Noblesse oblige ! ”—such is the watchword of all 
 knightly chivalry. “ Hasten, for honour calls ! ” such is the trumpet- 
 call of virtue against vice. Too long has meanness been mistaken 
 for humility. Religious teachers have made appeal to miserable 
 motives, and their answer has been written in the degradation of 
 their time. Even to-day there still lingers something of that creep- 
 
SONSHIP. 
 
 9 
 
 ingcant, which first abuses and then defiles. “Man inherently vile ” 
 —“ lost, but for the ransom of the Cross ”—such is the gospel of a 
 Mawwc rm or a Stiggins—such is the secret source of honest infidelity 
 —such is the fatal pessimism of a world that “ knows not God.” 
 It is thus that religious truths are degraded into dogmas of death. 
 The test of theological orthodoxy becomes the capacity for swallow¬ 
 ing ecclesiastical formulae; and the warrants of salvation are 
 endorsed by the authorities of the Church. 
 
 This is the whole history of priestly interference. When once 
 the Divine Sonship of Man is forgotten, the hateful servitude of Satan 
 is begun. But, thanks be to God, men are for the most part better 
 than their creeds ; the still small voice of Sonship is never silent, 
 the Aaifiwv Tt? of Socrates is never dumb. No man can escape 
 himself—“ Ccelum non animum motant , qui trans mare currunt 
 With the Psalmist, he may cry out, “ Whither shall I go from thy 
 spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence ? ” and his answer 
 will be forever the same, “ If I ascend up into heaven, thou art 
 there ; if I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there; if I take 
 the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the 
 sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall 
 hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me ; even the 
 night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from 
 thee, but the night shineth as the day. The darkness and the light 
 are both alike to thee.” 
 
 What a marvellous thing is this divine possession ! It is our 
 birthright, as children of the Most High ; we may degrade it, we 
 may defile it in the far-off country of our foolish exile, but we can 
 never wholly lose it. “ Civis Romanus sum” is the proclamation of 
 a Palmerston. “ But I am free-born ! ” is the retort courteous of 
 St. Paul. There rings a true note here of patriotic pride, to which 
 all hearts are responsive. We are all free-born, we are all the Sons 
 of God, and the sign-manual of our divinity is the Spirit of God 
 which is within us. This is the fountain-head of that “ Liberty, 
 Egalit£, Fraternity ! ” for which the Revolutionists of 1790 fought. 
 The common brotherhood of humanity is founded in the eternal 
 
io 
 
 SONS HIP. 
 
 godhead of man. What a wonderful thought it is!—so grand, 
 that we are overwhelmed ; so simple, that we are afraid ; so 
 splendid, that we are inspired ; so divine, that we are saved. 
 
 Ah, yes, this supreme music of Sonship is harmonious to all the 
 chords of life. In it we learn that salvation is no subtle scheme of 
 substitution, no perplexed plan of propitiation ; but only, as the 
 word implies, “ the being made perfectly whole,” and that it involves 
 obedience to the perfect laws of God. In it we begin to understand 
 the sanction of the Scriptures, and to realise that the Bible is no 
 abstract formulary of inspired Truth, but rather the reflection of 
 many minds in relation to absolute Truth. The final court of 
 appeal is not to be found in Councils of the Church, but in the 
 spiritual insight of the believer. In it we.learn, as we have never 
 learned before, that “ the letter killeth but the spirit giveth life.” 
 There can be but one communion between Father and Sons, the 
 divine communion of love. In it, we hasten, with the wise men of 
 old, to the Bethlehem of our spiritual birth ; we rejoice with 
 exceeding great joy, because we have found Christ; we bring with 
 us all the treasures that are ours, the gold of faith, the myrrh of 
 hope, the frankincense of love, that we may cast them at the feet of 
 our new-found Lord ; and, as we gaze upon the cradle of our 
 Redeemer, we hear the chanting of the angel hosts, “ Glory to God 
 in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill to men ! ” 
 
 How is it that the meaning of the incarnation has been made a 
 mystery ? The birth of Christ makes no sudden break in the 
 continuity of Creation. “ God-made-Man ” does but recite the 
 history of humanity. Turn to the very first chapter of Genesis, 
 and correlate the Old Testament with the New : “ And God said, 
 Let us make man, in our image, after our likeness, and let 
 them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the 
 fowl of the air, and over the cattle and over all the earth, 
 and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 
 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God 
 created he him ; male and female created he them.” And, yet 
 again : “ And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, 
 
SONSHIP. 
 
 ] I 
 
 and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became 
 a living soul.” Here, then, is the first record of that divine descent 
 into matter, whereof other philosophies have told. Here is the 
 foreshadowing of that final return, when the mystery of the At-one- 
 ment shall become clear, and Man shall be made one with God. 
 Here, in the Divine Sonship, are founded all the great moralities, 
 which speak of obedience to the laws of God. Here is the secret 
 of that Eternal Hope, which none can make afraid. Here, also, is 
 the promise of the future. Who is so deaf, that he cannot hear the 
 warnings of these latter days ! “ Prepare ye the way of the Lord, 
 
 make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley 
 shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, 
 and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain.” 
 And how shall these things be ? Only as we come to ourselves, and 
 arise and go unto our Father—only as we repent and say, " Father, 
 1 have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more 
 worthy to be called thy son ! ” shall we learn the secret of the 
 world’s redemption—shall we hear our leather’s joyful invitation, 
 „ Let us eat and drink and be rgierry, for this my son was dead and 
 is alive again ; he was lost and is found ! ” 
 
 --- 
 
 Part III. 
 
 “ judge not the Lord by feeble sense, 
 But trust Him for his grace ; 
 Behind a frowning providence 
 He hides a smiling face. 
 
 Blind unbelief is sure to err, 
 
 And scan His work in vain j 
 God is his own interpreter, 
 
 And He will make it plain.” 
 
 This thought of Sonship lies at the root of all true religion. It 
 strikes the keynote of those complex chords, whose harmony is 
 life. It crowns Man the lord of Time, the king of Love. For 
 
12 
 
 SONSHIP. 
 
 if, in very truth, Man be the Son of God, then is he also the 
 prince of Love. In love alone can he resume his royal birth¬ 
 right, “ for he that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is 
 Love.” Here is the meeting-point of all religious teaching ; 
 here is the common centre of manifold beliefs. What are all 
 outward forms and ceremonies—all gorgeous rituals—all theological 
 formulae and creeds—but the wrappages which too often disguise 
 essential truth. In the body, in the mind, and in the soul, man is 
 the Son of God ; but it is in the spirit that he becomes God. 
 “ God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in 
 spirit and in truth.” This is the lesson of the life of Christ—this 
 is the interpretation of prophetic ecstacy. Every great teacher 
 of truth in the history of the world has drunk in something of this 
 inspiration of Sonship, and has realised that its beginning is 
 obedience to the laws of God, and that its consummation is self- 
 sacrifice for ethers’ sake. Confucius, Buddha, Mahomet, in different 
 tones and in divers manners, proclaim the same great gospel ot 
 Obedience. The great moralities find their unique expression in the 
 Beatitudes of Christ—they sound in the garden of Eden—they 
 ring through the history of the world—they echo in the religions, 
 whether of East or West—they are the silent proof of the majesty 
 of man, the universal warning that Sin and Death are synonymous 
 terms, and that the Nemesis of evil-doing is separation from God. 
 Every prodigal’s heart is conscious of its suffering—the far-off exile 
 of disobedience is unutterably sad. What is the passionate yearn¬ 
 ing of a Siddartba, but the bitter cry of a creation groaning and 
 travailing in pain together until now! 
 
 “O suffering world, 
 
 O known and unknown of my common flesh 
 Caught in this •■'^mon net of death and woe, 
 
 And life whici acts to both—I see, I feel 
 The vastness or .ne agony of earth, 
 
 The vainness of its jo\s, the mockery 
 Of all its best, the anguish of its worst. 
 
 Sin, pleasure, end in pain, and \outh in age, 
 
 And love in loss, and life in hateful death, 
 
 And death in unknown lives which will but yoke 
 Men to their wheel again, to whirl the round 
 Of false delights, and woes that are not false. 
 
 .The veil is rent 
 
 Which blinded me. I am as all these men 
 
SONSHIP. 
 
 Who cry upon their grds, and are not heard. 
 
 Or are not heeded—yet there must be aid— 
 
 For them and me an-i a l there must he help f 
 Ferchance the gods have need of help themselves. 
 
 Being so feeble that, when sad lips cry, 
 
 They cannot save. I would not let one cry 
 Whom I could save. How can it be that Brahm 
 Would make a world and keep it miserable, 
 
 Since, if all powerful, he leaves it so ! 
 
 He is not good—and if not powerful, 
 
 He is not God.” 
 
 How intensely human is this passionate protest—but how in¬ 
 tensely ignorant! The prodigal has forgotten his Sonship. There 
 are spiritual stirrings—the first movings of that divine discontent 
 which is destined to redeem—but as yet all is darkness. He has 
 not yet “come to himself”—he does not know that the Godhead 
 of Manhood can never be coerced. He thinks, with the false philo¬ 
 sophy of all ages, that God cannot be all-powerful and all-good, else 
 
 I 
 
 evil would not be permitted to persist ; and he sets up, upon the 
 altar of his idolatry, a false God whose name is Force, and whose 
 fear compels. The Son of God is become a slave, and he kisses his 
 chains. But all the time divine influences are driving him forth into 
 the wilderness, there to be tempted of the devil, and to learn the 
 meaning of life. The first step upon the homeward path is self-sac¬ 
 rifice. Sidd.&rtha determines to go forth upon the search for Truth : 
 
 “This will I do, because the woeful cry 
 Of life and all flesh cometh up 
 Into my ears, and all my soul is full 
 Of pity for the sickness of this world, 
 
 Which I will heal, if healing may be found 
 By uttermost renouncing and strong strife. 
 
 For which of all the great and lesser gods 
 
 Have power or pity ? Who hath seen them—who? 
 
 What have they wrought to help their worshippers? 
 
 How hath it steaded man to pray, and pay 
 Tithes of the corn and oil, to chant the charms, 
 
 To slay the shrieking sacrifice, to rear 
 
 The stately fane, to feed the priests, and call 
 
 On Vishnu, Shiva, Sury^a, who save 
 
 None—not the worthiest—from the griefs that teach 
 
 These litanies of flattery and fear, 
 
 Ascending day by day like wasted smoke? 
 
 Hath any of my brothers ’scaped thereby 
 The aches of life, the stings of love and loss, 
 
 The fiery lever and the ague shake, 
 
 The slow dull sinking into withered age, 
 
 The horrible dark death, and what beyond 
 Waits, till the whirling wheel comes up again 
 
SONSHIP. 
 
 34 
 
 And new lives bring new sorrows to be borne— 
 
 New generations for the new desires 
 Which have their end in the old mockeries ! ” 
 
 And so, strong in the spirit of self-surrender, Sidd&rtha goes 
 forth to seek the secret of the world’s salvation. His last message 
 to his father is the unconscious presage of his triumph : 
 
 “ Go, tell my father all, and say 
 Siddartha prays, forget him till he come 
 Ten times a prince, with royal wisdom won 
 From lonely searchings, and the strife for light, 
 
 Wheke, if I conquer, lo ! all earth is mine, 
 
 M ine by chief service—tell him—mine by love, 
 
 Since there is hope for man only in man, 
 
 And none hath sought for this as I will seek, 
 
 Who cast away my world to save my world.” 
 
 How there echoes here the call of Christ : “ He that loveth 
 father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me ; and he that 
 loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me. And 
 he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me, is not worthy 01 
 me. He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life 
 for my sake shall find it.” The language of all religions is the 
 same, for their universal alphabet is Love. And so for many a long 
 day Siddartha “ lost his life ” : 
 
 “ Subduing that fair body, born for bliss, 
 
 With fast and frequent watch, and search intense of silent meditation.” 
 
 He faced the gaunt spectres of ascetic delusion, and found them 
 less than the shadows of a shade. The vanity of all mortification 
 of the flesh is written here : 
 
 “ But below the caves 
 Lodged such as hold the body foe to soul, 
 
 And flesh a beast which men must chain and tame 
 With bitter pains, till sense of pain is killed 
 And tortured nerves vex torturers no more. 
 
 Some day and night had stood with lifted arms. 
 
 Till, drained of blood and withered by disease, 
 
 Their slowly wasting joints and stiffened limbs 
 Jutted from sapless shoulders like dead forks 
 From forest-trunks. Others had clenched their hands 
 So long, and with so fierce a fortitude, 
 
 The claw-like nails grew through their festered palms. 
 
 Some walked on sandals spiked ; some with sharp flints 
 Gashed breast and brow and thigh, scarred these with fire. 
 
 Threaded their flesh with jungle thorns and spits. 
 
 Siddartha sees clearer than to be content with this delusion of the 
 
SONSHIP. 
 
 15 
 
 essential evil of matter, though he is still a long way off from the 
 Father who calls him Son. He says: 
 
 “ My brothers here, and thou, so piteously 
 Self-anguished ; wherefore add ye ills to life 
 Which is so evil ? ” 
 
 The ascetic replies : 
 
 “ Alas, we know not this, 
 
 Nor surely anything, yet after night 
 Day comes, and after turmoil peace, and we 
 Hate this accursed flesh which clogs the soul 
 That fain would rise ; so, for the sake of soul, 
 
 We stake brief agonies in game with gods, 
 
 To gain the larger joys.” 
 
 Then spake Lord Buddha : 
 
 “Will ye, being wi*e 
 As yc seem holy, and strong-hearted ones, 
 
 Throw these sore dice, which are your groans and moans. 
 
 For gains which may be dreams and must have end? 
 
 Will ye, for love of soul, so loathe your flesh. 
 
 So scourge and maim it, that it shall not serve 
 To bear the spirit on, searching for home, 
 
 But founder on the track before night fall, 
 
 Like willing steed o’er-spurred ? Will ye, sad sirs, 
 
 Dismantle and dismember this fair house 
 Where ye have come to dwell by painful pasts ; 
 
 Whose windows give us light—the little light 
 Whereby we gaze abroad to know if dawn 
 Will break—and whither winds the better road ? ” 
 
 Part IV. 
 
 “ O glory most excelling, 
 
 That smote across his path ; 
 
 O light that pierced and blinded 
 The zealot in his wrath ; 
 
 O voice that spake within him 
 The calm, reproving word ; 
 
 O love that sought and held him 
 The bondman of the Lord ! ” 
 
 High or low, the history of all conversions, as they are called, is 
 very much the same. It matters not whether we sit with Sid- 
 dartha upon the couch of princely luxury, or hasten with St. Paul 
 along the high-road to Damascus, or lose ourselves with St. Augustine 
 
SONS HIP. 
 
 16 
 
 in the far-off country of the prodigal’s exile—there comes a time 
 when the Father’s voice is heard speaking, soft and low ; and yet 
 the sound stirs like a trumpet-call : “ My son, give me thine heart! ” 
 Often, in the annals of repentance, there has been a long agony of 
 indecision. There has been chaos in the spiritual life—all has been 
 black and void—clouds and darkness have hung over the scene. 
 But the divine evolution has begun, and suddenly the voice of God 
 is heard : “ Let there be light! ”—and all the glory of Creation 
 bursts into view. 
 
 So it was with Sidd&rtha. The first great renunciation of home, 
 with all its sweet associations, but drove him into the wilderness, 
 there to be tempted of the devil. And so it is ever in the history of 
 spiritual conflict ; the first victory seems to the young warrior a 
 miserable reverse. Take the case of the Vegetarian, who, for Con¬ 
 science’ sake, for Christ’s sake, for Humanity’s sake, resolves to re¬ 
 nounce his past. For such an one there is no immediate consciousness 
 of triumph—rather, a sense of chill, a tremor of doubt. The step is 
 taken, the ships are burned, the Rubicon is passed under the pressure 
 of unseen influences; but the fight has still to be fought out, the 
 sense of Sonship has still to be won. And yet, if the new life be 
 honestly pursued, there will be many an unseen source of help. 
 The mountains about us are forever full with horses of fire and 
 chariots of fire—the messengers of God to do us service—only 
 our eyes are hindered that we cannot see, in all our coming and 
 going, that we are “ encompassed by so great a cloud of wit¬ 
 nesses.” The intuitions of our souls are so deadened, that we do 
 not know that angel-hosts are waiting to minister unto us. We 
 wrestle in the garden of Gethsemane with our weakness, we 
 strive to murmur, “ Thy will, not mine, be done ! ” yet in our 
 hearts is the Saviour’s cry If it be possible, let this cup pass 
 from me.” No, it is not possible—thank God, it is not possible— 
 we cannot serve two masters, we cannot do the will of God and 
 yet be subject to the law of the flesh. 
 
 And all the time, the Father is revealing himself to us; he is 
 teaching us that supreme lesson of Sonship, which shall inspire us 
 
SUiNbHiP, 
 
 17 
 
 for his work. The first inbreathing of the Divine Spirit is Love— 
 Love which is not cribbed and cabined within the narrow walls of 
 home-affections, but which binds the whole universe in its golden 
 chains—Love from man to man, so that the humblest sutler in the 
 army of life becomes a brother to be led to God—Love from man 
 to the animal-world, so that the weakest creature wins the 
 sympathy of strength. Love is the very essence of our Sonship, 
 for in it we begin to know our Father. And so Siddartha learned, 
 in his long quest for Truth. One day he came upon a sacrifice. 
 The altar was upreared, the victim was outstretched, the priest 
 stood near about to strike • 
 
 “ But Buddha softly said, 
 
 Let him not strike, great king, and therewith loosed 
 The victim’s bonds, none staying him, so great 
 His presence was. Then, craving leave, he spake 
 Of life which all can take, but none can give ; 
 
 Life which all creatures love and strive to keep, 
 
 Wonderful, dear, and pleasant unto each, 
 
 Even to the meanest ; yea, a boon to all; 
 
 Where pity is. for pity makes the world 
 Soft to the weak, and noble to the strong. 
 
 Unto the dumb lips of the flock he lent 
 
 Sad pleading words, showing how man, who prays 
 
 P'or mercy to the gods, is merciless, 
 
 Being as God to these ; albeit all life 
 Is linked and kin, and what we slay have given 
 Meek tribute of their milk and wool, and set 
 Fast trust upon the hands which murder them.” 
 
 Clear and true is the law of self-sacrifice declared. We hear 
 the echo of the Psalmist’s prophecy: “ Deliver me from blood- 
 guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation, and my tongue shall 
 sing aloud of thy righteousness. For thou desirest not sacrifice, 
 else would I give it ; thou delightest not in burnt-sacrifice. The 
 sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, 
 O God, thou wilt not despise.” What is this but the warning of 
 Siddartha: 
 
 “None shall wash his spirit clean 
 By blood ; nor gladden gods being good with blood, 
 
 Nor bribe these being evil ; nay, nor lay 
 Upon the brow of innocent bound beasts 
 One hair’s-weight of that answer all must give 
 For all things done amiss, or wrongfully, 
 
 Alone, each for himself, reckoning with that, 
 
 The fixed arithmetic of the universe, 
 
SONSH.P. 
 
 iS 
 
 Which meteth good for good, and ill for ill, 
 Measure for measure, unto deeds, words, thoughts, 
 Watchful, aware, implacable, unmoved, 
 
 Making all futures fruits of all the pasts.” 
 
 The inspiration of Sonship, the revelation of Obedience, is breaking 
 upon the darkness of his search. The leaven of love is working 
 and the divine vision of a world redeemed through love grows ever 
 more clear. He sees 
 
 .“ How fair 
 
 This earth were, if all living things were linked 
 In friendliness and common use of foods, 
 
 Bloodless and pure : the golden grain, bright fruits, 
 Sweet herbs which grow for all, the waters wan, 
 Sufficient drinks and meats.” 
 
 It were all too long to follow the beautiful poem, which tells of 
 the stages of Siddartha’s probation. At last the complete glory of 
 God’s gift of life is revealed to him. He knows himself a Son of 
 God, made perfect through suffering—powerful to redeem the 
 world. He secs the splendid future unrolling itself before a per¬ 
 fected Humanity. Such is the sum of his teaching. 
 
 “ If ye lay bound upon the wheel of change, 
 
 And no way were of breaking from the chain, 
 
 The Heart of boundless Being is a curse, 
 
 The Soul of Things fell Pain. 
 
 “Ye are not bound ! the Soul of Things is sweet. 
 
 The Heart of Being is celestial rest; 
 
 Stronger than woe is will: that which was Good 
 Doth pass to Better—Best. 
 
 “ I, Buddh, who wept with all my brothers’ tears, 
 
 Whose heart wvs broken by a whole world’s woe, 
 
 Laugh and am glad, for there is Liberty ! 
 
 Ho ! ye who suffer ! know 
 
 “ Ye suffer from yourselves. None else compels, 
 None other holds you that ye live and die, 
 
 And whirl upon the wheel, and hug and kiss 
 Its spokes of agony, 
 
 “ Its tire of tears, its nave of nothingness. 
 
 Behold, I show you Truth ! Lower than h?V, 
 Higher than heaven, outside the utmost stars. 
 Farther than Brahm doth dwell, 
 
 “ Before oeginning, and without an end, 
 
 As pace eternal and as surety sure, 
 
 Is fixed a Power divine which moves to good, 
 Only its laws endure. 
 
 '• This is its touch upon the blossomed rose, 
 
 The fashion of its hand shaped lotus-leaves ; 
 In dark soil and the silence of the seeds 
 The robe of Spring it weaves ; 
 
S0NSH1P. 
 
 19 
 
 “ That is its painting on the glorio is clouds, 
 
 And these its emeralds on the peacock’s train : 
 
 It hath its stations in the stars ; its slaves 
 In lightning, wind, and rain. 
 
 “ Out of the daik it wrought the heart of man, 
 
 Out of dull shells the pheasant’s pencilled neck ; 
 
 Ever at toil, it brings to loveliness 
 All ancient wrath and wreck. 
 
 “ The grey eggs in the golden sun-bird’s nest 
 Its Measures are, the bees’ six-sided cell 
 Its honey-pot; the ant wots of its ways, 
 
 The white doves know them well. 
 
 “ It spreadeth forth for flight the eagle’s wings 
 
 What time she beareth home her prey ; it sends 
 The she-wolf to her cubs ; for unloved things 
 It findeth food and friends. 
 
 “ It is not marred nor stayed in any use, 
 
 All liketh it; the sweet white milk it brings 
 To mothers’ breasts ; it brings the white drops, too, 
 Wherewith the young snake stings. 
 
 “ The ordered music of the marching orbs 
 It makes in viewless canopy of sky ; 
 
 In deep abyss of earth it hides up gold, 
 
 Sards, sapphires, lazuli. 
 
 “ Ever and ever bringing secrets forth, 
 
 It sitteth in the green of forest-glades 
 Nursing strange seedlings at the cedar’s root, 
 
 Devising leaves, blooms, blades. 
 
 “ It slayeth and it saveth, nowise moved 
 Except unto the working out of doom ; 
 
 Its threads are Love and Life; and Death and Pain 
 The shuttles of its loom. 
 
 ’ ‘ It maketh and unmaketh, mending all • 
 
 What it hath wrought is better than hath been; 
 
 Slow grows the splendid pattern that it plans 
 Its wistful hands between. 
 
 This is its work upon the things ye see, 
 
 The unseen things are more ; men’s hearts and minds, 
 The thoughts of peoples and their ways and wills, 
 Those, too, the great Law binds. 
 
 “ Unseen it helpeth ve with faithful hands, 
 
 Unheard it speaketh stronger than the storm. 
 
 Pity and Love are man’s because long stress 
 Moulded blind mass to form. 
 
 *' It will not be contemned of any one ; 
 
 Who thwarts it loses, and who serves it gains ; 
 
 The hidden good it pays with peace and bliss, 
 
 The hidden ill with pains. 
 
 It seeth everywhere, and marketh ail: 
 
 Do right—it recompenseth ! do one wrong— 
 
 The equal retribution must be made, 
 
 Though Dharma tarry long. 
 
 44 
 
20 
 
 SONSHIP. 
 
 It knows not wrath nor pardon; utter-true 
 
 Its measures mete, its faultless balance weighs ; 
 
 Times are as nought, to-morrow it will judge, 
 
 Or after many days. 
 
 “ By this the slayer’s knife did stab himself; 
 
 The unjust judge hath lost his own defender ; 
 
 The false tongue dooms its lie; the creeping thief 
 And spoiler rob, to render. 
 
 “ Such is the Law which moves to Righteousness, 
 
 Which none at last can turn aside or stay; 
 
 The heart cf it is Love, the end of it 
 
 Is Peace and Consummation sweet. Obey ! 
 
 * * * * 
 
 “ Enter the Path ! There is no grief like Hate ! 
 
 No pains like passions, no deceit like sense ! 
 
 Enter the Path ! far hath he gone whose foot 
 Treads down one fond offence. 
 
 “ Enter the Path ! There spring the healing streams. 
 
 Quenching all thirst ! there bloom th’ immortal flowers 
 Carpeting all the way with joy ! there throng 
 Swiftest and sweetest hours ! 
 
 Part V. 
 
 “O wisdom ordering all things, 
 
 In order strong and sweet, 
 What nobler spoil was ever 
 Cast at the Victor’s feet; 
 What wiser master-builder 
 E’er wrought at thine employ 
 Than he, till now so furious 
 Thy building to destroy ! ” 
 
 Obey ! In this word is the summation of all Sonship—the ful¬ 
 filment of God’s purposes for Man. We have seen that it is the 
 completion of Siddartha’s teaching : 
 
 “ Such is the Law which moves to Righteousness, 
 
 Which none at last can turn aside or stay ; 
 
 The heart of it is Love, the end of it 
 
 Is peace and consummation sweet. Obey!” 
 
 It is one with the command of Christ: “If ye love me, keep my 
 commandments,” “He that hath my commandments and keepeth 
 
SONSHIP. 
 
 2 I 
 
 them, he it is that loveth me, and he that loveth me shall be loved 
 of my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him 
 He that loveth me not, keepeth not my sayings, and the word 
 which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.” 
 
 This is the sum and substance of all Christianity—and how 
 different is its simple inspiration from the dreary dogmas and 
 barren formulae of ecclesiastical theology! If we go back to the 
 fountain-head of Christ’s teaching, if we di ink in the glorious gospel 
 of the Saviour of the world, we find that we have too long been held 
 by fetters of our own forging, and that the liberty which Christ gives 
 us is the obedience which is made perfect in love. As we listen to 
 the voice of him who spake as never man spake, echoing down 
 across the centuries full of grace and truth, we hear no word of pro¬ 
 pitiation by blood, or of substitution by sacrifice. We hear nothing of 
 the reconciliation of the Cross—nothing of the atonement of Death. 
 But, again and again, our hearts are thrilled with the majestic sum¬ 
 mons of ideal Manhood : “ Be ye therefore perfect, even as your 
 Father which is in heaven is perfect” And the first condition of 
 such perfection is obedience to the perfect laws of God. 
 
 What a warning there is for the professional preacher in the con¬ 
 demnation : “ Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall 
 enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my 
 Father which is in heaven. Many will say tome in that day, Lord, 
 Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have 
 cast out devils, and in thy name have done many wonderful works? 
 and then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from 
 me ye that work iniquity.” 
 
 There is a marvellous virility, a practical common-sense, about 
 this new counsel of perfection, that struck home to the heart of the 
 people then, even as it has power to do the same to-day ; for it is 
 related, “ the people were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught 
 them as one having authority, and not as the Scribes.” Well may 
 the people have been astonished at this revelation of the divinity 
 of manhood. To many, especially the so-called religious leaders 
 of the day, it was a hard saying, and they could not receive it— 
 
22 
 
 SON SHIP. 
 
 “ the light shone in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it 
 not.” 
 
 Nearly two thousand years have rolled away, and it is a 
 hard saying still ; and yet what a wealth of illumination has 
 been shed upon this inner teaching of Christ by every social and 
 moral reform which has begun to pave the way for perfection i 
 Think of the Temperance movement fifty years ago, think of the 
 Vegetarian and Purity movements now, and listen to the prophecy 
 which was to the Jews a stumbling-stone and to the Greeks foolish¬ 
 ness—ah, how the words must ring in many a discouraged heart 
 to-night !—“ Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him 
 will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven ; but whoso¬ 
 ever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my 
 Father which is in heaven. Think not that I am come to send 
 peace on earth ; I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am 
 come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter 
 against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in- 
 law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household. He 
 that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me ; 
 and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy 
 of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth not after 
 me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it, and 
 he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.” 
 
 What a harmony is here of all religious experience! For con¬ 
 science’ sake—for conviction’s sake—for Christ’s sake—they are all 
 echoes of the same spiritual stirring. The Son begins to remember 
 his Father ; he begins to loathe the husks that the swine do eat, he 
 begins to come to himself; and, because he has not yet realised 
 that his Father is waiting and longing for his return, he calls, in his 
 weakness and in his ignorance, for a mediator. Ah, how pitiful is 
 his hopeless, faithless, loveless despair : “ I am no more worthy to 
 be called thy Son, make me as one of thy hired servants.” And 
 this bitter cry of his degradation has been caught up and empha¬ 
 sised by the foolishness of preaching. Here is the secret of the 
 Church’s failure. As it has taken low views of the possibilities of 
 
SONSHIP. 
 
 2 3 
 
 Manhood, so has it driven humanity deeper into the slough of 
 despond. As it has made Christ, not a brother, but a substitute, 
 so has it destroyed the gospel of salvation. We have yet to learn 
 the meaning of Christianity ; and the interpretation cometh not 
 from without, but from within. As we become obedient to the 
 Father’s will, so do we become responsive to the teaching of the 
 Son. Never were more pregnant words than these, as true to-day 
 as when they were first uttered : “ Search the Scriptures, for in 
 them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify 
 of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” 
 
 Let us, then, no longer linger, but let us hasten to the Redeemer, 
 and learn of him the meaning of life. He speaks with no uncer¬ 
 tain voice: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be 
 born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the king¬ 
 dom of God ; that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and 
 that which is born of the spirit is spirit.” And again : “ God so 
 loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoso¬ 
 ever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 
 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, 
 but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth 
 on him is not condemned ; but he that believeth not is condemned 
 already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only- 
 begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is 
 come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, 
 because their deeds were evil.” 
 
 Can language be more plain ? There is not one word about 
 " vicarious substitution ”—not one word about “ mediatorial re¬ 
 demption ”—only the promise that he that believes the teaching of 
 Christ has already begun to receive salvation. And what is this 
 essential teaching of Christ ? It is THE DIVINITY OF MAN, 
 MADE PERFECT THROUGH OBEDIENCE TO THE 
 WILL OF GOD. Again and again he dwells upon the spiritual 
 relation of Man to God. Were he among us now, might we not 
 expect to hear him say again : “ Ye worship ye know not what ; 
 but the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall 
 
24 
 
 SONSHIP. 
 
 worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh 
 such to worship him. God is a spirit, and they that worship him 
 must worship him in spirit and in truth. 
 
 And what was the answer of theworld to this message of Sonship ? 
 “Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not 
 only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, 
 making himself equal with God.” And such is ever the world’s 
 answer still, for it cannot understand the confidence of Christian 
 Sonship ; but every Son of God speaks with the same proud humility: 
 “ I can of myself do nothing—as I hear, I judge ; and my judg¬ 
 ment is just, because I seek not my own will, but the will of the 
 Father which hath sent me.” And again : “ My doctrine is not 
 mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall 
 know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak it 
 of myself. He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory, 
 but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and 
 no unrighteousness is in him.” 
 
 Here is the touchstone of the divine inspiration—there must be 
 no taint of self—it must be the Spirit of God speaking through the 
 Son, or the message is tainted at its very source. How wonderful 
 in its simplicity, yet in its fulness, is this elemental revelation of 
 the Fatherhood of God and the Sonship of Man ! How splendid 
 is the prophecy, that Love is the fulfilling of universal Law! 
 How precious is the promise : “If ye continue in my words, then 
 are ye my disciples indeed ; and ye shall know the truth, and the 
 truth shall make you free.” How solemn is the warning: “ Verily, 
 verily, I say unto you, whosoever committeth sin is the servant of 
 sin.” How terrible is the condemnation of our wilful disobedience 
 —no longer sons, but servants of sin—and “the servant abideth not 
 in the house for ever, but the son abideth ever.” How strange is 
 the sound of the Saviour’s challenge: “ Verily, verily, I say unto 
 you, if a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.” 
 
 Is the world more prepared to receive Christ now than it was 
 then ? What would its answer be to such confidence as this? We 
 have the record of its rejection by the Jews ; “ They said unto him, 
 
SONSHIP. 
 
 2 5 
 
 Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the 
 prophets; and thou sayest, If a man keep my sayings, he shall 
 never taste of death. Art thou greater than our father Abraham, 
 which is dead ; and the prophets are dead ; whom makest thou thy¬ 
 self?” Memorable, thrice memorable, is the reply: “Jesus 
 answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my 
 Father that honoureth me, of whom ye say that he is your God. 
 Yet ye have not known him ; but I know him.” And as we listen 
 to this proud claim of Sonship, surely there echoes in our ears the 
 other accordant utterance, “ Why seek ye the living amongst the 
 dead ? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” Aye, 
 wonderful as it is, it is true ; the gift of God is eternal life, and it is 
 sin alone that brings death into the world. “ O death, where is thy 
 sting ? O grave, where is thy victory ? The sting of Death is Sin, 
 and the strength of Sin is the Law, but thanks be to God that giveth 
 us the victory through the Lord Jesus Christ.” 
 
 It is not once that Christ reveals this splendid Sonship of Life. 
 Who does not recollect the wonderful scene, when the Jews came 
 round about him and said unto him : “ How long dost thou make 
 us to doubt ? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered 
 them, I told you, and ye believed not; the works that I do in my 
 Father’s name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because 
 ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my 
 voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto 
 them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man 
 pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me is 
 greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my 
 Father’s hand. I AND MY FATHER ARE ONE ! Then the 
 Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, 
 Many good works have I shown yo i from my Father ; for which of 
 these works do ye stone me ? Th : Jezvs answered, For a good work 
 we stone thee not , but for blasphem ' and because that thou , being Man , 
 makest thyself God. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your 
 law, I SAID YE ARE GODS? If he called them gods unto 
 whom the word of God came, and the Scriptures cannot be broken, 
 
2 6 
 
 SONSHIP. 
 
 say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the 
 world, Thou blasphemest, because I said, I am the Son of God ? 
 If I do not the wotks of my Father, believe me not; but if I do, 
 though ye believe not me, believe the works, that ye may know and 
 believe that the Father is in me and I in him ! ” 
 
 “ Sing them over again to me, 
 
 Beautiful words of Life— 
 
 Beautiful words, beautiful words. 
 
 Beautiful words of Life ! ” 
 
 Part VII. 
 
 *' Ten thousand times ten thousand, 
 In sparkling raiment bright, 
 The armies of the ransomed saints 
 Throng up the steeps of light. 
 ’Tis finished, all is finished, 
 
 Their fight with death and sin; 
 Fling open wide the golden gates, 
 And let the victors in ! ” 
 
 And Sonship is victory! The long fight with the world, the 
 flesh, and the devil, is wen, when the crown of Sonship is placed 
 upon the brow of Faith. There may be still many a conflict in 
 store, many a weary hill to climb, many a dark ravine to pass 
 through on the way home from the far-off country of ignorance 
 and sin ; but the hopeless despair of exile is dead and gone, when 
 once the spirit of Sonship is born into the heart. What a glorious 
 message is this gospel of Sonship for the world to-day! For the 
 heart of humanity is sick and sad, and the bitter cry of its despon¬ 
 dency is, “ Who shall show us any good ? ” 
 
 What a challenge for the Churches, where orthodoxy is crystal¬ 
 lised into loveless creeds, and where dogma becomes the shroud of 
 spiritual death! What a welcome for the wanderer, who has for¬ 
 gotten the name of Father, and who will not bow the knee before 
 the simulacrum of a God ! There is no pride so pathetic as the 
 protest of the Agnostic: “ I am blind, I am blind ; I know thee 
 
SONS HIP. 
 
 27 
 
 
 not, my Father ; I see the beauty of the Saviour’s life, I am con¬ 
 scious of the majestic forces whereby the finite is evolved from 
 infinity, I have learnt a little of the ordered significance of thy 
 Creation, I have looked into the book of Nature and read the 
 wonders of universal Law. And yet its beauty and its grandeur 
 tell me nothing of Thee—I am blind, I am blind ; and thou, my 
 Father, art unknown. What is it that Science teaches me?—little 
 but the awful persistence of force, the cruel continuity of law. For, 
 indeed, the remorseless, passionless, changeless reign of law is cruel 
 with the tyranny of fear. My reason gives me the verdict of my 
 senses ; my mind is conscious of objective thought ; but it tells me 
 nothing of my Father which is in heaven ; rather does it teach me 
 to fly such vain and foolish fancies, as unworthy of a thinking man. 
 I am too proud to pretend to worship a Deity I cannot know ; I 
 see too clearly the inconsistencies of profession and practice to care 
 to call myself a Christian ; I recognise too strongly the difficulties 
 of revelation, the discrepancies of doctrine, to belong to any Church. 
 No, I call myself a free thinker, I scorn the pitiful pretence of 
 piety ; and the conclusion of the whole matter is this—I am blind, 
 I am blind ! ” 
 
 How many a heart-ache lingers behind this scientific pessimism 
 —how many a broken heart-string quivers behind these discords of 
 disbelief! For indeed, reason is not, and never can be, the revealer 
 of religion ; it touches but one harmony in the complex chord of 
 life, and that the lower bass of Law. In very truth, a fundamental 
 harmony, but incomplete. It is not in the mind, but in the soul, 
 that the Son recalls his Father; it is not in the reason, but in the 
 spirit, that a man begins to worship his God. And yet how joyfully 
 the welcome sounds to every honest searcher after Truth : “ This 
 my Son was dead, and is alive again ; he was lost, and is found/’ 
 The clinging mists of prejudice, the chilly fogs of antipathy, that 
 have so long divided, as by an impassable gulf, the intellectual and 
 the spiritual life, vanish before the bright sunshine of Hope and 
 Love. The Saviour’s voice sounds strong and true : “ Wherefore 
 I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven 
 
28 
 
 SON SHIP. 
 
 unto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be 
 forgiven unto men.” You may forget your Father, you may des¬ 
 pise and degrade his goodness ; you may look out upon the failure 
 of the world, and say that God cannot be all-good and all-powerful, 
 to suffer evil to exist—all this you may do, in the wilful pride of 
 intellectual ignorance—but when you forget yourself, when you 
 deny the Spirit of God which is within you, when you trample 
 underfoot your own birthright of Sonship, when you blaspheme the 
 Godhead of your own Manhood, and drag through the mire the 
 divine essence of existence—then, so long as you will not turn and 
 repent, there can be no forgiveness, “ neither in this world, neither 
 in the world to come.” 
 
 Who then shall stay this condemnation ? The answer is for all: 
 4 ‘ No man can redeem his brother ; work out your own salvation, 
 in fear and trembling ! ” In the day of judgment our doom will be 
 our own ; as we have lived, so shall we die ; and as we have sown, so 
 shall we also reap. “ Ah, but,” some one says, “ away with this gos¬ 
 pel of works—it is anathema maranatha ! ” Nay, it is the gospel 
 of Sonship, and it is one with the commands of Christ. It says to 
 the Agnostic : “ My son, if thou hast learned to live honestly, if 
 thou hast followed justice, mercy, and truth, then art thou not far from 
 the kingdom of heaven. I have much to show unto thee ; and 
 when thine eyes are opened thou shalt rejoice with exceeding great 
 joy, for thou shalt see the king in his beauty, thou shalt find thyself 
 at home ! ” But to the hypocrite and the wicked it says : “ Either 
 make the tree good and his fruit good, or else make the tree cor¬ 
 rupt and his fruit corrupt, for the tree is known of his fruit. Not 
 every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the king¬ 
 dom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father 
 which is in heaven ; for whosoever shall do the will of my Father 
 which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and 
 mother.” 
 
 Thrice blessed gospel of Sonship—which is given, not to the 
 elect, but to all! “ Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the 
 
 waters ; and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat, yea, 
 
SONSH1P. 
 
 2 9 
 
 come, buy wine and milk without money and without price 
 Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread, and 
 your labour for that which satisfieth not ? Seek ye the Lord while 
 he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked 
 forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him 
 return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our 
 God, for he will abundantly pardon. For ye shall go out with joy 
 and be led forth with peace ; the mountains and the hills shall 
 break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field 
 shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir- 
 tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle-tree ; and 
 it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall 
 not be cut off.” 
 
 
 Part VII. 
 
 “ Visit thou this soul of mine, 
 
 Pierce the gloom of sin and grief; 
 Fill me, radiancy divine, 
 
 Scatter all my unbelief; 
 
 More and more thyself display, 
 Shining to the perfect day.” 
 
 It is true that when Jesus Christ came into the world to reveal 
 the Father—to recall the at-one-ment of Man with God—he spoke 
 chiefly of spiritual things. This gospel of Sonship was left un¬ 
 finished—crucified upon the cross of Calvary. Christ himself 
 warned his disciples that it must be so; but they understood him 
 not, and the Church of Christ has intensified the mistake. What 
 a wealth of forgotten meaning lingers in those loving words, after 
 the last supper : “ If ye love me keep my commandments, and I 
 will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter 
 that he may abide with you for ever, even the Spirit of Truth, 
 whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not, neither 
 
SONS HIV. 
 
 knovveth him, but ye know him for he dwelleth with you, and shall 
 be in you ; I will not leave you comfortless, I will come unto you.'’ 
 Again and again, with passionate insistence, he urges upon his 
 heart-broken disciples that their salvation depends, not upon his 
 own presence, but upon the divine spirit that is within them. 
 What can be more natural, what more utterly true, than that won¬ 
 derful record which the beloved disciple gives us of his Master's 
 parting words : “ Because I have said these things unto you, sorrow 
 hath filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is expe¬ 
 dient for you that I gc away ; for if I go not away, the Comforter 
 will not come unto you ; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. 
 And when he is come he will reprove the world of sin, and of righ¬ 
 teousness, and of judgment ; of sin, because they believe not on me ; 
 of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more ; 
 of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. I have 
 many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. How- 
 bcit when he the Spirit of Truth is come , he will guide you into all 
 truth; for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall 
 hear that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come.” 
 
 Thank God, the Spirit of Truth is come, and his voice thunders 
 in our midst to-day. For five-and-fifty years it has been re-echoing 
 through the Temperance ranks. It has reproved a world that war 
 drowning itself in drink, for the sin of drunkenness ; it has pointed 
 out, on many a platform, the righteousness of abstinence from 
 alcohol ; it has warned all who have had ears to hear, of the judg¬ 
 ment which lingers for the tippler—of the responsibility for the 
 n.in of their brothers, which hangs over the head of moderate 
 indulgence in that which is wrong. In the great Temperance re¬ 
 formation, we may see the inspiration of the Spirit of Truth, 
 which Christ promised should come. That gospel of deliverance 
 for the prisoners of drink—that message of hope for those who are 
 still fast bound in misery and iron—is still incomplete, so long as 
 our national liquor-bill musters up its millions, and while our gin 
 palaces flaunt their fascinations at every corner of the street. 
 There can be no sense of Sonship for the poor prodigal who is 
 
SONSHIP. 
 
 31 
 
 filling his belly with the intoxicating husks that swine refuse to 
 eat ; there can be no at-one-ment between man and God, where 
 the vitriolic madness drives the drunkard’s fist into the face of his 
 starving wife, or where false fashion, linked with appetite, brands 
 moderation with the curse of Cain. “ Am I my brother’s keeper?” 
 says every murderer, who stifles the truth with his respectability. 
 And the answer of Nathan the prophet sounds loud for these smug 
 and sanctimonious days : “ Thou art the man ! ” “ Thus saith the 
 
 Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee a respectable amidst my people, 
 I delivered thee from the hand of destitution, and I gave unto thee 
 education, position, and a portion of this world’s goods j and if 
 that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee 
 such and such things. Wherefore hast thou despised the com¬ 
 mandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight ? Thou hast sanc¬ 
 tioned the sin of strong drink with thine influence and thine 
 example ; behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine 
 own house.” How often, in every-day life, has this curse of mode- 
 rate-drinking struck home ; but then, as ever, there is room found 
 for repentance. “ And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned 
 against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also 
 hath put away thy sin.” 
 
 Once again, the .Spirit of Truth is speaking through the great 
 movement of Vegetarianism. All sorts and conditions of men are 
 called to be its apostles ; but the Spirit of Truth has words for 
 each to say. As the Son learns the glory of his Father’s face, so 
 shall he burn to tell it to the world ; and as the weakliest wanderer 
 is faithful in a few things, so shall it be given him to become the 
 master of many more. None may limit the possibilities of this 
 spiritual inspiration, which to the open heart becomes the revela¬ 
 tion of the will of God. None may presume to dogmatise upon 
 the boundaries of the unknown. None may dare to say to the 
 advancing tide of Truth, “ Thus far shalt thou come and no farther, 
 and hither shall thy proud waves be stayed.” Thrice fools and 
 blind, who look to strengthen the kingdom of Christ with the 
 broken bulwarks of popular acceptance—who seek to span the 
 
3 2 
 
 SONSHIP. 
 
 infinities of creation with the inch-measure of their ignorance— 
 who deprecate the expression of essential Truth, lest it should 
 frighten by its simplicity the cowards of convention and the bond- 
 slaves of desire ! 
 
 There may be no craven compromise with the Spirit of 1 ruth ; 
 and the voice of its indignation is sounding against the follies that 
 excite, and the vices that exhaust, the very fountains of life. 
 “ Accumulate, but do not stimulate ! ” might be the watchword of 
 its warning; for stimulants but fan the fires which burn the body 
 before its time. Smoking, chewing, snuffing, are all a part of the 
 same vicious cycle of excess ; they break the laws of health, they 
 fall under the condemnation of disease and death. The Spirit 
 of Truth breathes in this new gospel of Hygiene. It shows that 
 Nature’s laws all make for life, that pain and sickness are the 
 Nemesis of their violation ; but, more than this, the shadows of 
 negation are trembling before the sunshine of hope. The possi¬ 
 bilities of vital food, rich with the potency of life, are being ex¬ 
 plored. As the dogmas of religion are dead without the spirit of 
 Love, so are the doctrines of Vegetarianism dead without the 
 significance of Life. The highest possibilities of both are let and 
 hindered, because their vital spark is fled. 
 
 Here, in the body, is the beginning of Sonship—here, in the 
 physical life, is based the Divinity of Man. And the crown of 
 physical perfection is Purity—purity of food, purity of life, purity 
 of thought, purity of soul. There can be no new life, so long as 
 love is procuress to passion, so long as marriage is itself 
 unchaste. Here is the centre of the world’s undoing, and the 
 Spirit of Sonship speaks with no uncertain voice: “ Keep thyself 
 pure, make thyself vital, so shalt thou be worthy to resume thy 
 birthright as Son of God, and heir of the kingdom of heaven.” The 
 voice sounds for us all. The past is forgotten and forgiven, when 
 once the feet are set upon the homeward path. The Father's 
 welcome is waiting for us, and as we are willing to receive it, so 
 shall it sound in our ears : “ This my son was dead and is alive 
 again, he was lost and is found.” 
 
SONSHIP. 
 
 33 
 
 Part VIII. 
 
 “ For ever with the Lord, 
 
 Amen, so let it be ! 
 
 Life from the dead is in that word, 
 ’Tis immortality. 
 
 Knowing as I am known, 
 
 How shall I love that word. 
 
 And oft repeat before the throne, 
 For ever with the Lord ! ” 
 
 “ Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God 
 and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” 
 We stand at last upon the loftiest range of Hope, and the eye of 
 Faith grows dim before the splendour of the opening prospect. 
 The heart swells big with new emotion, the pulse is quickened 
 with a strange ecstasy. The glory of Sonship, the majesty of 
 Manhood, is revealed to our wondering gaze,,and we shrink back 
 half-dazzled, half-afraid. We stand with Elijah upon the moun¬ 
 tain of Horeb, and we fear to look upon the face of God. “ And 
 behold the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent 
 the mountains and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but 
 the Lord was not in the wind ; and after the wind an earthquake, 
 but the Lord was not in the earthquake ; and after the earthquake a 
 fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small 
 voice. And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face 
 in his mantle, and went out and stood in the entering in of the cave ; 
 and behold there came a voice unto him and said, What doest thou 
 here, Elijah ? ” 
 
 Ah, most wonderful parable! After the tempestuous roar¬ 
 ings of popular clamour, of pulpit preaching, of platform perora¬ 
 tion—after the earthquake of shattered hopes and broken fortunes, 
 after the fire of persecution and ridicule—there sounds at last, for 
 every searcher after the Truth, the still small voice, the voice of the 
 Father whispering in the soul ; and the summons of its gladness is 
 for ever the same : “ My Son, give me thine heart. What doest 
 thou here, bemoaning thyself as a martyr, not knowing that I am 
 with thee, and that all the hosts of hell are powerless to do thee 
 
 s 
 
34 
 
 SONSHIP. 
 
 harm ? From all eternity thou art my Son—a priest tor ever, after 
 the order of Melchizedek. I have loved thee, I have called thee. 
 Go forth and do my work, strong in the divinity of obedience, joy¬ 
 ful with the Ideal of perfection. No weapon that is formed against 
 thee shall prosper. There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall 
 any plague come nigh thy dwelling. I have given my angels 
 charge of thee to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee 
 up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Thou 
 shalt tread upon the lion and the adder, the young lion and the 
 dragon shalt thou trample under feet. Thou shalt call upon me > 
 and I will answer thee, I will be with thee in trouble, I will deliver 
 thee, and honour thee. With long life will I satisfy thee, and show 
 thee my salvation.” 
 
 How cheerful, how wholesome, is the sound of this splendid 
 promise. In a mornent, in the twinkling of an eye, the entire 
 aspect of life is changed ; the dark shadows of destiny are shot with 
 the sunshine of Hope ; the dank fogs of lugubrious lethargy are 
 irradiated with the inspiration of Love. Ah, fools and slow of heart 
 to believe—for nearly two thousand years this glorious gospel of 
 Sonship has been challenging the world. “ The light shone in 
 darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not”; and from the 
 Cross of Calvary sounds the dying prayer, “ Father, forgive them, 
 they know not what they do.” And yet the Truth remains un¬ 
 changeable, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. The gospel 
 of reconciliation, the at-one-ment of man made one with God, takes 
 no heed of man’s mistakes. All the creeds of the churches, all the 
 dogmas of the divines, may be stained with blood, may be 
 desecrated with death; but the proud challenge of the Christ 
 changes not: “ Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which 
 is in heaven is perfect.” 
 
 And as the power of Sonship—of Man made God—is realised in 
 the daily life, so does the redemption of the world draw nigh. The 
 hideous immorality of “ a creation groaning and travailing in pain 
 together ” begins to pass away, as Man resumes by obedience his 
 birthright as a Son of God. And at once the sound of rejoicing 
 
SONSHIP. 
 
 35 
 
 makes itself heard—every paean of the Psalmist is but an echo of 
 the laughter of life : “ The heavens declare his righteousness, and 
 all the people see his glory. Light is sown for the righteous, and 
 gladness for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous, 
 and give thanks for a remembrance of his holiness.” How can we 
 help rejoicing, when we know that we are children of the Most 
 High God ! How can we help rejoicing, when our bodies are filled 
 with health, and our hearts with love—when we know, out of our 
 own practical experience, that “ all things work together for good to 
 those who love God ” 1 Well may we make a joyful noise unto the 
 Lord—well may we rejoice and sing praises. Well may the sea 
 roar and the fulness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein ; 
 well may the floods clap their hands, and the hills be joyful toge¬ 
 ther ; for this splendid hope of Sonship is no narrow plank stretched 
 from the jaws of hell to the portals of Paradise, where the elect 
 may pass alone. This gospel of glad tidings is for all—for the 
 whole world—and it says : Work out your own salvation—become 
 obedient to the perfect law of God. There is no test of Sonship 
 save obedience made perfect in love. It embraces the whole man ; 
 it sanctifies his spirit ; it warms his soul ; it instructs his intellect; 
 it purifies his body—great is the mystery of godliness. “ All the 
 works of God are verity and judgment, all his commandments are 
 sure. They stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and 
 uprightness. He sent redemption unto his people, he hath com¬ 
 manded his covenant for ever, holy and reverend is his name. The 
 fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom ; a good understanding 
 have all they that do his commandments, his praise endureth for ever.” 
 Happy, thrice happy, is the man that findeth wisdom, and the 
 man that getteth understanding. “ For the merchandise of it is 
 better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than 
 fine gold. She is more precious than rubies, and all the things thou 
 canst desire are not to be compared unto her. Length of days is 
 in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honour. Her 
 ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is 
 a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her, and happy is every 
 
SONSHIP. 
 
 36 
 
 one that retaineth her. Exalt her, and she shall promote thee ; 
 she shall bring thee to honour when thou dost embrace her. She 
 shall give to thine head an ornament of grace, a crown of glory 
 shall she deliver to thee.” Such is the gospel of Sonship. It is 
 summed up in the splendid phrase—“ to know God ! ” Here is the 
 beginning and end of all existence—here is the purpose of life— 
 here is the goal of effort—here is the crown of victory. Blessed 
 are all they that attain unto it, for “ the path of the just is as the 
 shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” 
 
A{-Orie-rqGq{. 
 
 Part I. 
 
 One with God and the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 “ One the object of our journey, 
 
 One the Faith which never tires, 
 
 One the earnest looking forward, 
 
 One the Hope our God inspires.” 
 
 [ the beginning God created the 
 heaven and the earth ! ”—such is 
 the simple summary of the Bible 
 story of Creation. Science, falsely 
 so called, may scoff at the revela¬ 
 tions of Genesis; but, as the 
 boundaries of its knowledge and 
 humility are widened, so will it 
 but re-echo the same splendid 
 assurance, so will it begin to see 
 God. 
 
 The Bible-history of Creation, 
 and indeed the record of all Re¬ 
 ligion, is rich in suggestion as to 
 the divinity of Man—the crown and consummation of the long 
 series of natural evolution—the Son of God, the Maker of the 
 world. Who can misunderstand the simple narrative ? When the 
 Spirit of God had moved upon the waters, when darkness had 
 become light, when the firmament and the land had been divided ' 
 
AT-ONE-MENT. 
 
 3S 
 
 when the earth had brought forth grass and herb yielding seed 
 after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, 
 after his kind ; when the waters had brought forth abundantly 
 every living creature after their kind, and every winged fowl after 
 his kind ; and when the earth had brought forth every beast of the 
 earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that 
 creepeth upon the earth after his kind—then God said, “ Let us 
 make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have 
 dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and 
 over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing 
 that creepeth upon the earth. SO GOD CREATED MAN IN 
 HIS OWN IMAGE, IN THE IMAGE OF GOD CREATED 
 HE HIM, male and female created he them. And God blessed 
 them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and 
 replenish the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the 
 fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living 
 thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have 
 given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the 
 earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed, to 
 you it shall be for meat. AND GOD SAW EVERYTHING 
 THAT HE HAD MADE, AND BEHOLD, IT WAS VERY 
 GOOD.” 
 
 Such is the first proclamation of the At-one-ment. And the 
 second is like unto it: “ And the Lord God formed Man of the 
 dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ; 
 AND MAN BECAME A LIVING SOUL.” But Man fell 
 away from his high prerogative, as vice-regent of God and monarch 
 of the material universe. He became disobedient unto the perfect 
 law of God ; then Sin came into the world, and Death by Sin. 
 The Nemesis of his disobedience was swift and certain ; he was 
 thrust forth from the Paradise of Eden, and the flaming sword of his 
 own transgression shut him off from the way of the tree of life. 
 
 And so it has ever been in the history of humanity ; men have 
 hardened their hearts and sinned against their God, and their sins 
 have risen up in fiery judgment, and have kept them from their 
 
AT-ONE-MENT. 
 
 39 
 
 God The fall of Man cannot be summed up in a single diso¬ 
 bedience ; like all the processes of Nature, it was slow and imper¬ 
 ceptible ; slowly at first, but then with ever iricre;sng momentum, 
 Man fell away from his God. The record of this progressive degra¬ 
 dation is for all to read. The violation of God’s laws was not con¬ 
 fined to the evil will—it was fulfilled in the sinful body. Man be¬ 
 came encarnalised ; he gave himself over to the sins of the flesh, 
 the animal began to have dominion over the spiritual, and in all 
 directions his pristine powers were enfeebled. The millennium of 
 a Methuselah slowly faded, till at last the terrible words were 
 spoken : “ My Spirit SHALL NOT ALWAYS STRIVE WITH MAN ; 
 YET HIS DAYS SHALL BE A HUNDRED AND TWENTY YEARS.” 
 And even then the fall was incomplete. There is the exceeding 
 bitter cry, re-echoing life’s sad experience: “ Thou turnest man to 
 destruction, and sayest, Return, ye children of men. For a thou¬ 
 sand years in thy sight are but as yesterday, when it is past, and 
 
 as a watch in the night.Thou hast set our iniquities 
 
 before thee, our secret sins also in the light of thy countenance. 
 For all our days are passed away in thy wrath, we spend our years 
 as a tale that is told. The DAYS OF Man ARE THREESCORE 
 YEARS AND TEN, AND IF BY REASON OF STRENGH THEY BE 
 FOURSCORE YEARS, YET IS THEIR STRENGTH LABOUR AND 
 SORROW, FOR IT IS SOON CUT OFF AND WE FLY AWAY.” 
 
 -- > «• o > < -- 
 
 Part II. 
 
 But at last, when the tide of degradation, like a second flood, 
 threatened to sweep man from the face of the earth, the Almighty 
 Father sent his Son to redeem the sin-stained world. In the fulness 
 of time Christ came to save and to restore mankind. Long before 
 his birth, the hearts of those who languished for the light had been 
 stirred by the splendid promises of prophecy. Even in his darkness 
 
40 
 
 AT-ONE-MENT. 
 
 and degradation, Man, by virtue of his divinity, was sympathetic 
 to the Truth ; and how each earnest soul must have quickened and 
 burned as it listened to the accents of Hope : “ The people that 
 
 walked in darkness have seen a great light; they that dwelt in the 
 land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. 
 Thou hast multiplied the nation and not increased the joy ; they 
 joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice 
 when they divide the spoil. For thou hast broken the yoke of his 
 burthen and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor as in 
 the day of Midian. For every battle of the warrior is with confused 
 noise and garments rolled in blood, but this shall be with the burn¬ 
 ing and fuel of fire. For unto us a child is born and unto us a 
 Son is given : and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and 
 his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, 
 the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of 
 his government there shall be no end, upon the throne of David 
 and upon his kingdom, to order it and to establish it with judgment 
 and with justice from henceforth, even for ever. The zeal of the 
 Lord of Hosts will perform this.” 
 
 And with the promise of his greatness was linked the prophecy 
 of a new reign of love : “ And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon 
 
 him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel 
 and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, and 
 shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord ; 
 and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after 
 the hearing of his ears. But with righteousness shall he judge the 
 poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth ; and he 
 shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath 
 of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be 
 the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. The 
 wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down 
 with the kid, and the call and the young lion and the fading 
 together, and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the 
 bear shall feed, their young ones shall lie down together, and the lion 
 shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play upon 
 
AT-ONE-MENT. 
 
 41 
 
 the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on 
 the cockatrice’ den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy 
 mountain ; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, 
 as the waters cover the sea.” 
 
 And when the Saviour of the world came, what was his advent, 
 and what was his message ? He came in no splendour of divine 
 estate, surrounded by angel hosts and girded with swords of flame ; 
 but, in all humility, he was born of poverty and cradled in a manger. 
 And what was his message ? He came not to condemn, but to save 
 the world : to recall the prodigal to his Father in heaven, to up¬ 
 lift the Ideal of a perfect life, to proclaim the gospel of universal 
 Love. “ In him was life, and the life was the light of men ; and the 
 light shined in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not 
 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the 
 world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received 
 him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to 
 become the Sons of God.” 
 
 Nearly two thousand years have passed away, and the name of 
 Christian is honoured throughout the world. The Cross of shame 
 has become the symbol of worship—and yet the words still ring true : 
 “ The light shined in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it 
 not.” The history of our Lord and Master’s life upon earth is rich 
 in illustration of this warning text. His most deadly antagonists, 
 who at the last gave him over to a cruel death, were the so-called 
 spiritual leaders, the priestly rulers, the religious teachers of the 
 time. Again and again he insists upon the message that he has to 
 deliver as coming from his Father : “ I have many things to say 
 and to judge of you ; but he that sent me is true, and I speak to 
 the world those things which I have heard of him.” They under¬ 
 stood not that he spake to them of the Father. And again : 
 
 “ When ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that 
 I am he, and that I do nothing of myself, but as my Father hath 
 taught me I speak these things, and he that hath sent me is with me ; 
 the Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things that 
 please him.” 
 
42 
 
 AT-ONE-MENT. 
 
 Part III. 
 
 “ One the strain that lips of thousands 
 Lift as from the heart of one, 
 
 One the conflict, one the peril, 
 
 One the march in God begun.” 
 
 SUCH were Christ’s own words, repeated again and again : “ I do 
 nothing of myself, but as my Father hath taught me, I speak 
 these things ”—and such forever must be the words of the true 
 prophet and Son of God. And at the same time he gave his 
 hearers the touchstone of Truth, whereby they might a^say his 
 words—that conviction of conscience which grows out of ex¬ 
 perience : “ If ye continue in my words, then are ye my disciples 
 indeed, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you 
 free.” And again: “ My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. 
 If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether 
 it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. He that speaketh of 
 himself seeketh his own glory, but he that seeketh his glory that 
 sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.” 
 
 Such a doctrine of practical belief was most unpalatable to the 
 professors of a priestly supremacy, and the Pharisees asked, with 
 indignation, “ Are we blind also ? ” The answer echoes across the 
 centuries for all who would substitute dead dogma for living Faith: 
 “ If ye were blind, ye should have no sin ; but now ye say, We see ; 
 therefore your sin remaineth.” Never was there a more terrible 
 denunciation of ecclesiastical sterility. “Jesus said unto them, 
 If God were your Father ye would love me, for I proceeded forth 
 and came from God ; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. 
 Why do ye not understand my speech ? even because ye cannot 
 hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of 
 your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, 
 and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him 
 When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and 
 the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me 
 not. He that is of God heareth God’s words. Ye therefore hear 
 
AT-ONE-MENT. 
 
 43 
 
 them not, because ye are not of God. Verily, verily, I say unto 
 you, if a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.” 
 
 Wonderful teaching, this—so direct, so authoritative. What 
 wonder that the common people loved him, and said one to the 
 other, “ He speaketh as one having authority, and not as the 
 Scribes.” Not one word here of a sacrifice for sin by the shedding 
 of blood—not one word of the substitution of sin by the doing of 
 death—no, a grander, nobler message—a truer, higher inspiration 
 —the promise of perfection to all who became obedient to the 
 perfect will of God, the proclamation of divine power for all who 
 struggled against sin, the exhortation which shall never die: “ Be 
 ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is 
 perfect! ” 
 
 Never were truer words than the scornful sarcasm spoken to the 
 Scribes and Pharisees—the professors of religion, falsely so-called— 
 “ Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, 
 and they are they which testify of me.” Search the Gospels, and 
 the testimony of the Christ rings clear : I am come, not to con¬ 
 demn, but to save the world ; not to speak of myself, but of the 
 Father—I am come to call the prodigal son, in the far-off wilder¬ 
 ness of sin, to the home of the Father which is in heaven. And 
 for all who can receive this splendid gift of the divinity which will 
 not disobey God’s laws, there is prepared the joy of salvation, for 
 they have passed from death unto life. Such is the commencement 
 of the perfect life, such is the inspiration of perfect truth, such is 
 the true bread from heaven—for the bread of God is he which 
 cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world ; and 
 once again the assertion is made, “ I come down from heaven, not 
 to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.” 
 
 The simplicity of the proclamation became a stumbling-block 
 and rock of offence for the religious people of the day : “ The Jews 
 then murmured at him and said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, 
 whose father and mother we know ; how is it then that he saith, I 
 came down from heaven ? Jesus therefore answered and said unto 
 them, Murmur not among yourselves ; no man can come unto me, 
 
44 
 
 AT-ONE-MENT. 
 
 except the Father which hath sent me draw him ; and I will raise 
 him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, And they 
 shall be all taught of God ; every man therefore that hath heard 
 and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me.” But as the 
 Master spoke of the mystical union of God with man, even his dis¬ 
 ciples murmured and said, “ This is a hard saying, who shall hear 
 it? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, 
 he said unto them, Doth this offend you ? What and if ye shall 
 seethe SON OF MAN ascend up where he was before? It is the 
 spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh profiteth nothing ; the words that 
 I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.” 
 
 -- 
 
 Part IV. 
 
 “ One the strain that lips of thousands 
 Lift as from the heart of one, 
 
 One the conflict, one the peril, 
 
 One the march in God begun.” 
 
 SEARCH the Scriptures, listen to the words of Christ, and the 
 theological At-one-ment by blood is not there—only the spiritual 
 At-one-ment, Man made one with God. No one can read the his¬ 
 tory of Christ’s life and teaching without seeing how the people 
 were astonished at the authority with which he spake : “ Never 
 man spake as this man ! ” is the echo of their amazement. But the 
 boldness with which Christ declared the will of the Father was the 
 sign and seal of the indwelling of the Most High. Down across the 
 centuries of sorrow, suffering, and sin, rings the proclamation : “ I 
 am the light of the world ; he that followeth me shall not walk in 
 darkness, but shall have the light of life.” And what was the mes¬ 
 sage that he came to give ? “ Verily, verily, I say unto you, whoso¬ 
 
 ever committeth sin is the servant of sin.” There is the whole 
 history of the Fall, the interpretation of the mysteries of sin ; and 
 as we read the solemn words there echoes the other warning : “ Be 
 
AT-ONE-MENT. 
 
 45 
 
 not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that 
 shall he also reap.” 
 
 And even as the Christ spoke of his mission to save the world, 
 to bring man back to God, he foreknew his death : “ I am the good 
 shepherd ; the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. As the 
 Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father ; and I lay down 
 my life for the sheep. Therefore doth my Father love me, because 
 I lay down my life that I might take it again. No man taketh it 
 from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, 
 and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I 
 received of my Father.” There is no word here of atonement for 
 the sins of the world by death; there is no thought here of pro¬ 
 pitiation by blood, of substitution by sacrifice. The good shepherd 
 saw that the world was not ready to receive him ; he knew that his 
 death was but the consecration of his life : and he was joyfully pre¬ 
 pared to sacrifice himself to the will of his Father in heaven. Still, 
 this council of perfection, this commandment of obedience, was 
 beyond the hearts and heads of his hearers ; they had looked for 
 an earthly monarch, to come in all the pomp of heaven, attended 
 by legions of angels, to deliver their nation from the Roman yoke : 
 “Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How 
 long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us 
 plainly.” 
 
 And what was the answer—the assertion of the At-one-ment ? 
 “ I AND MY FATHER ARE ONE.” And what was the 
 
 ♦-be ^ a i * A' • 
 
 impulse of his hearers? “Then the Jews took up stones again to 
 stone him. Jesus answered them, Many good works have I showed 
 you from my Father ; for which of these works do ye stone me ? 
 The Jews answered him saying, FOR A GOOD WORK WE STONE 
 THEE NOT, BUT FOR BLASPHEMY, AND BECAUSE THAT THOU, 
 BEING A Man, MAKEST thyself God. Jesus answered them, Is 
 it not written in your law, I said ye are gods ? If he called them 
 gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the Scripture cannot 
 be broken, say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified and 
 sent into the world, Thou blasphemest, because I said I am the 
 
4 6 
 
 AT-ONE-MENT. 
 
 Son of God ? If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not; 
 but if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works, that ye 
 may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in him. 
 Therefore they sought again to take him, but he escaped out of 
 their hand.” 
 
 Such, in all times, is the reception of Truth by ignorance and 
 prejudice. It is stoned, it is derided, it is crucified ; and yet it 
 prevails, and shall prevail. The teaching of Christ is pre-eminently 
 practical ; it deals, not with the future, but with the present. 
 Become one with God, he says, become obedient to his perfect 
 will, and the meaning of life stands clear ; you cannot live as you 
 do now, and be pleasing to God ; for his thoughts are not your 
 thoughts, neither are his ways your ways. You must give up all 
 that keeps you from God, be it wealth, or ignorance, or prejudice, 
 or tradition, or convenience, or friends—all must be given up to 
 God : “ He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his 
 life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve 
 me, let him follow me, and where I am there shall also my servant 
 be ; if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.” There is 
 the warning of the Saviour of the world : “ He that loveth his life 
 shall lose it” There can be no union with God till the evil is given 
 up—till the Father’s love is received into the heart. Christ’s words 
 ring in the true At-one-ment—“ He that doeth the will of my 
 Father which is in heaven, the same is my mother and sister and 
 brother.” 
 
 Part V. 
 
 “ Hark ! a thrilling voice is sounding— 
 Christ is near, it seems to say, 
 
 * Cast away your dreams of darkness, 
 Oh, ye children of the day.” 
 
 The At-one-ment that Christ came to teach is pre-eminently 
 spiritual ; it was the moral law that he reaffirmed with the 
 
ATONE-MENT. 
 
 47 
 
 sanction of God. The inspiration of his life shattered at a blow all 
 the splendid rituals, the theological formulas, of ecclesiastical systems. 
 In very truth, his gospel was the signal for the destruction of the 
 temple made by hands : he pointed to the true relationship of Man 
 with God, sanctified, justified, realised in Love. In words that 
 lashed the Scribes and Pharisees to murderous madness, he pictured 
 the ignorance of priestcraft ; and pointed the woman of Samaria 
 to the coming of a golden day, when God should be all and 
 in all. The condemnation of formal theology is for ever uttered 
 in the memorable prophecy: “ Woman, believe me, the hour 
 cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at 
 Jerusalem, worship the Father. YE WORSHIP YE KNOW 
 NOT WHAT. . . . But the hour cometh, and now is, when 
 the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in 
 Truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a 
 spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit 
 and in Truth.” 
 
 “Ye worship ye know not what”—such is the denunciation of 
 blind assent, the unreasoning acceptance of ecclesiastical dogma. 
 The responsibility of each individual soul, each child of God, may 
 not be thus lighly disregarded. “ Work out your own salvation 
 with fear and trembling,” is the echo of Christ’s teaching. “ Thou 
 shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy 
 soul, and with all thy mind ; this is the first and great command¬ 
 ment ; and the second is like unto it—thou shalt love thy neigh¬ 
 bour as thyself.” Such is the sum and substance of Christ’s gospel 
 of peace. Search the whole life of the Saviour, and there is no trace 
 of the Atonement by blood ; that from which heart and mind 
 
 alike instinctively revolt cannot be justified as a mystery too great 
 
 ♦ 
 
 for finite minds to comprehend. The misconception of Pauline 
 mysticism has become the deadly doctrine of a selfish substitution, 
 but the words of Christ ring clear ; there can be no misconception; 
 no misunderstanding : “ A new commandment I give unto you, that 
 ye love one another : as I have loved you, that ye also love one 
 another. BY THIS SHALL ALL MEN KNOW THAT YE 
 
48 
 
 AT-ONE-MENT. 
 
 ARE MY DISCIPLES, IF YE HAVE LOVE ONE TO 
 ANOTHER.” There is the keynote of all Christ’s teaching—love 
 of God and love of Man. 
 
 This is the salvation he reveals to sinners ; not one word of elec¬ 
 tion, or justification, or pardon gained by the shedding of blood. 
 These post-Christian heresies grew up, like rank and noisome weeds* 
 out of the selfish hardness of heart to which the sacred simplicity 
 of Christ was a stumbling stone and an offence. They cannot be 
 grafted on the Saviour’s words : “ Verily, verily, I say unto you, he 
 that believeth on me, the works that I do, shall he do also ; and 
 greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father. 
 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the 
 Father may be glorified in the Son. IF YE LOVE ME, KEEP 
 MY COMMANDMENTS. And I will pray the Father, and he 
 shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for 
 ever, EVEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH, whom the world can¬ 
 not receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him ; but ye 
 know him, for he dwelleth in you, and shall be with you. At that 
 day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I 
 in you. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it 
 is that loveth me; and he that loveth me shall bLloved of my 
 Father, and I will love him, and I will manifest myself to him.” 
 As the inner meaning of these startling words is studied—as the 
 conception of Christ the revealer of the At-one-ment, Man-made- 
 one-with-God, is realised—so is the marvel great, that any scheme 
 of salvation by the shedding of blood should have become a part 
 of Christian teaching. 
 
 The abomination of animal sacrifice as an atonement for sin has 
 long since been acknowledged. The Advent services of our church 
 speak with no uncertain voice, and confirm with their sanction the 
 inspiration of Psalmist and Prophet. Harmonious with the teach¬ 
 ing of Christ rings the agonising prayer, “ Create in me a clean 
 heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not 
 away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit Irom me. 
 FOR THOU DESIREST NOT SACRIFICE, ELSE WOULD 
 
AT-ONE-MENT. 
 
 49 
 
 I GIVE IT THEE ; THOU DELIGHTEST NOT IN BURNT 
 OFFERING. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken 
 and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” There is a 
 vvorldof warning in the plaintive appeal of Isaiah : “ The ox knoweth 
 his owner, and the ass his master’s crib ; but Israel doth not know, 
 my people doth not consider. Ah, sinful nation, a people laden 
 with iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children that are corrupters. 
 They have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One 
 of Israel unto anger ; they are gone away backward. Why should 
 ye be stricken anymore? Ye will revolt more and more; the 
 whole heart is sick, and the whole head faint. From the sole of 
 the foot, even unto the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds 
 and bruises and putrifying sores ; they have not been closed, 
 neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. . . Hear the 
 word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom ; give ear unto the law of 
 our God, ye people of Gomorrah. TO WHAT PURPOSE IS 
 THE MULTITUDE OF YOUR SACRIFICES UNTO ME? 
 saith the Lord. I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams and 
 the fat of fed beasts, and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, 
 or of lambs, or of he goats. Bring no more vain oblations ; 
 incense is an abomination unto me. When ye spread forth 
 your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you ; yea, when ye 
 make many prayers I will not hear; YOUR HANDS ARE 
 FULL OF BLOOD. Wash you, make you clean ; put away 
 the evil of your doings from before mine eyes ; cease to do 
 evil, learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed ; judge 
 the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now and let us reason 
 together, saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet they 
 shall be as white as snow, though they be red like crimson 
 they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye 
 shall eat the good of the land ; but if ye refuse and rebel, ye 
 shall be devoured with the sword, for the mouth of the Lord 
 hath spoken it.” 
 
 There can be no misunderstanding of this gospel of Obedience 
 it is the sum and substance of Christ’s own teaching ; it is one 
 
AT-ONE-MENT. 
 
 50 
 
 with the wholesome wisdom of the Preacher: “ Let us hear the 
 conclusion of the whole matter : Fear God, and keep his command¬ 
 ments, for this is the whole duty of Man ! ” 
 
 ■- > -0 < -- 
 
 Part VI. 
 
 “ Hark, the glad sound ! the Saviour comes, 
 The Saviour promised long ; 
 
 Let every heart prepare a throne, 
 
 And every voice a song. 
 
 He comes the prisoners to release, 
 
 In Satan’s bondage held ; 
 
 The gates of brass before him burst, 
 
 The iron fetters yield.” 
 
 The true At-one-ment is forever Love—Man made one with 
 God, by being made perfect in love. The chorus of the heavenly 
 host, on the first Christmas morning, was but the prelude of the 
 fuller teaching of the Saviour of the World: “Glory to God in 
 the highest, peace on earth, goodwill to men ! ” It is the keynote 
 of the gospel of Love which rings throughout the Beatitudes : 
 “ Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for 
 they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain 
 mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed 
 are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.” 
 
 It is the great Moralities which form the rock on which all true 
 religion is based—no dogmatic creed, no ceremonial observance, 
 can abrogate the eternal verities of Justice and Love. The con¬ 
 ception of Justice finds no sanction for a vicarious atonement ; sin, 
 or the wilful violation of God’s laws, brings with it its own inherent 
 punishment: the first condition of law is fulfilment, and obedience 
 is but the synonym for perfection. The popular notion of punish¬ 
 ment—that justice blindly requires a victim ; that evil has been 
 done, and some one must suffer—is utterly and abominably false. 
 That is not Justice, but Revenge. Even within the narrow limits 
 
AT-ONE-MENT. 
 
 51 
 
 of human justice, this is recognised ; the principle of all punish¬ 
 ment is prevention, though the degrading delusion of the Draconian 
 code is passing away. Apart from the law of Love, by which such 
 severity is hopelessly condemned, experience has abundantly shown 
 that penal enactments are no corrective for the social diseases of 
 the time. Slowly and reluctantly, the world is beginning to learn 
 that Force is no remedy; that Coercion is a self-condemned failure ; 
 that Prohibition is legislative quackery of the worst kind, because 
 it sins against that full freedom which is the very essence of all 
 morals. 
 
 The only remedy for moral evil, is moral energy, the enthusiasm 
 of love, the inspiration of hope, the courage of conviction. These 
 are the forces which shall regenerate the world. But if this be the 
 conclusion of mortal weakness, who shall dare to defile the splen¬ 
 dours of God’s justice with the degradation of an atonement by 
 blood ! The moral sense in man is shocked by the thought of jus¬ 
 tice as revenge ; but when this mockery of justice is translated into 
 the purposes of the Almighty, the very foundations of theology are 
 shattered. Self-devotion is the lesson of Christ’s life ; Self-sacrifice, 
 the moral of his death ; and clear across the centuries rings his 
 warning cry: “ He that loveth father or mother more than me is 
 not worthy of me ; he that loveth his life shall lose it ; he that 
 would be my disciple, let him take up his cross and follow me.” 
 The true spirit of the Cross is love of the courage that can conquer, 
 forgiveness for the ignorance that can crucify ; the worst blasphemy 
 is the imputation to God of the moral malevolence of murder ; the 
 hardest atheism is that which confounds the love of the Eternal 
 with a cruel craving for the satisfaction of blood ; the blackest pes¬ 
 simism is that which parades as piety the inherent vileness of man. 
 The teaching of Christ is far different ; he proclaims boldly the 
 majestic truth that Man is one with God—capable of all goodness, 
 as he loves ; crowned with all honour, as he obeys : “ Plerein is 
 my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit ; so shall ye be my 
 disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you ; 
 continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments ye shall 
 
52 
 
 AT-ONE-MENT. 
 
 abide in my love ; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, 
 and abide in his love. This is my commandment, that ye love one 
 another as I have loved you.” 
 
 The breadth and depth of this great commandment of Love has 
 yet to be learned, even in the practical details of the daily life. 
 Listen to the proclamation of the At-one-ment: “ Neither pray I 
 for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me 
 through their word, THAT THEY ALL MAY BE ONE ; as 
 thou Father art in me, and I in thee, THAT THEY ALSO MAY 
 BE ONE IN US, that the world may believe that thou hast sent 
 me. And the glory which thou givest me, I have given them, 
 THAT THEY MAY BE ONE EVEN AS WE ARE ONE, I 
 IN THEM, AND THOU IN ME, THAT THEY MAY BE 
 MADE PERFECT IN ONE, AND THAT THE WORLD 
 MAY KNOW THAT THOU HAST SENT ME, AND 
 HAST LOVED THEM AS THOU HAST LOVED ME.” 
 
N the beginning God created the 
 heaven and the earth ; ” 
 
 “ And God saw everything 
 that He had made, and behold, 
 it was very good.” 
 
 “ In the beginning was the 
 Word, and the Word was with 
 God, and the Word was God ; 
 the same was in the beginning 
 with God. All things were made 
 by Him, and without Him was not 
 anything made that was made.” 
 
 Man is for ever Divine ; he is 
 for ever the Son ot God—very 
 God and very man. “ The Father uncreate, the Son uncreate, and 
 the Holy Ghost uncreate ; the Father incomprehensible, the Son 
 incomprehensible, and the Holy Ghost incomprehensible; the 
 Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Ghost eternal; 
 the Father almighty, the Son almighty, the Holy Ghost almighty.” 
 Man’s birthright is the lordship of nature : “ Have dominion over 
 the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every 
 creeping thing that creepeth upon the face of the earth.” “ Thou 
 madest him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands ; Thou 
 hast put all things under his leet.” His life should be the mani¬ 
 festation of the glory of God. 
 
54 
 
 LIFE. 
 
 But man hast cast away his birthright; he can regain it only by 
 repartaking of the nature of the Divine. 
 
 “ Beloved, let us love one another ; for love is of God ; and 
 everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that 
 loveth not knoweth not God ; for God is love.” " There is no fear 
 in love; but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath tor¬ 
 ment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” “ Thou shalt 
 love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and 
 with all thy mind ”—this is the first and great commandment; 
 and the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as 
 thyself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the 
 Prophets.” 
 
 Man is God and God is Love. This is the gospel of glad 
 tidings which strikes the keynote of all true religion ; for religion 
 is the complete apprehension of complete truth—not a creed or a 
 dogma—but a perfect Ideal. 
 
 Religion is revealed alike in Nature and the Scriptures. Both 
 must be read aright. The Bible is no inspired formulary of 
 abstract, but rather the many-hued reflection of many minds, the 
 prismatic rays of shattered truth. The touchstone of its inspira¬ 
 tion is its spirituality. The letter killeth, the spirit giveth life. 
 That is most true which is most spiritual, and for each individual 
 the final verdict is given by the still small voice speaking in the 
 heart—that spiritual power which judgeth all things, and yet itself 
 is judged of no man. 
 
 Man is God and God is Love. This is the truth Christ came to 
 tell. He taught His disciples to pray, “ Our Father, which art in 
 heaven, and proclaimed to His followers, “ Whosoever shall do the 
 will of God, the same is my brother and my sister and my mother.” 
 The At-one-ment of Christ’s Life was man made-one with God; 
 but the world was too degraded to accept so high a teaching, and 
 crucified Him as a blasphemer. “ In Him was Life ; and the Life 
 was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness ; and 
 the darkness comprehended it not.” “ He was in the world, and 
 the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He 
 came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as 
 
life 
 
 55 
 
 many as received Him to them gave He power to become the Sons 
 of God, even to them that believe on His name, which were born 
 not o f blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but 
 of God.” 
 
 True religion is preeminently practical. 
 
 “ Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this 
 —to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction, and to 
 keep himself unspotted from the world.” 
 
 “ Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter, fear God and 
 keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” 
 
 “ He that doeth righteousness is righteous.” 
 
 “ Be ye, therefore, perfect, even as your Father in heaven is also 
 perfect” 
 
 Salvation is the spiritual reception of Christ’s truth, the essential 
 love of God’s will. 
 
 Man is God and God is Love. This is the corner-stone of all 
 Philosophy—for true Philosophy is the recognition of essential 
 relations ; the discrimination of the temporal and the eternal, the 
 outer shadow and the inner substance. God made manifest in 
 space and time, in force and matter; the Infinite, the Eternal, the 
 Essential made manifest as perfect love. This is that true wisdom, 
 that true philosophy which is beyond all price. “ Happy is the 
 man that findeth wisdom and the man that getteth understand¬ 
 ing. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of 
 silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious 
 than rubies ; and all the things that thou canst desire are not to be 
 compared unto her. Length of days is in her right hand and in 
 her left hand riches and honour. Her ways are ways of pleasant¬ 
 ness and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to them that 
 lay hold upon her, and happy is everyone that retaineth her.” 
 “ My son, if thou wilt receive my words and hide my command¬ 
 ments with thee, so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom and 
 apply thine heart to understanding ; if thou seekest her as silver, 
 and sea rchest for her as for hid treasure ; then shalt thou under¬ 
 stand righteousness and judgment and equity, yea, every good 
 path.” 
 
56 
 
 LIFE 
 
 “ Where shall wisdom be found, and where is the place of under¬ 
 standing ? Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found 
 in the land of the living. The depth saith, It is not in me; and 
 the sea saith, It is not with me. It cannot be gotten for gold* 
 neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof. It cannot be 
 valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the 
 sapphire. The gold and the crystal cannot equal it, and the ex¬ 
 change of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold. No mention shall 
 be made of coral, or of pearls ; for the price of wisdom is above 
 rubies. The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be 
 valued with pure gold. Whence then cometh wisdom, and where 
 is the place of understanding ? Seeing it is hid from the eyes of 
 all living and kept close from the fowls of the air. Destruction 
 and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears. God 
 understandeth the way thereof, and He knoweth the place thereof. 
 For He looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the 
 whole heaven ; to make the weight for the winds ; and He weigheth 
 the waters by measure. When He made a decree for the rain, and 
 a way for the lightning of the thunder ; then did He see it, and 
 declare it; He prepared it, yea, and searched it out. And unto 
 man He said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom ; and 
 to depart from evil is understanding.” 
 
 Man is God and God is Love. This is the foundation of all 
 true Science; that knowledge of external phenomena which re¬ 
 cognises the reign of Eternal Law. Force and matter, the mani¬ 
 festation of the Infinite in the finite, the Changeless in the change¬ 
 ful—for ever reacting in subjection to immutable Law—“ Volun- 
 tatem Dei in rebus revelatam .” Perfection is the expression of 
 this Will of God for His universe ; all else is not of God but of 
 the Devil. The long failure of the world, the whole creation 
 groaning and travailing in pain together until now—the sorrows 
 and suffering of fallen humanity—have come not because God is 
 not all powerful, or not all good ; but because man has been all 
 powerful and not all good. 
 
 “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul ; the tes¬ 
 timony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes 
 
LIFE. 
 
 57 
 
 of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of 
 the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is 
 clean, enduring for ever ; the judgments of the Lord are true and 
 righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold ; yea, 
 than much fine gold ; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. 
 Moreover, by these is Thy servant warned, and in keeping of them 
 there is great reward.” 
 
 Disease, sickness and pain, are but discordant harmonies, the 
 Nemesis of violated law. The regeneration of th e world is the 
 return to Law ; the secret of health is a lawful method of life. 
 
 The will of God, the law of life, is Love. Love is for ever 
 creative; therefore the expression of God’s Law of Love is, 
 “ Thou shalt not destroy.” 
 
 i.—Thou shalt not destroy thy Life. 
 
 Perfect purity is the first condi tion of a godly life. The power 
 of procreation has been given by God to all His creation. It must 
 be consecrated to that purpose alone. His command is, Be fruitful 
 and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it—but it must 
 be intelligently obeyed. In all worlds—the vegetable, the animal 
 and the human—the law of perfect procreation is health, maturity 
 and proper period. In man and woman the perfection of physical 
 maturity is not reached before the age of twenty-eight. May is 
 the natural month of birth. 
 
 “ Be not deceived, God is not mocked ; for whatsoever a man 
 soweth that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh, 
 shall of the flesh reap corruption ; but he that soweth to the Spirit, 
 shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” 
 
 The violation of the Law of Purity has been the bitter source of 
 the world’s sorrows. By it man fell ; by it discord was struck into 
 the harmonies of the first Paradise. Impurity is the dominion of 
 the animal over the spiritual, of the material over the Divine. All 
 health of body, mind, soul and spirit, is for ever conditioned by the 
 
 observance in this matter of the will of God. 
 
 2.—Thou shalt not destroy any Life. 
 
 The destruction of animal life is not according to the will of 
 
53 
 
 LIFE. 
 
 God. The use of fish, flesh and fowl, for food, is a false tradition 
 which has to be unlearned. The first command, “ And God said, 
 Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon 
 the face of the earth, and every tree in the which is the fruit of a 
 tree yielding seed ; to you it shall be for meat,” is as true now as 
 the day it was given. The true diet of nature is one founded on 
 fruit, grain and nuts, supplemented by the gifts of the vegetable 
 world. Such vegetarianism is in its truest sense the science of 
 that which is vital, and upon such a diet wisely used organic disease 
 is impossible. 
 
 But the law has a wider application than that which is involved 
 in the taking of animal life. Fermentation is a process of destruc¬ 
 tion, and it, therefore, includes in its prohibition all fermented 
 liquors, and other products of fermentation, e,g., leavened bread, 
 vinegar, &c. Carbonic acid, the first fruits of fermentation, is no 
 more wholesome dissolved in water than contained in air; and, 
 therefore, all effervescing drinks are contrary to the laws of health. 
 
 The command, “ Thou shalt not destroy,” may be carried still 
 further. Fire in its application to cooking means the destruction 
 of original vitality. The ancient legend of Prometheus con¬ 
 demned by the gods to eternal torture for revealing to mortals the 
 secret of fire, is pregnant with a mystical meaning well-nigh for¬ 
 gotten by the fire worshippers of to-day. Fire and vitality are 
 opposing terms. The Sun, the life-giver, puts out the sickly fire. 
 Fire, the life-absorber, exhausts the sickly life. So is it with food. 
 The uncooked grain is vital; the cooked grain is dead. Within 
 the microscopic germ lies hidden the potentiality of Life. The 
 human economy has probably the power of absorbing directly this 
 vitality of grain and fruit. Thus may the sum of vitality be 
 directly increased ; thus may the span of life be indefinitely pro¬ 
 longed. What is all genius but the special determination of 
 vitality ? The poet, the musician and the painter, are alike but the 
 heirs of specialised tendency. 
 
 To infinite vitality all capacities are infinitely possible. 
 
 “ ’ Tis Life, not Death, for which we pant— 
 
 More Life and fuller, that we want.” 
 
LIFE. 
 
 59 
 
 Thus the highest standard of food excellence becomes the direct 
 return to nature. God’s gifts are accepted at first hand ; poverty 
 becomes plenty, and satiety enjoyment. The end of cruelty, 
 torture and destruction, draws near ; the spectres of want, disease 
 and pain, begin to pass away. “ O thou enemy, destructions are 
 come to a perpetual end ”—“ They shall not hurt, nor destroy in all 
 My holy mountain, and the earth shall be full of the knowledge of 
 the Lord as the waters that cover the sea.” 
 
 The dawn of the golden day is breaking ; the advent of God’s 
 kingdom is at hand. 
 
 3.—Thou shalt not destroy thyself with Poisons, Tonics, 
 
 Stimulants or Sedatives. 
 
 It is scarcely possible to over-estimate the harm done by the 
 modern medical practice of giving small doses of strong poisons. 
 The infinitesimal quantity of the dose may prolong the process, 
 but health is not to be won by slow poisoning ; and strychnine, 
 aconite, arsenic, opium, &c., must be given up, The natural 
 presumption is against all medicines ; the true secret of health lies 
 in a lawful method of life, and it is not to be won by all the drugs 
 in the pharmacopoeia, 
 
 The virus of all disease is a low ferment; its prophylactic value in 
 inoculation or vaccination is a terrible delusion. True health is 
 never dependent upon the artful manipulation of disease; the 
 grave of Death is the plenitude of Life. Under abnormal con¬ 
 ditions the human system is constantly accumulating morbific 
 matter ; the function of zymotic diseases is to set up a process of 
 fermentation, which shall destroy and discharge this accumulated 
 evil. 
 
 In the debilitated body Death holds the balances. The disease 
 either passes its period and leaves the sufferer to convalesence and 
 restoration ; or strikes its victim into an untimely grave. Where 
 vitality is high, disease comes in the shape of a blessing rather than 
 a curse. In a system swept clean and garnished there is no place 
 for disease. The soil is sterile ; the specific nidus is wanting, and 
 from the moment the condition of perfect health is attained 
 disease is become impossible. 
 
 But if the old unlawful method of Life remains unchanged—if 
 
bo 
 
 LIFE. 
 
 the first warnings of sickness and suffering are unaccepted—then 
 the evil tendencies again assert their power ; more and more will 
 the power of Death beat down the energy of Life. The last state 
 of that man is worse than the first. 
 
 Tonics, like other stimulants, make a violent drain upon the 
 reserves of vitality, but in no way increase its sum. The reason is 
 simple and scientific. Throughout nature, the perfection, whether 
 of plant or animal, is concentrated in the seed, All that is best, 
 even if the parent stock be weakened by disease, is focussed there. 
 This beautiful arrangement secures the best possible chance for 
 the succeeding race ; and the inference is clear that the seed, not 
 the leaves or the bark, is the best source of food. Therefore it 
 may be assumed that tea, quinine, &c., are not food, but nerve 
 stimulants ; not health giving, but vitality exhausting ; and this 
 probability is the conclusion of experience and facts. Coffee as 
 roasted loses its original virtue, and undergoes a chemical change 
 in the process, which, like the roasting of any other seed or nut, 
 renders it comparatively valueless for food, while increasing largely 
 its stimulative properties. 
 
 Tobacco in all its forms comes under the same dietetic ban. 
 The almost universal craving for some nerve sedative is the 
 natural result of a long course of nerve stimulation, whether by 
 flesh eating or alcohol drinking ; but it is not a sign of health. 
 Nicotine, as is well known, is a most powerful poison, and it is 
 only nature’s power of splitting up its essential oils in the lungs 
 which prevents tobacco from mowing down its victims like the 
 plague. The analysed products of tobacco-smoke are Carbonic 
 Acid, Sulphuretted Hydrogen, Prussic Acid, Pyridine and 
 Piccoline ; thus covering the whole range of slow to active poisons. 
 But though their most violent effects are staved off at the expense 
 of nerve-vitality, the end of slow poisoning is certain. Loss of 
 health, irritability of the nervous systems and all their attendant 
 evils, are the direct consequence amongst other causes, of tobacco. 
 All patent medicines—blood purifiers, pills, bitters, and other 
 panacea of the cure-monger, must be finally given up. No 
 specifics can do more than remove symptoms, the pain-signals of 
 
LIFE. 
 
 61 
 
 dangers ahead. They cannot create health. Nature knows 
 nothing of sudden conversions ; seven years is her ordinary period 
 of construction, and it is impossible to suppose that the accumu¬ 
 lated weakness of years can in a moment be undone by a mysterious 
 draught, or the more fatuous quackery of a galvanic belt. The 
 aim of the true physician is not only to remove specific symptoms, 
 but also to point out the true way of health. All other issues lie 
 within the control of the patient; he has the power to work out 
 his own salvation, but he must also have the will. 
 
 4.—Thou shalt not partake of the Inorganic. 
 
 It may be laid down as a Physiological Law that the human 
 economy is incapable of assimilating inorganic substances. Every 
 seed contains a proportion of mineral salts, but they are in the 
 organic form, having been transmuted by the natural processes of 
 the plant. 
 
 Common salt is unfit for food; its proper use is on the land. 
 “ Salt is good, but if the salt have lost its flavour it is neither good 
 for the land nor yet for the dung hill.” Scurvy, leprosy, and 
 many other forms of cutaneous disease, are the scourges of this 
 violation of God’s laws. Banish salt from the kitchen and from 
 the table, and everything will taste flat for a time. The palate is 
 so perverted that it cannot recognise the natural delicate flavours 
 of foods without the palatative stimulant of salt. This incapacity 
 in a new and better order of things will soon pass away. Mineral 
 medicines are forbidden by the same law—Mercury, Iodide of 
 Potassium, Nitrate of Potash, and many another constituent, of 
 the ordinary prescription—may produce a specific effect upon the 
 constitution, but have no power of permanent cure. Mineral waters 
 of every kind are abominations which lower the system, alkalinrse 
 the secretions and lay the solid foundations of gout and rheumatism. 
 
 The foundations of the perfect physical life stand fast upon 
 preordained Laws of God ; such a life becomes a new power in the 
 world. There is no period when this process of regeneration may 
 not be commenced—in the midst of death we are in life. For the 
 man who has learned to know and love God’s laws, all things are 
 become new ; for him is the joyous confidence of the Psalmist: “ I 
 
62 
 
 LIFE. 
 
 will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress ; my God, in 
 Him will I trust. Surely, He shall deliver thee from the snare of 
 the fowler and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee 
 with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust; His 
 truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for 
 the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth by day ; nor for 
 the pestilence that walketh in darkness ; nor for the destruction 
 that wasteth at noon-day. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and 
 ten thousand at thy right hand ; but it shall not come nigh thee. 
 Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold, and see the reward of the 
 wicked. Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge 
 even the Most High, thy habitation, there shall no evil befall thee ; 
 neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.” 
 
 Men laugh as they read of the Patriarchs, and consider a 
 centenarian a very prodigy of vitality; but they have yet to learn 
 that perfect health can only be secured by obedience to God’s laws, 
 and that it means perfect happiness indefinitely prolonged. 
 
 “ Thou hast given him his heart’s desire, and hast not withholden 
 the request of his lips. For Thou preventest him with the bless¬ 
 ings of goodness ; Thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head. 
 
 « 
 
 He asked life of Thee, and Thou gavest it him ; even length of 
 days for ever and ever. Thou hast made him most blessed for 
 ever; Thou hast made him exceeding glad with Thy 
 countenance.” 
 
 “ The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear 
 Him, and delivereth them. O taste and see that the Lord is 
 good ; blessed is the man that trusteth in Him. O fear the Lord, 
 ye His saints: for there is no want to them that fear Him. 
 The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that fear the 
 Lord shall not want any good thing. Come, ye children, hearken 
 unto Me ; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is he 
 that desireth life and loveth many days that he may see good ? 
 Keep thy tongue from evil and thy lips from speaking guile 
 Depart from evil and do good ; seek peace and pursue it.” 
 
 “ Delight thyself also in the Lord, He shall give thee the 
 desires of thy heart.” 
 
LIFE. 
 
 6 3 
 
 “ Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me, bless His 
 holy name. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all His 
 benefits. The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting 
 upon them that fear Him, and His righteousness unto children’s 
 children—to such as keep His covenant, and to those that 
 remember His commandments to do them. Bless the Lord, oh 
 my soul.” 
 
 These four foundations are, however, but the Old Testament of 
 Truth, the negative necessities of a perfect physical life. Man is 
 something more than a physical creation—he has a mind, a soul, 
 a spirit. To reach perfection, man must be perfectly developed 
 upon all planes—the physical, the mental, the psychical, and the 
 spiritual. 
 
 The positive Ideal is more generally recognised. 
 
 5.—Exercise every Activity of the Body. 
 
 Running, walking, riding, rowing, swimming, cycling, boxing, 
 cricket, football, tennis, every sport and every pastime may form a 
 part of the ideal life. Physical capacity can be developed only by 
 exercise, by the determination of vitality ; and that is a true part 
 of life’s real work. 
 
 “ Laborare est orare ,” and the most capable worker is within that 
 limit, the truest servant of God. “ Well done, good and faithful 
 servant ; because thou hast been faithful in a few things, I will 
 make thee ruler over many things ; enter thou into the joy of thy 
 Lord.” 
 
 6.—Exercise every Power of the Mind. 
 
 Man is a thinking creature. Philosophy and science alike pro¬ 
 claim that mental power is one essential of the perfect man. 
 Higher than the physical, the energy of the mind brings him 
 nearer to God. 
 
 “ Wise men lay up knowledge, but the mouth of the foolish is 
 near destruction.” 
 
 “ The wise in heart shall be called prudent, and the sweetness of 
 the lips increaseth learning. Understanding is a well-spring of life 
 unto him that hath it; but the instruction of fools is folly. The 
 
64 
 
 LIFE. 
 
 i 
 
 heart of the wise teacheth his mouth, and addeth learning to his 
 lips.” 
 
 “ The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the 
 knowledge of the holy is understanding.” 
 
 The interpretation, the dominion of Nature, is man’s natural 
 prerogati ve as a Son of God. All things have been set under his 
 feet. Astronomy, geology, chemistry, the relations of space, of 
 time, and of matter, all are his, and he is God’s. 
 
 7.—Cherish every Inspiration of the Soul. 
 
 “ A new commandment give I unto you, that ye love one 
 another.” “ How sweet and pleasant a thing it is for brethren to 
 dwell together in unity,” 
 
 “ Charity suffereth long and is kind; charity envieth not, 
 charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up ; doth not behave itself 
 unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no 
 evil ; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth ; beareth 
 all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all 
 things, Charity never faileth ; but whether there be prophecies 
 they shall fail; whether there be tongues they shall cease . 
 whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know 
 in part, and we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect 
 is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.” 
 
 Intuition is higher than the intellectual power; it is the 
 memory of the soul. All the raptures of art, music, poetry, paint¬ 
 ing, sculpture, &c., are of the soul. “ Whatsoever things are pure, 
 whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, 
 think on these things.” “ The wisdom that is from above is first 
 pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy 
 and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. And 
 the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.” 
 
 8.—Develop to the full the Power of the Spirit. 
 
 The energy of Volition, the eternal Ego, the essentially divine, 
 which reaches in communion with the Father, in the power of 
 perfect love, the end and aim of all existence. 
 
LTFE 
 
 r >5 
 
 “ The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentle¬ 
 ness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance ; against such there is 
 no law.” 
 
 “ Walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh.” 
 
 “ God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him 
 in spirit and in truth.” 
 
 Resist the Devil and he will flee from you ; Draw nigh to God, 
 and He will draw nigh to you. 
 
 “Whither shall I go from Thy spirit? or whither shall I flee 
 from Thy presence ? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there : 
 if my make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there. If I take the 
 wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea ; 
 even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold 
 me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me ; even the night 
 shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from Thee ; 
 but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are 
 both alike to Thee.” 
 
 “ God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.” 
 
 “ Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he 
 cannot see the kingdom of God. For God so loved the world, that 
 He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him 
 should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His 
 Son into the world to condemn the world ; but that the world 
 through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not 
 condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, 
 because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son 
 of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the 
 world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because 
 their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth 
 the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be 
 reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that 
 his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in 
 
 God.” The path of perfection is open to all. It is the knowledge 
 and love of God’s will ; but it is easier to base a pyramid upon its 
 apex, or to scale a ladder from its topmost rung, than attain to the 
 highest Positive Ideal without first laying the foundations upon 
 the Physical Laws of God. 
 
Vit^l Food. 
 
 ** ’Tis Life, not Death, for which we pant— 
 
 ’Tis Life whereof our nerves are scant, 
 
 More life, and fuller, that we want,— Tennyson. 
 
 ATCHMAN what of the night? Hark to 
 the weary wail, to the exceeding bitter cry 
 —the whole creation groaning and travail¬ 
 ing in pain together—How long? how 
 long ? Back comes the answer, as a clarion 
 clear—Awake, ye slumberers, for the dawn 
 is breaking ; the day of the Lord is at 
 hand ! Awake, awake to Life ; the dream 
 of Death is dead! the Sun of Righteousness is risen! 
 
 Great is the Gospel of Vitality ! It is the reign of Life over¬ 
 mastering the dominion of death. It is the proclamation of power 
 with peace, of conquest with liberty, of joy with love. It is the 
 promise of health and wealth, the prophecy of omniscience and 
 omnipotence, the accomplishment of God’s good-will to men. 
 Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the 
 heart of man to conceive all the blessing that it contains. 
 
 But there can be no resurrection of immortal Hope from the 
 cerements of despair, until the quickening power of Life is felt 
 and known. So long as the beggarly elements of the body are 
 given over to death, so long as the life, that now is, finds its sus¬ 
 tenance in lifeless foods, it is impossible but that decay and death 
 
VITAL FOOD. 
 
 67 
 
 should seem the allotted fate of man. So long as we partake of 
 death in the daily sacrament of eating and drinking, shall our 
 spirits know the fear of death. So long as we stimulate with in¬ 
 dulgence and exhaust with excess the shallow sources of our Life, 
 must the nemesis of failure and suffering be ours. Such a theory 
 of living death, in its hopeless, helpless pessimism, is the true 
 Atheism which knows not God. 
 
 This faithless ignorance is the essence of all spiritual despair, 
 whether it echoes in the sorrowful plaint of the Greek poet : “ Call 
 no man happy before his death ; it is well to live happily, but, best 
 of all, never to have been ” ; or sighs in the conclusion of a Solo¬ 
 mon, “ Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” But thanks be to God, 
 which giveth us the victory, there is a more excellent way, com¬ 
 mencing in the foolishness of eating and drinking, based upon the 
 physical plane, but conditioning the mental, psychical, and spiritual 
 life. THERE IS A POWER OF VITAL ACCUMULATION 
 WHICH IS THE VERY OPPOSITE OF SYSTEMATIC 
 STIMULATION. THERE IS A VITAL FOOD, WHICH 
 IS POSSESSED OF THE POTENCY OF LIFE. Intangible, 
 inscrutable, vital force is not to be weighed and measured in 
 material scales ; but its presence and its power are for all to see. 
 Fruit, Grain, and Nuts are pregnant with vitality. Deep in the 
 nucleolus of the tiny germ lies hidden the vital spark of heavenly 
 flame. Every seed, in its pristine vigour, is a little fountain of 
 life. Plant it in the ground, give the organism its proper environ¬ 
 ment, find for the germ its specific nidus, and IT WILL GROW ! 
 Cook it, boil it, bake it, expose it to the action of fire—and the 
 vital essence is dissipated “ in tenues auras" 
 
 There can be no gainsaying this vital power of fruit, and grain 
 and nuts ; but the question may well arise, How shall this vital 
 power affect, in its absorption, the economy of Man ? Is it possi¬ 
 ble that the sum of each individual life can be directly increased, 
 by the use of vital food ? No one can dogmatise here ; it is a 
 region unexplored. If experimentalists may not affirm, still less 
 may doctors deny the possibilities of vital food ; and, while the 
 assertion of presumptuous confidence is silent, the still small voice 
 
68 
 
 VITAL FOOD. 
 
 of suggestion may be heard: AND GOD BLESSED THEM, 
 AND SAID, BEHOLD, I HAVE GIVEN YOU EVERY 
 HERB BEARING SEED, WHICH IS UPON THE FACE 
 OF ALL THE EARTH, AND EVERY 1 REE IN THE 
 WHICH IS THE FRUIT OF A TREE YIELDING SEED, 
 TO YOU IT SHALL BE FOR MEAT.” 
 
 Fruit, grain and nuts ! if these be Vital Food, pregnant with 
 the potency of Life, suffused with the storage of the sunshine— 
 then let us eat and drink and be-merry, for to-morrow we live! 
 If these be Ideal food, instinct with the sanctities of God’s ordi¬ 
 nance, compact with the purity of Nature, then let us eat and 
 drink and be glad ; and, so doing, do all to the glory of God. 
 
 But in this law of Life is doomed the daily doing of death. 
 There is no longer place for the poor pariah of the slaughter¬ 
 house ; there is no room for the blue-bloused butcher of bullocks. 
 The kitchen ceases to be the innermost sanctuary of domestic 
 civilisation ; and the simmering saucepan, with the frizzling fry- 
 pan, find their culinary occupation gone. There can be no truce 
 betwixt Life and Death, no compromise between complex cooking 
 and natural simplicity. 
 
 But with this revolution in the art of eating and drinking, what 
 new vistas of unknown possibility open before the enchanted gaze ! 
 Vital force is the first condition of useful life. It is the synonym 
 for Health ; for, when the fountains of being are fulfilled with 
 vital force, then all things begin to be possible. What is power 
 but determined vital force? Take the simplest case, the power of 
 the athlete, in any given direction. The skill of the cricketer is 
 the result of long continued practice, the steady determination of 
 vital force to the various muscles of the body, to the co-ordination 
 of hand and eye and brain. The strength of the swimmer is due 
 ,.u the same cause. Slowly, but surely, by constant effort, the 
 vital force is definitely determined, and the requisite capacity is 
 enlarged. The swiftness of the runner is no fortuitous outcome of 
 capricious chance ; long continued effort produces its natural, nay. 
 necessary, result, and the sinews become strong and supple as 
 steel. All instincts of physical development may be classified 
 
under one heading—all are dependent upon the fulness of vital 
 force. 
 
 Transpose the sphere of the enquiry, and the same principle is 
 found to underlie the processes of intellectual development. All 
 scholarship, all acquired knowledge, all memory, are dependent 
 upon the vital power of the brain. What is memory, but pictures 
 printed on the sensitive plate of the brain by the action of vital 
 force? Just as the photograph reproduces, by the aid of the 
 J actinic rays, the exact picture of the landscape seen through the 
 camera, so memory, by the aid of vital force, imprints the pictures 
 of the present and the past. As this force is intense, so is the 
 brain picture vivid and enduring. And, in proof of this, we find 
 that the memories of the old for ever linger round the recollections 
 of their youth, when the pristine vigour of early life was undimmed 
 and unabated. What they have lately learned is forgotten at once ; 
 what they learned half a century since remains a treasure untouched 
 by time. If once the principle of vital accumulation be established, 
 then a long farewell to the torture of Tantalus, the never-to-be- 
 satisfied draining of the draught of acquisition, and to the Sisy- 
 phian satire of constantly repeated effort, for ever doomed to final 
 failure. Each conquest won would be assured ; and the continual 
 progress to perfection, whether in mental or physical acquirement, 
 would know no check. 
 
 What if the dream of Philosopher and Alchemist be true, and vital 
 food be indeed the Elixir of Life ? Ln all directions the horizon of 
 Hope is indefinitely enlarged. The Artist and the Musician finds life 
 all too short for the accomplishment of their inspiration. “ A rs longa 
 vita brevis” is the expression of their despair; and the fires of 
 genius wax cold upon the altar of achievement, because the vital 
 spark of heavenly flame is quenched before its time. Who can 
 grapple with the possibilities of knowledge while the mind is let 
 and hindered by the infirmities of the flesh ? We are as little 
 children gathering shells upon the sands of time—tiny, delicate 
 whorls and involutes, the flotsam and jetsam of the vast ocean of 
 knowledge—and even as we linger listening, enraptured by the 
 marvel of its music, the waters ovewhelm us and we are gone. We 
 
70 
 
 VITAL FOOD. 
 
 are as prisoners fast fettered in the prison-house of mortality—for 
 a brief moment the prison-doors are opened ; and, even as we 
 gaze upon the divine prospect, the warder Death renews his rounds, 
 and closes fast the dungeon-cell. So long as we are content to 
 feast with Death, his servitude is ours, and woe to him who works, 
 and loves to work—for the night cometh, and the power of his life 
 passeth away. 
 
 The possibilities of Vitai Food must be now considered from a 
 practical point of view. What is this vital food, rich with* 
 the potentiality of life? Fruit, grain, nuts, present themselves on 
 the very threshold of the enquiry. Fresh fruit is perhaps the 
 happiest introduction to the blessings of vital food. It is a path 
 that all may tread. It is the sum and substance of all delicate 
 variety in flavour and fragrance that the soul of man can desire. 
 It is a delicious blending of ambrosial nectar, whose juices are 
 distilled from the dew and perfumed with the spices of the sun¬ 
 shine. Strawberries, cherries, raspberries, currants, plums, peaches, 
 nectarines, apricots, grapes, apples, pears, oranges, figs, dates, and 
 many another delicious gift of Dame Nature, may well tempt the 
 explorer and experimentalist into the summerlands where Flora 
 and Hygieia reign supreme. 
 
 Fresh fruit is the food of Health, but it is also Nature’s only 
 physic. The best pills are purple plums, nor is there a draft to 
 compare with the potion of a peach. All the drugs in the phar- 
 macopaeia may not be taken in exchange for a single apple ; nor 
 can any mixture from the chemist be found to equal the divine 
 alchemy of the orchard. Fresh fruit has a specific recreative 
 power. It can not only renovate, it can rebuild. It will wash out 
 of their deposits the low poisons of debility, the lithates and urates 
 of gout and rheumatism ; it will cleanse the system of the purulent 
 matter of disease, and resweeten*the great filter of the circulation, 
 the liver, from its accumulated filth. There could be no such 
 thing as zymotic disease, if fruit were once again the food of 
 Man. 
 
 Fresh fruit is the one remedy for organic disease—phthisis, 
 tuberculosis, cancer, and many another of the terrible scourges of 
 
VITAL FOOD. 
 
 7* 
 
 avenging Nature, are capable of amelioration, if not of absolute 
 cure, through the agency of an uncompromising fruit diet. The 
 grape cure, the orange and apple cure, the fig and date cure, all 
 within their measure and degree, bear witness to the medical effi¬ 
 cacy of fruit as food. There has been a great popular fallacy as 
 to the expensiveness of fruit ; it has become to be considered as 
 the luxury of the rich, the crown and completion of elaborate 
 feasting. The truth has yet to be taught, by repeated iteration, 
 that fresh fruit is at all seasons more cheap and more wholesome 
 than flesh-meat, for which it is the proper substitute. In season, 
 almost all English fruits can be bought at prices varying from 2 d. 
 to 4d. per pound. The main reason of the comparative cost of 
 fruit is the smallness and uncertainty of the demand. In the fruit 
 districts, thousands of bushels of wholesome apples, gages, plums, 
 etc., are thrown to the pigs, because the momentary market is 
 glutted, and the demand is not equal to the supply. Much may 
 yet be done, in the direction of fruit storage, to prevent waste ; but 
 the first and most crying necessity is the creation of a national 
 demand. All else will follow in its train. The thorny question of 
 excessive railway rates, the difficulties of distribution, the possi¬ 
 bility of preservation—these are all after considerations. When 
 once the universal appetite for fruit’s delicious food is aroused, 
 there will be no trouble in finding an abundant and varied 
 supply. 
 
 The next problem for discussion is raw, ripe grain, and perhaps 
 at first it seems hard and unattractive. There is no doubt as to 
 the desirability of fresh fruit for food. But what of grain? Is it 
 to be eaten raw ? Is this horses’ and chickens’ food to be the ex- 
 pression for man of the Ideal ? This scathing sarcasm, “ chickens* 
 food” seems to lose something of its sharpness when we consider 
 that the resultant product of that chicken-food is not despised in 
 the form of buttered eggs or fricasseed fowl. “ Give a dog a bad 
 name, and hang him ”—and so the vital delights of fresh ripe 
 wheat are damned into oblivion by the foolish nickname, “ chickens’ 
 food ” ! 
 
 There are times, in autumn, when the cornfields are bowing 
 
72 
 
 VITAL FOOD. 
 
 beneath the glory of their golden grain, when the most distempered 
 and dyspeptic shrink not from plucking the full ears, and tasting 
 this ambrosia of the gods; but when once the grain has been har¬ 
 vested, then the force of custom and tradition resumes its sway, 
 and the angels’ food is voted fit only for cocks and hens. The evi¬ 
 dence of Nature’s providence is fan different. In the furniture of 
 the teeth there is written the purpose of their arrangement. There 
 are the sharp, chisel-edged teeth, for slicing and dividing; there 
 are the pointed teeth, for tearing ; and there are the broad, smooth 
 teeth for grinding. They are called the “ molars,” because they are 
 little mills, set in the back of the jaw, for the purpose of grinding 
 grain. 
 
 There are many advantages resulting from this use of raw grain, 
 apart from the supreme possibility of vital increment. One of the 
 maxims of medical men in regard to food is, “eat slowly, chew 
 carefully ” ; and the “ Gladstone-thirty-bites-to-a-mouthful ” is 
 become proverbial to a generation that bolts its victuals like a boa- 
 constrictor. The object of this slow deglutition is not only to 
 ensure the minute mastication of the mouthful, but also its com¬ 
 plete insalivation. The salivary juices must be excited by chewing, 
 and hence the hygienic axiom in eating—“ the more haste, the 
 less speed ! ” The processes of digestion are, or should be, com¬ 
 menced in the mouth, and completed in the laboratory of the 
 stomach ; but, unhappily, this order of Nature is for the most part 
 forgotten, and the worn-out stomach has to pay the penalty of its 
 neglect. Hot soups, soft foods, rich messes, which require no 
 biting, all help to accelerate and intensify this evil; and as a 
 result sound teeth and healthy appetites become the exception 
 rather than the rule. Now, it is impossible to eat a handful of 
 grain quickly ; there is of necessity much biting and chewing ; 
 and so Nature once more asserts her prerogative, and with it 
 brings the blessing of Health. 
 
 The passage from cooked to uncooked food is not an easy one; 
 hit the difficulty involved is the measure of possible improvement. 
 For many the juices of the mouth are so degenerated, that the uis- 
 of the wheat gluten is practically impossible. Chew as 
 
VI L A L FOOD. 
 
 73 
 
 they will, an irreducible minimum remains. This difficulty may 
 be easily overcome by a judicious admixture of fresh fruit or milk. 
 Anything of a fatty nature seems to form a special solvent for the 
 gluten of grain. Raw wheat, when eaten with oatmeal porridge, 
 is easily digested in the mouth ; and, for a beginning, perhaps no 
 better plan can be adopted. This, however, is but a temporary 
 and transitional arrangement. As the juices of the mouth are 
 reinvigorated, the insoluble problem of the gluten is answered, and 
 the vital delights of fresh ripe wheat are known. 
 
 It is impossible to dogmatise upon the selection of grain foods ; 
 but it is probable that there are variations of vital value, which 
 have yet to be scientifically determined. The evidences at present 
 are in favour of wheat, as the queen of cereals for the use of man. 
 Oats, are, by long tradition, the private speciality of horses. 1 he 
 balance of opinion seems to be against the pulses. The prohibition 
 of Pythagoras with regard to beans is well known, and the expe¬ 
 rience of most Vegetarians would accentuate the desirability of 
 moderation in the use of lentils and peas. 
 
 And, lastly, nuts come within the sphere of our enquiry. Too 
 long have these delicately delicious gifts of Nature been considered 
 as the delight of youth and the torture of dyspeptic old age. In 
 truth, they are an almost perfect food, especially in the fat-forming 
 and heat-giving elements, which for the most part are denied to 
 the fruits and cereals. In winter weather no better meal can be 
 made than a handful of nuts with a hunch of wholemeal bread ; 
 and Vegetarian experimentalists, who suffer from the cold in the 
 days of their novitiate, are recommended to make trial of these 
 natural fountains of caloric. Not only is their flavour of a subtle 
 delicacy unspeakable by words, but it is condensed in an infinite 
 variety of form. Kent cobs, filberts, walnuts, almonds, coker-nuts, 
 pecan-nuts, Brazil-nuts, and many another, provide the kon-vivatit 
 with a never-failing feast. As yet, they have been much neglected. 
 They have been reserved for the humiliation of serving as foils to 
 port and other heavy wines. They have been encased in sugar, 
 and sold as sw r eets. They have been mounted on the village 
 green for penny-shies, and have vied with Aunt Sally for the 
 
74 
 
 VITAL FOOD. 
 
 popularity of the fair. They have been entitled “ monkey-nuts,” 
 and in many minds are associated with the Zoo. They have been 
 altogether neglected as food, and the average indigestion hoists 
 the signal-flag of pain at their approach. They have been 
 thwarted and misunderstood ; they have been misplaced and 
 mistimed; but the future is theirs. As yet they are in the 
 minority of one with Nature ; but the verdict of Father Time is in 
 their favour—they but wait for the dietetic awakening of the world. 
 
 But when all is said and done; when the possibilities of vital 
 food are accepted, and the days of flesh-eating and French-cooking 
 are ended—there is still a warning to be given. Vegetarianism, 
 Vital Food, Temperance—these are not, even in the physical plane, 
 a complete gospel of perfection. It is not enough to eat and to 
 drink to the glory of God ; the physical powers, so requickened, 
 must be consecrated to his service. Perfect purity is the key-stone 
 of the arch whose buttresses are vital food and drink. The power 
 of procreation has been given by God to his whole creation ; it is 
 the expression of that first promise, when God blessed both man 
 woman, and said, “ Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the 
 earth, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and the fowl of 
 the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the face of 
 the earth.” It may not be abused, it may not be destroyed. 
 Within the marriage-bond and without, it is given for one purpose, 
 and for one alone. 
 
 Perfect chastity and perfect purity are the sign and seal of the 
 divine life. Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control—these 
 three alone lead man to sovereign power ; and the rocks whereon 
 the world’s happiness has been wrecked are the sunken reefs of 
 sensuality and self-indulgence. The cuckoo-cry of over-population 
 is ringing to-day in our ears ; but the answer for this most 
 miserable Malthusianism is best found in the joyful thanksgiving: 
 “ Children are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is 
 his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are 
 children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full 
 of them ; they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the 
 enemies in the gate.” There is no such thing as over-population, 
 
VITAL FOOD. 
 
 75 
 
 so long as the children are healthily born, and brought up in the 
 fear and admonition of the Lord ; but there is such a thing as a 
 domination of the carnal over the spiritual, when the whole man is 
 so animalised and sensualised that he loses sight altogether of the 
 meaning of purity. 
 
 The prevailing tradition in this matter is utterly corrupt, the 
 fountains of national life are polluted, and the reserves ofvital force 
 are exhausted that Pleasure may become the mate of Sin. The 
 terrible warning is already being fulfilled : “ The prophets prophesy 
 falsely, and the people love to have it so, and what shall it be in 
 the end thereof?” The bitter fruits—the Dead-Sea apples—of 
 a false philosophy are scattered broadcast in our midst ; and 
 teachers, in the name of Science—falsely so called—are not afraid 
 to plant perdition, if perchance they may prevent poverty. It is 
 time that this devilish lie should be cast back in the teeth of its 
 father and framer. 
 
 There is no possibility of a perfect Ideal, there is no complete 
 obedience to God’s will, until the law of Purity becomes the 
 foundation of the life ; but, with it, all things become possible. 
 Too often the spiritual aspiration is let and hindered by the 
 infirmities of the flesh ; the great truth of a complete Ideal is but 
 half-received ; with the result that the struggle after goodness is 
 intensified, and often interrupted. But when once the perfect life 
 is begun all round, when the laws of the natural world are all 
 obeyed, then the divine vision comes down into the world of reality. 
 The dawn of the golden day is breaking, the advent of God’s 
 kingdom is at hand ! 
 
 Life, eternal life, is the gift of God—the birthright of his children, 
 the divine inheritance of all. By Man’s transgression sin came into 
 the world, and death by sin ; for the wilful violation of God’s laws 
 of life is death ; but as in Adam all die, even so in Christ, the Son 
 of the living God, shall all be made alive. As man becomes 
 obedient to the perfect will of God ; as sin, or the violation of that 
 law, ceases out of the world ; the penalty of death passes away. 
 
 Once more the harmonies of heaven ring clear, for Life and 
 Love are one; once more the music of the spheres thrills true, for 
 
?6 
 
 VITAL FOOD. 
 
 God is known, and God is Love. Destructions are come to a 
 perpetual end ; and Death, the conqueror, is cast down into hell. 
 The night of despair—the whole creation groaning and travailing 
 in pain together until now—is passing away, the Day of the Lord 
 is at hand. Awake, awake, ye slumberers, for the fiat has gone 
 forth: 
 
 “ Gather you, gather you, angels of God, 
 
 Freedom and Mercy and Truth ; 
 
 Come, for the earth is grown wicked and old. 
 
 Come down and renew us her youth. 
 
 Wisdom, Self-sacrifice, Daring, and Love, 
 
 Haste to the battle-field, stoop from above, 
 
 To the Day of the Lord at hand ! 
 
 Awake, awake, ye slumberers, for the Baptist’s call is sounding: 
 “ Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a 
 highway for our God.” “ Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened 
 that it cannot save ; neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear. 
 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and 
 your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. For 
 your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity.” 
 
 Woe, woe unto tjae wicked, who destroy and spare not, who 
 honour the Lord with their lips, but their hearts are far from his 
 love. Woe, woe to the cruel, for their feet stand in the pathway 
 of death ; “ their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence 
 is in their hands. THEIR FEET RUN TO EVIL, AND 
 THEY MAKE HASTE TO SHED INNOCENT BLOOD ; 
 their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity ; wasting and destruction 
 are in their paths ; the way of peace they know not, and there is 
 no judgment in their goings. They have made them crooked 
 paths, whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace. Therefore 
 is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us. We 
 wait for light, but behold obscurity ; for brightness, but we walk 
 in darkness. We grope for the wall, like the blind ; and we grope 
 as if we had no eyes. We stumble at noonday as in the night, we 
 are in desolate places as dead men.” 
 
 Awake, awake, ye slumberers, and dream no longer of destruc¬ 
 tion. Hearken unto the word of the Lord of Life: “ He that 
 killeth an ox is as if he slew a man ; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as 
 if he cut off a dog’s neck: he that offereth an oblation, as if he 
 
VITAL FOOD. 
 
 77 
 
 offered swine’s blood ; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an 
 idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul 
 delighteth in their abominations. I ALSO WILL CHOUSE 
 THEIR DELUSIONS, AND WILL BRING THEIR FEARS 
 UPON THEM ; because when I called none did answer, when I 
 spake they did not hear ; but they did evil before mine eyes, and 
 chose that in which I delighted not.” 
 
 Awake, awake, for the voice of the Lord hath spoken : “ Behold, 
 I create new heavens and a new earth ; and the former shall not 
 be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice 
 for ever in that which I create ; for behold, I create Jerusalem a 
 rejoicing and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem 
 and joy in my people ; and the voice of weeping shall be no more 
 heard in her, nor the voice of crying. There shall go no more 
 thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his 
 days; FOR THE CHILD SHALL DIE AN HUNDRED 
 YEARS OLD, BUT THE SINNER BEING AN HUNDRED 
 YEARS OLD SHALL BE ACCURSED. And they shall 
 build houses and inhabit them ; and they shall plant vineyards 
 and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build and another 
 inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for as the days of a 
 tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the 
 work of their hands. They shall not labour in vain, nor bring 
 forth trouble ; for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, 
 and their offspring with them. AND IT SHALL COME TO 
 PASS THAT BEFORE THEY CALL I WILL ANSWER, 
 AND WHILE THEY ARE YET SPEAKING I WILL 
 HEAR. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion 
 shall eat straw like the bullock ; and dust shall be the serpent’s 
 meat* THEY SHALL NOT HURT NOR DESTROY IN 
 ALL MY HOLY MOUNTAIN, SAITH THE LORD.” 
 
PART I. 
 
 E have reached, as it seems to me, a 
 crisis in the history of the Vegetarian 
 movement. For more than forty years 
 the thought of an Ideal diet, unstained 
 by blood, undefiled by disease, has 
 stirred in the consciousness of the 
 world. But, for all its logical complete¬ 
 ness, the theory of a perfect way in 
 diet, contemporaneous almost with the 
 Temperance reformation itself, has 
 made but miserable progress. Where 
 abstinence from alcohol numbers its 
 millions, Vegetarianism but counts its 
 thousands. And yet, at the first blush, 
 all the arguments seem in favour of the 
 more deep-reaching reform. For what 
 are all the Temperance arguments but 
 the shadow of the larger truth which 
 Vegetarianism proclaims ? Who can 
 for one moment compare the negations 
 of Temperance exhortation with the 
 beatitudes of Vegetarian promise ? 
 Who has not at times grown weary 
 over the poverty of a programme which finds its fulfilment in the 
 denunciation of drink ? It is perfectly true that alcohol is a brain 
 
 Tl\e f'Tqfqi'ql 
 
 Food of IVfqrp 
 
 By A. F. Hills. 
 
NATURAL FOOD OF MAN. 
 
 • 79 
 
 poison, and that this can be proved by any number of interesting 
 physiological experiments—that it begins by breaking down the 
 nervous system, and ends by ruining its victims body and soul. It 
 is also true that the potential wealth of our country is dissipated 
 into the degradation of the “ devil’s dram,” while hospitals and 
 lunatic asylums, gaols and gallows, are reared upon the rotton rub¬ 
 bish of superstimulation. Thus a moral motive is involved, and 
 the example of self-sacrifice has given a practical interpretation to 
 the inspiration of Christianity. But, for all this, the momentum of 
 enthusiasm must be small which concentrates its impulse upon so 
 small an area. How, then, is it that the Temperance movement 
 has advanced by leaps and bounds, while Vegetarianism, with its 
 armoury of argumentative attack, has almost seemed to be marking 
 time ? Surely this is a most important question for Vegetarians to 
 consider, and, if possible, to find an answer for. 
 
 It is for this reason that Dr. Densmore’s startling contributions 
 to the philosophy of Vegetarianism deserve our gratitude. They 
 boldly express much of the muttered discontent and disappoint¬ 
 ment which the popular practice of Vegetarianism has brought in 
 its train. Is there not a sting of wholesome sarcasm in the story 
 of the “ Freiwillige Hungerleider ” ? This is the way in which 
 German criticism sums up the whole matter: 
 
 “ It seems that a Vegetarian diet may often be suitable for sufferers from 
 chronic diseases, but it is simply a protracted mode of suicide for those 
 who enjoy good health. They soon get nervous and anaemic, upon which 
 they halve their scanty fare, and double their walks, becoming morose, 
 irritable, and unsociable. Indeed, mental application is so irksome, that 
 a quarter of an hour’s book-reading is with difficulty accomplished. The 
 next stage is that of the bread-and-fruit regime, from which it is but a step 
 to the fruit and grain. Apparent temporary resuscitation is speedily 
 followed by utter collapse. Some then return to the flesh-pots, while 
 others languish on, vainly laying the flattering unction to their souls that 
 they are experiencing a gradual health process which will result in renewed 
 vitality, till then undreamed of. All this while their one pleasure in life 
 (like the fox who has lost his tail) is to preach to others this disastrous and 
 melancholy fad.” 
 
 Is there no echo of personal experience in this unflattering 
 description ? 
 
 “ O wad the gods the giftie gie us. 
 
 To see ourselves as ithcrs see us ! ” 
 
 And what shall we say of the witnesses which Dr. Densmore has 
 brought against us ? What answer shall we make to the vehement 
 
8o 
 
 NATURAL FOOD OF MAN. 
 
 invective which professes to have weighed Vegetarianism in the 
 balances, and found it wanting ? Mrs. Stuart writes : 
 
 “ And in this place, with all possible earnestness, I entreat and solemnly 
 warn you, especially if you are ill, or in any way ailing, never to allow 
 yourself to be ensnared by that calamitous blunder, that gigantic fallacy. 
 Vegetarianism. Of all the gratuitous modes of flinging away precious 
 health, and inducing illness, this is about the foremost for rashness and 
 folly. I speak from experience, for, regarding it as the ideal, humane, and 
 perfect diet (I still consider it all that, only unfortunately there is lacking 
 to us the ideal stomach necessary for its digestion and assimilation), I an¬ 
 xiously desired to follow it always, and to my life-long repentance tried hard 
 to do so six separate times, beginning more than eleven years ago. I care¬ 
 fully studied all its literature on which I could lay hands. I corresponded 
 with, and implicitly obeyed, the guidance of some of its leaders, with this 
 lesult, that twice I brought myself so near death’s door that I heard the 
 hinges creak, and, still undaunted by that dire experience, tried it yet four 
 times more, causing myself very serious illness. And, but that I had to 
 begin with, an iron constitution, nay an adamantine one, this wretched diet 
 —un-nourishing because fermentative, flatulent, impossible of digestion and 
 assimilation—would have had me long ago under, instead of on, the green 
 earth. I never yet knew a Vegetarian (and I have known many) possessed 
 of much real stamina. He may keep well by dint of hard labour, or brisk 
 exercise and careful living all round, for a while, I admit—but when illness 
 does overtake him, having no reserve of strength, down he runs like a clock 
 with a broken mainspring, and his resisting and rallying force, thanks to 
 his inadequate nutriment, is lamentably weak. It may be economical, as 
 some count economy, penny wise and pound foolish ; but the bill is high 
 in the end that we pay, with doctors’ fees and lost health. A navvy or a 
 coal-porter may stow away and be able to digest and work off the regulation 
 amount of peas, beans, lentils, oatmeal, etc., but for us more or less seden¬ 
 tary beings there are many far cheerfuller and more seducing ways of up¬ 
 setting our stomachs, if we must do so, than Vegetarianism ; and few—I 
 speak feelingly—are more dangerons, chimerical, or so idiotic.” 
 
 Is it true, then, that Vegetarianism is a fallacy and a fraud—that 
 this last delusion of generous enthusiasm is played out—and that 
 the detestable doctrine of blood is once more to reign supreme ? 
 I trow not ; and yet, recalling many of the warnings of the past 
 fifty years, pondering over the all too early deaths of some of its 
 most splendid apostles— eg, Graham and Anna Kingsford—facing 
 the fact that many make the great experiment and many fail—I 
 have long since come to the conclusion that abstinence from fish > 
 flesh, and fowl, is no complete answer to the problem of rhe ages, 
 and that Vital Vegetarianism alone , marks the road to Paradise- 
 regained. 
 
NATURAL FOOD OF MAN. 
 
 Si 
 
 Herein I find myself largely in agreement with my antagonist. 
 Dr. Densmore is eager to do away with the cook, and clamours for 
 milk and eggs as the accompaniments of fruits and nuts ; and, so 
 far as the latter are concerned, I rejoice to see so doughty a cham¬ 
 pion descend into the lists for their defence. Who can refrain 
 from a shudder of disgust when he thinks upon the unappetising 
 messes—for the most part as big as Benjamin’s—which are daily 
 thrust upon ignorant hunger as samples of the perfect way in diet! 
 Surely over the Olla-Podrida of the sixpenny-treble-course there 
 broods the vampire of unsatisfied distention, where sodden pottage 
 wrestles with stodgy porridge for pride of precedence, and where 
 beans and peas vie with each other in satiating and swollen soft¬ 
 ness. It will be a grand thing for Vegetarianism if Dr. Densmore 
 can succeed in disestablishing the complexities of the kitchen ; for 
 I am fully convinced that hot, wet, sloppy mushes and messes may 
 well typify, for the venturous Vegetarian, those marshy quagmires 
 which too late are found to be the very Slough of Despond into 
 which, falling, he is doomed to death. 
 
 But if this be true—if Vegetarianism has partly failed because it 
 has been blind to the vital values of its own teaching—that is no 
 reason why the virtues of the grains and pulses should be sum¬ 
 marily dismissed as non-existent, at the bidding of a theory which 
 was born but yesterday. I do not know how long Dr. Densmore 
 has made practical proof of his own prescription ; but it seems to 
 me, unless he can give some more sufficient argument than any that 
 has hitherto seen light for his denunciation of the cereals and 
 pulses, that by his own confession he stands self-condemned. For 
 what is the meaning of this dispensation in favour of milk and 
 eggs, unless it be an admission that fruit and nuts are in themselves 
 insufficient for the proper sustenance of life ? Eggs are but grains 
 at secondhand, and milk may rightly be considered as the first sub¬ 
 stitute for pulse. 
 
 I shall be more than interested to hear the results of experiment¬ 
 ing in the direction of the Densmcre diet. As a process of cure, 
 if only it can be separated from the slaughter-house suggestions of 
 the Salisbury method, it may have a great future. At all events, it 
 has a better prospect than the popular regimen of beef and brandy. 
 There can be no doubt that the possibilities of stimulation are 
 being exploited to their uttermost. “ Bouillon Fleet,” “ Bovril,” 
 and half a hundred other essences of flesh and blood, are competing 
 
82 
 
 NATURAL FOOD OF MAN. 
 
 with the older-fashioned gins and whiskies and rums for the life 
 and strength of the nation. It is time that this delusion of Stim¬ 
 ulation should be broken down ; the world is ripe for the teaching 
 of better things—Vegetarianism stands, as Eliezer of old, betwixt 
 the living and the dead. She speaks of life and health and 
 happiness to a people fast bound in misery and iron. She points 
 to Nature as the revelation of the will of God, and founds her 
 throne upon eternal and unchanging Law. 
 
PART II. 
 
 'HE first condition of living is Life. This sounds like a truism, 
 but it is a truism which will bear repetition. Almost all the 
 teirible calamities which beset the lot of man, spring from 
 this elementary blunder, that life is regarded as a consequence, 
 rather than a cause ; and the whole science of medicaments, con¬ 
 founding the relations of existence, makes matter the sickly substi¬ 
 tute for force. From this confusion flow the controversies which 
 during the last few weeks have filled our correspondence columns 
 to overflowing. Here we touch the great “ Yeast” conflict, no less 
 than vhe Densmore dispute ; and here also we shall find the final 
 solution of the Natural Food of Man. 
 
 It is Life that we must study, if we wish to understand existence, 
 not as a symptom, but as a creative force. Man is a complex 
 being ; he lives on many planes of development ; let it suffice us 
 to consider four : (i) the Body, (2) the Mind, (3) the Soul, (4) the 
 Spirit. But all life is not the same life, and there is as much essen¬ 
 tial difference between physical, mental, psychical, and spiritual 
 force, as there is between heat, magnetism, electricity, and light 
 In the phraseology of the Athanasian Creed, there is one force of 
 the body, and another force of the mind, and another force of the 
 soul, and another force of the spirit—and yet there are not four 
 forces, but one force. For it is the harmony of all these several 
 forces which strikes the music of the perfect Life 
 
 But when the Ideal is shattered, when the divine balance is dis¬ 
 turbed, we find that discords are jangled into the melodies of Crea¬ 
 tion, and all its songs are out of tune. Thus it is that sickness, 
 pain, and death, are born into the world. Man is driven forth from 
 Paradise, and learns, from the bitterness of suffering, the lesson of 
 the Fall. Life is the manifestation of force in matter ; existence 
 is the expression of essential energy in non-essentiai form. And 
 
8 4 
 
 NATURAL FOOD OF MAN. 
 
 just as there are many ranges of energy, so are there many modes 
 of its expression. It has been suggested that the differentiation of 
 all natural forces is ultimately but one of vibratory speed, and that 
 the same relation which conditions the colours of light holds good 
 throughout the whole of Nature. But, if this be true, what a new 
 wealth of meaning is given to the phrase, the “ Unity of Nature.” 
 We know that, if we pass a beam of white light through a prism > 
 we shall be able to disclose the prismatic tints, each in its appointed 
 sequence—violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, red—and we 
 - also know that these broken beams have each their separate func¬ 
 tions ; that the actinic rays (violet) are different from the heat rays 
 (red), that they represent to the eye different speeds of vibration, 
 and that they possess in consequence different powers of action. 
 The teaching of the spectroscope is yet in its infancy ; but, just as 
 the twin sciences of Chemistry and Electricity reveal the ultimate 
 relations of Matter and Force, so in the near future will the 
 interpretation of both be found in the evolution of spectrum 
 analysis. 
 
 It is this interpretation that we are now endeavouring biologi¬ 
 cally to forecast. Let us reason by analogy ; and, assuming that 
 life-forces are correlative to light forces, we may justly conclude 
 that each separate life-force has its own identity and its own func¬ 
 tion, but that it is capable of transformation—it may be exalted 
 or it may be degraded, according to the medium through which its 
 manifestation takes place. Thus, in the world of physics, magnetism 
 is capable of conversion into electricity, and again into light. Take, 
 as an instance, the common cycle of conversion which lecturers 
 love to quote. Coal may be considered as “ bottled-up-sunshine ” ; 
 coal is burnt in a boiler, and generates steam ; steam drives the 
 engine, which in turn revolves the dynamo ; the magnets of the 
 armature, passing before the magnets of the field, induce the electric 
 current, which, striking the electric arc between two carbon points, 
 makes manifest light. But it must be noticed that none of these 
 phenomena are immediate—they are all mediate There is no 
 direct transformation ; the mystery of “ induction ” makes itself 
 known. Perhaps no better illustration of this marvel of natural 
 law can be found than the “ Transformer ” with which high tension 
 electric-currents, of small volume, are changed into low-tension 
 currents of large volume. The reverse of this process is of course 
 as easy. It matters not whether a high-tension current is used to 
 
NATURAL FOOD OF MAN. 
 
 85 
 
 induce a low-tension current, or whether the induction is reversed, 
 only the conditions mubt be modified to meet the necessities of the 
 case. 
 
 Transfer these conceptions to the processes of Life, and it will at 
 once be seen that there too there must be a differentiation of life- 
 forces, which are similarly capable of transformation, and, by in¬ 
 duction, of being reproduced in a modified form. This science of 
 life-values is as yet unexplored ; but it contains, I believe, the 
 answxr for which Dr. Densmore has been asking so long. Take 
 the case of muscular force acting through the spinal ganglia ; this 
 can be directly differentiated from nervous forces acting through 
 the lower brain. These two life-forces are distinct ; they are speci¬ 
 fically generated ; they possess specific functions, they produce 
 specific results. But, as we have already seen, all force is mani¬ 
 fested through matter ; you cannot taste it, you cannot smell it ; 
 you cannot examine it under the highest power microscope, you 
 cannot test it with the strongest chemical reagent; but you can 
 reason of it, from the phenomena which it produces. 
 
 Life has been too long regarded from its material aspect alone ; 
 it must be investigated as to its vital-values. Vitality implies ful¬ 
 filling of the fountains of life ; and yet, in the gross, vulgar, con¬ 
 crete sense of the word, there are no fountains to be filled. Just 
 as accumulators are properly supposed to store the electric current, 
 so may the body of man be said to be fulfilled with life. Every 
 electrician knows that it is impossible to store electric energy. It 
 is true that a chemical change is made in the constitution of the 
 battery ; the positive plates are peroxidised and the negative plates 
 are deoxidised, and, the balance of chemical equilibrium being thus 
 disturbed, everything is ready for that reversal which generates the 
 electric current, which is vulgarly supposed to be stored. In the 
 same way, in the bodily battery, you cannot store life ; only you 
 can set up a certain condition of material aggregation, which is 
 suitable for the manifestation of the forces of life. But each of 
 these forces finds separate manifestation. Muscular force produces 
 muscular phenomena ; nervous force produces nervous phenomena ; 
 psychical force produces psychical phenomena ; spiritual force pro¬ 
 duces spiritual phenomena. 
 
 What, then, is this condition of material suitability ? Here we 
 are face to face with the problem of Food. The material body is 
 built up from the food that it assimilates. There are many degrees 
 
86 
 
 NATURAL FOOD OF MAN. 
 
 of excellence in this process of building, ranging from the shoddy 
 jerry-building of the confirmed dyspeptic, to the ideal beauty of 
 the Apollo Belvidere. Different foodstuffs are required for different 
 purposes ; and each foodstuff has its specific value. If, then, 
 muscle-forming food-stuffs are lacking, the manifestation of mus¬ 
 cular force will be difficult—perhaps impossible. If all life-condi¬ 
 tions are bad, the reserves of vital force are exhausted ; this seldom 
 takes place equally ; one range of vital energy is, as a rule, exhausted 
 before another, with the result that one symptom of failure is 
 developed before another. But when once the vital energy is ex¬ 
 hausted, no clever tinkering with dead foods can do much good ; 
 for a time higher ranges of energy may be transformed by the use 
 of specific poisons— eg., minerals, medicines, alcohol, tobacco, etc. 
 (on this most interesting subject much remains to be written)—but 
 the only way to replenish vital defect is, I believe, by the use of 
 vital food, and for this purpose specific vital foods are requisite. 
 
 The physical degradation of man manifests itself, for the most 
 part, in the lower ranges of life first. It is in the body that he 
 begins to forget God. Let us assume, then, that the pulses are 
 specifically muscular-adapted "foods. If, then, either the muscular 
 or nervous forces are depleted, all the natural muscular and nervous 
 foods—so far as they are devitalised—will be worse than useless. 
 “ To him that hath shall be given ; from him that hath not shall 
 be taken away even that which he seemeth to have.” Here, it 
 seems to me, is the explanation of the difficulty in using starchy 
 and nitrogenous foods, to which Dr. Densmore has referred. But 
 flesh-foods are all more highly organised than vegetable foods; 
 they have been animalised, and thereby, as Dr. Densmore says, 
 have been rendered excrementitious ; they have passed through the 
 processes of life, and have been spoiled for human food. They 
 have become transformers of energy, and so they enable those who 
 use them to degrade their higher energies, and to replenish the 
 lower fountains of life. But the body thus built up is less suitable 
 for the manifestation of the higher energies, and so the man 
 begins to be degraded. The appointed order of Nature has been 
 forsaken, and the harmony of the Ideal is veiled in night. 
 
 Thus, then, many a so-called recovery may mean no more than 
 the degradation of the nobler powers of life ; and the false sugges. 
 tions of the foolish physician may pave the way for a more perilous 
 fall. This is the consolation for Vegetarians who have, to all outer 
 
NATURAL FOOD OF MAN. 
 
 »7 
 
 seeming, failed. They have fought a good fight for conscience 
 sake, but they have not found the physical health they sought 
 It may be that they have misunderstood the vital teachings of 
 their creed ; they may have damped the fires of life with wet, 
 cooked foods ; but still they have kept bright burning the diviner 
 fires of soul and spirit, and when they stand in the bright shining 
 of the perfect day they will know that their labour has not been in 
 vain in the Lord. 
 
PART III. 
 
 “ On they go, lrom strength to strength, 
 
 Till they reach thy throne at length; 
 
 At thy feet adoring fall, 
 
 Who hast led them safe through all ! ” 
 
 OgN the first place, I wish to acknowledge the generous references 
 to myself contained in Dr. Densmore’s letter upon the sub¬ 
 ject. These I most heartily reciprocate. When I made use of the 
 word “antagonist,” it was in the controversial sense alone. Dr. 
 Densmore has brought to the front some startling views of his own, 
 upon the ultimate issues of Vegetarianism ; I rejoice in his stout 
 championship of the supreme values of fruit and nuts in their 
 divinely vital purity ; but I cannot accept his conclusion, that the 
 cereals and the pulses are the primal sources of diseased decrepi¬ 
 tude—and in that sense, and that sense alone, I am his “ anta¬ 
 gonist.” 
 
 1 do not know whether I made myself sufficiently clear in my 
 last part upon the essential relations of Force and Matter ; it is a 
 most difficult subject to grapple with, even within the inner sanc¬ 
 tuary of conscience, much more upon the open platform of written 
 words. The great point I wished to make is this, that existence is 
 the manifestation of force in matter, and that life is not from with¬ 
 out but from within. In the presence of an almost universal dense 
 materialism, it is difficult to enforce either the value or the mean¬ 
 ing of this innermost relation of force to matter ; and yet, in all 
 the daily actions of life, nothing is more certain than that this 
 essential relation is the be-all and end-all of action. What is plea¬ 
 sure of either body, mind, soul, or spirit, but the harmonious chim¬ 
 ing of the bells of being ?—it is the perfect outshining of divine 
 energy through the shadows of material form. But, if this be so, 
 then we can no longer speak of the storage of life, but of its man- 
 
NATURAL FOOD OF MAN. 
 
 89 J 
 
 ifestation in matter ; and, for this manifestation, harmonious aggre¬ 
 gation is requisite. The material wrappage must be such that the 
 divine light can shine through. 
 
 Let us apply this thought to the theory of Vital Food, and we 
 shall at once see that food is vital only in the harmonious co-ordin¬ 
 ation of its molecules, not in the absolute storage of force. The 
 result of the intrusion of fire upon these divine harmonies, is their 
 disturbance. Cooking is but one proof amongst many of the 
 degradation of Man ; his vital energies are minished and brought 
 low, and in the weakness of his humiliation he seeks aid from the 
 fiery forces of hell, and forsakes the spiritual ministrations of life. 
 The lower cannot exist in the presence of the higher. Just as vice 
 stands shamed before the beauty of Holiness, just as the fire fades 
 and fails before the bright shining of the Sun—so is the dietary of 
 death destined to go down before the vigour of Vital Food. 
 
 But, if life is not stored, but manifested, then it is clear that food 
 is but the medium of material manifestation ; and so the foolish 
 quips and cranks about banqueting on pips vanish in confusion, 
 because at last it is understood that neither pips, nor seeds, nor 
 any other form of matter, can store life, but only represent a con¬ 
 dition ripe for manifestation. There are many degrees of this 
 ripeness. Matter may be intensively or extensively related to life. 
 Conceive the purposes of Nature, and meditate upon them. The 
 first manifestation of life is feeble, whether it be in the babe, or the 
 birdling, or in the tiny bud ; and for this feebleness an intensive 
 relation of matter is requisite. For the tiny flame, there is needed 
 the tinder-tensity. Here, then, is the virtue of the pip Buried in 
 the innermost heart of the luscious fruit, enshrouded in the cunning 
 coverings of the core, lies intensive matter, ready for the manifes¬ 
 tation of life. But what of the rich pulp of the fruit? Here, too, 
 is vital food—matter extensively related to life—only the relation 
 is more rigorous—less delicate, but more enduring—less sensitive, 
 yet more mature. 
 
 Thus, then, there opens up before the enquiring eye a long vista 
 of healing and of hope. The whole science of intensive vital 
 matter, of germs and pips (from a medical point of view), has yet 
 to be explored. I may do no more than hint at it in this paper ; 
 and yet, when I remember that the germ of the grain, of the pulse, 
 and of the nut, bears the same intensive relation as the more 
 popular “ pip,” I can but marvel at the possibilities which lie open 
 
90 
 
 NATURAL FOOD OF MAN. 
 
 before the wise physician, who shall gaze upon the Ideal, not 
 through the murky darkness of decay and death, but through the 
 golden glory of the wealth of life. Here, too, is answer to the 
 Banana problem ; though the intensive relation of the tiny seed is 
 absent, the extensive relation of vital food is there ; and just as 
 the ruddy cheek of the apple is sweet in the mouth, so is the mellow 
 fatness of the ripe banana good for food. 
 
 But, even as we consider these vital relations of food, we become 
 conscious that they are not simple, but manifold ; and I believe 
 that the future will award to the science of “ Specific Values ” the 
 pride of precedence in the revelation of God’s laws of life. When 
 once it is realised that every development of life requires specific 
 nurture—that there are many foods of the muscles and many foods 
 of the mind, many foods of the soul and many foods of the spirit 
 —each producing specific and harmonious growth—then a new 
 impulse will be given to the determination of vital problems, a 
 new value will be given to the experiment of life. What, then, are 
 these “ specific values ”? How is an apple different from a grape 
 in its relation to life ? How shall a bean be distinguished from 
 a pea ? How shall we differentiate the cereals, and define the 
 nuts ? What is the sum-total of their effects upon the processes 
 of life? Here, as it seems to me, is the problem which Vegeta¬ 
 rianism has to solve. The answer will not be found in a day ; but,, 
 when once the line of search is started in the right direction, 
 then the multiplication of the necessary proof increases in geome¬ 
 trical progression. Nor is vital food the privilege of man alone ; 
 he shares it with the animal and the vegetable worlds. Here, 
 again, is the line of enquiry hitherto unexplored. We have heard 
 a great deal of the failure of fruit culture, of the acrid mediocrity 
 of English apples, of the insipid poverty of outdoor pears. What 
 if the reason of such failure be once more included in the problem 
 of food ? The popular remedy for the starvation sickness of our 
 feeble fruit is stable manure; and the immediate result is an Egyptian 
 plague of moths and caterpillars. Go into the most carefully 
 tended vinery, and you will find the big bunches of grapes shorn 
 of two-thirds of all their wealth of bloom, that the miserable min¬ 
 imum of strength may suffice to swell the grapes that are left. Go 
 into the rose-garden, and you will find the tender shoots of natural 
 luxuriance cut to the quick, and the poor mutilated stems will 
 weep for the unimaginative barbarity of the gardener. 
 
natural food of man. 
 
 91 
 
 Is Nature thus improvident in her bounty? No, ten thousand 
 times, no ! The forest oak in its majesty sheds not the acorns 
 that cluster over its foliaged strength The wild beast in 
 her lair can safely rear her young. Only where the ignorance of 
 man has intervened do we see the wholesale slaughter of the first¬ 
 born, the repeated massacre of the innocents. Were grapes and 
 roses once fed with vital foods, all this hacking and ripping of Jack 
 of Whitechapel might be done away with. The mineral manures, 
 which are inorganic, can be mated to the stable manures, which 
 are obsolete organic, through the wholesome fertility of grass, and 
 the vital food thus speedily begotten may well prove the salvation 
 of the fruit and flower farmer, who is so hopelessly lamenting the 
 malignant spite of rain and sun, of heat and frost. Here is a path 
 for Vegetarians to explore. Whatsoever things are vital, whatso¬ 
 ever things are pure, whatsoever things are kind, whatsoever 
 things are natural—if there be any virtue, if there be any praise 
 think on these things. 
 
 The four great principles I desire to lay down are these: 
 
 (1) That life is the manifestation of divine force in matter, 
 and that the vividness and beauty of this manifestation is depen¬ 
 dent upon the harmonious aggregation and co-ordination of the 
 material medium. 
 
 (2) That this manifestation of force is not simple, but manifold, 
 asserting itself, with many ranges, upon many planes. 
 
 (3) That for this manifold manifestation there is required the 
 medium of specific matter—which, rightly to recognise, is the 
 science of Creation, the whole wisdom of God. 
 
 (4) That therefore the highest, no less than the lowest, ranges of 
 energy, the spiritual and the psychical, no less than the mental and 
 the physical, require a right adaptation and a wise selection of 
 specific foods, which is the philosophy of Vegetarianism. 
 
PART IV. 
 
 CVF the principles I have stated be true, then it follows that Dr. 
 yf Densmore’s premisses may be quite correct, while the con¬ 
 clusion of his argument is wholly wrong. He has quoted 
 a great deal lately from a certain Dr. Evans, hitherto unknown to 
 fame, whom he seems to have constituted his prophet and guide. 
 We have all heard of the unfortunate consequences of the blind 
 leading the blind—let us hope that the Densmore denunciation of 
 the cereals and pulses may be spared this crowning indignity. We 
 have been favoured with lengthy quotations from Dr. Evans’ “ En¬ 
 quiry into the Cause ot Oid Age,” most of which seem to me to 
 be entirely irrelevant to the subject in hand, and all of which go 
 far to prove, as I think, that the worthy doctor was an adept in that 
 time-honoured misdemeanour of putting the cart before the horse. 
 According to his latest disciple : 
 
 “Dr. Evans starts with the proposition, that the ossification and deposit 
 of earthy matter in the joints and tissues of the aged, with the resultant 
 weakness and decrepitude, is not the result of old age , but that old age is 
 the result of ossification and the deposit of earthy matter in the system, 
 and that this deposit of earthy matter is directly traceable to easily avoid¬ 
 able errors in diet.” 
 
 To this primal proposition I offer a most unhesitating challenge. 
 The theory is worthy of Mr. Gilbert and Topsyturveydom. I need 
 scarcely point out that “ old age ” can only be the result of length 
 of life, and has absolutely nothing to do with any physiological 
 conditions or with the deposit of earthy matters in the system. 
 But this is probably only a slip of the doctor’s pen. It is evidently 
 meant that the infirmities for the most part observable in old age 
 result from errors of diet. Now this is, ot course, largely true ; 
 but the point always to be remembered is this, that health and 
 
NATURAL FOOD OF MAN. 
 
 93 
 
 vigour are always and for ever conditioned by the vitality of the 
 system, and that abnormal deposits result, not so much from a 
 wrong selection of foods, as from an insufficient vital force. And 
 this, of course, is the reason why these ‘“infirmities of the flesh” 
 (eater) become so apparent as the fountains of life are exhausted 
 by lapse of time Here is the secret of all disease, whether in 
 early or in later days. Everything depends upon vigorous vitality. 
 As I have quoted again and again, and shall go on quoting for 
 many a long year to come. 
 
 “ ’Tis life, not death, for which we pant, 
 
 ’Tis life whereof our nerves are scant— 
 
 More life, and fuller, that we want.” 
 
 I have read few things more naively innocent than Dr. Evans’ 
 train of reasoning. He writes : 
 
 “ Among physiologists and medical philosophers generally the idea pre¬ 
 vails that the ‘ ossification ’ (or the gradual accumulation of earthy salts in 
 the system) which characterises natural death is the result of old age, but 
 investigation shows us that such an explanation is unsatisfactory. For, in 
 the first place, if ‘old age ’ (which is really the number of years a person 
 has lived) is the cause of the ossification which accompanies it, then, if 
 like causes produce like effects, all of the same age should be found in 
 the same state of ossification ; but investigation proves beyond all doubt 
 that such is not the case. How common is it to see individuals about 
 fifty years old as aged and decrepit as others at seventy or eighty.” 
 
 It is surely hardly worth while to fill up columns of the Vegeta¬ 
 rian with this inconsequent reasoning—still less, to make it the 
 foundation for a theory which professes to revolutionise the entire 
 philosophy of every-day life. Talk of building upon the sand— 
 and the danger of it——this is building upon the mud. But Dr. 
 Densmore is still unsatisfied ; he goes on quoting: 
 
 “ The general impression is that this accumulation of fibrinous, gela¬ 
 tinous, and osseous matter is the result of old age—the result of time— 
 the remote effect of the failure of that mysterious animal-principle life. 
 Lint in an after chapter we shall show that this great principle which is 
 centred in the cerebrospinal axis gradually wanes because the brain and 
 nerves by degrees lose their supply of blood, their powers of selection 
 and imbibation [sic, surely inhibition], and are deprived of their ordained 
 nourishment by means of this gradual process of induration and ossifi¬ 
 cation. 
 
 I would gladly have forgiven Dr. Densmore if he had spared us 
 the whole of these rambling reasonings, and had given us the 
 demonstration whic! \ I have italicised above. For the moment, I 
 
94 
 
 NATURAL FOOD OF MAN. 
 
 prefer to range myself with “ the physiologists and medical philo¬ 
 sophers,” who are spoken of so contemptuously, and I should like 
 to ask by what authority Dr. Densmore via Dr. Evans asserts that 
 the “ mysterious vital-principle is centred in the cerebro-spinal 
 axis”? The proof of this would be eminently interesting. Never 
 was there such a prosy old platitudinarian as Dr. Evans ; he is 
 never tired of trotting out truisms and calling them truths. He 
 says: 
 
 “ Any organ, or all the organs put together, of man or any being, cannot 
 generate any element; hence all that is earthy in man is derived from the 
 earth. 
 
 Most sapient philosopher !—but what has this to do with the 
 relations of the “ cereals and pulses ” to life ? The whole book, so 
 far as I can judge by Dr. Densmore’s quotations, seems to me to 
 be an extraordinary mixture of second-hand science and first-hand 
 rubbish. Dr. Evans complacently quotes Herr Liebig’s pronounce¬ 
 ment, that 
 
 “ Many of the fundamental or leading ideas of the present time appear, 
 to him who knows not what science has already achieved, as extravagant 
 as the notions of the alchemists.” 
 
 But 1 fancy the great chymist would have turned in his grave, 
 had he heard the application of his remark : 
 
 “ We have shown ‘ old age and natural death ’ to be due to two causes : 
 firstly , to the action of atmospheric oxygen (sic), which consumes our bodies 
 causes fibrinous and gelatinous accumulations ; secondly, to a deposition 
 of earthy matter (ossification). If therefore we can by artificial means 
 partially arrest the never-ceasing action of atmospheric oxygen , and at the 
 same time prevent the accumulation of these earthy compounds, or even 
 remove them from the system, that state of body termed ‘ old age ’ would 
 be deferred, and life be prolonged for a lengthened period.” 
 
 I almost feel inclined to apologise for quoting this reductionem 
 ad absurdum of scientific argument ; but my excuse must be the 
 zeal of Dr. Evans’ disciple. He writes : 
 
 “ I hope my readers have carefully read the preceding extracts from 
 ‘ How to Prolong Life.’ If so, it will be clearly seen that Dr. Evans 
 has made a most valuable contribution to Vegetarianism in the absolute 
 sense.” 
 
 From this expression of personal opinion I can only respectfully 
 differ. It seems to me that the whole theory is based upon mis- 
 
NATURAL FOOD OF MAN. 95 
 
 conception of natural law, and is about as valuable as another re¬ 
 markable contention by the same author : 
 
 “ That the amount of needed nitrogen in food has been very much 
 over-estimated, and that fruit-eaters can get this nitrogen in some mysterious 
 way (sic) from the atmosphere.” 
 
 With these samples before us of Dr. Evans’ power of ratiocina¬ 
 tion, we need not be surprised at Dr. Densmore’s warning, that his 
 master 
 
 “ is not emancipated from the superstition of drug-medication—that he 
 likewise makes the mistake of recommending phosphoric acid, the product 
 of a series of retorts and involved distillations, seemingly unacquainted 
 with the plain fact that Nature’s laboratory yields a product of a far more 
 exquisite nature than man-made chemistry even borders upon—that he 
 plainly inculcates the doctrine that tea and coffee are valuable as foods— 
 and that a moderate use of tobacco is desirable for those who can 
 endure it.” 
 
 All this might be naturally expected from what has gone before ; 
 but I am still at a loss to account for Dr. Densmore’s extraordinary 
 conclusion, that, because he has benefited by a nine months’ abstin¬ 
 ence from cereals and vegetables that therefore he is in a position 
 to condemn their use as food. Dr. Densmore’s nine months is cer¬ 
 tainly a little better than Mr. Newton Wood’s three weeks ; but 
 this jumping at conclusions is far removed from the best scientific 
 method, and in this particular case seems to lead to dangerous 
 results. For the poison of the whole theory is this, that, if the 
 cereals and the pulses are specifically bad, then flesh foods and fish 
 are specifically good. They are largely free from those earthy 
 matters of which Dr. Evans complains, and therefore they are the 
 natural sources of long life. And so we read : 
 
 “ We therefore see that the different kinds of foods in regard to long¬ 
 evity have the following order: fruits, fish, animal food (flesh, eggs, etc.), 
 vegetables, cereals.” 
 
 Dr. Densmore is thus following faithfully in the steps of his 
 master, when he recommends the use of fish, flesh, and fowl ; but, 
 inasmuch as the first aim and object of Vegetarianism is to dis¬ 
 countenance their use, we can but regret that he has taken the 
 trouble to disentomb Dr. Evans’ ramshackle utterances from the 
 oblivion into which they had so naturally fallen. I am profoundly 
 convinced that Dr. Densmore is making a most lamentable mistake. 
 With the best 'of motives, he is introducing most dangerous doc- 
 
NATURAL FOOD OF MAN. 
 
 96 
 
 trines. It is said that we may generally judge people by the com¬ 
 pany they keep; and when we recollect the very unsavoury 
 associations of blood and carnage with which these theories are 
 tainted—when we recall the ill-omened introduction by which they 
 were brought prominently before the Vegetarian world—then I 
 think we shall be wise not too hastily to accept them, because they 
 seem to make the path of dietetic change more easy and more 
 delightful. For what is the reason that Dr. Densmore’s nine-days’ 
 converts give of the faith that is in them ? They say that they 
 have an instinctive repulsion for vital cereals and pulses, and they 
 therefore argue that these foods are injurious, and forget the witness 
 of their million brethren all the world over that they are good and 
 to be desired for food. I think the explanation of this instinctive 
 repulsion is much more simple, and much less flattering to their 
 intuitional power. It is because the forces for which the cereals 
 and pulses are specific are debilitated, that they shrink from their 
 use, “ Because they have not, therefore there has bee*'* *aken frcrn 
 them even that which thpy seem to have.” 
 
PART V. 
 
 “ O Truth, before whose shrine we 
 Thou priceless pearl for all who seek, 
 
 To thee our earliest strength we vow, 
 Thy love will bless the pure and meek ; 
 When dreams or mists beguile our sight, 
 Turn thou our darkness into light. 
 
 O Life, the well that ever flows 
 To slake the thirst of those that faint ; 
 Thy power to bless, what Seraph knows ? 
 Thy joy supreme, what words can paint ? 
 In earth’s last hour of fleeting breath, 
 
 Be thou our Conqueror over death.” 
 
 considering the Densmore denunciation of cereals and pulses, 
 Qr it must not be forgotten that one of the claims made for the 
 system is that it represents a “perfect cure.” We have all 
 heard of “ the cure, the cure, the perfect cure,” and I am inclined 
 to think that this will represent the strongest foundation on which 
 the exclusive use of fruits and nuts will rest. It is for the invalid 
 and hypochondriac of the Salisbury and Stuart type that Dr. Dens- 
 more’s theories will prove a counsel of perfection. And for this 
 reason. In their case the vital forces, which make up the balance 
 of the wholesome life, are exhausted, the harp of health is unstrung, 
 and so the music of their consciousness is struck upon a single 
 chord, where the fundamental harmonies are lost. When once the 
 power of using the cereals and pulses are lost, when once obesity 
 becomes the nemesis of starch, and diabetes the curse of albumen, 
 then may we read the writing upon the walls of our fleshly taber¬ 
 nacle— Mene , mene , tekel Upharsin —“ Thou art weighed in the 
 balances, and found wanting.” 
 
 For this degeneration Dr. Densmore’s suggestions may be of 
 value—only they must be recognised as remedies, and not be 
 
NATURAL FOOD OF MAN. 
 
 98 
 
 regarded as Ideal. It may be possible to wash out this writing of 
 disease and death through the ripe benignancy of fruit and nuts 
 —that is a part of the Vegetarian gospel It may also be possible 
 for a time to nourish the lower ranges of vital energy upon the 
 kindly strength of milk and eggs. Upon this point we need the 
 evidence of experience, for as yet we have been favoured only with 
 the hasty determinations of impulsive immaturity. But, looking 
 at the whole question from a greater standpoint than that of dys¬ 
 peptic delicacy, it is surely obvious that the universal use of starchy 
 foods has not brought down the judgments of the Der.smore dis¬ 
 paragement. The first prelude to the great discussion, which has 
 been raging in the Vegetarian for so many weeks, was an interro¬ 
 gatory as to the values of flesh-foods for the reduction of obesity ; 
 and in this context the suggestion was made “ that starchy foods 
 were the original sources of decrepitude and disease, and that 
 therefore bread might properly be termed ‘ the staff of death.’ ” 
 In the first instance, the whole suggestion seemed so supremely 
 ridiculous, that it scarcely called for reply ; but, now that the theory 
 has been pushed so strenuously to the forefront, with long quota¬ 
 tions from such eminent authorities as Dr. de Lacy Evans, it has 
 become necessary to speak more strongly in defence of our old- 
 established friends the pulses and the grains. This has involved a 
 somewhat elaborate research into the ultimate relations of matter 
 and force—a research which has yet to be extended to the correla¬ 
 tion of force and energy. 
 
 But, apart altogether from such abstract speculations, surely a 
 rough approximation to truth may be found in a general survey of 
 the dietetic history of mankind. Before such an investigation Dr. 
 Densmore’s theory of obesity falls helplessly to the ground. For 
 if, indeed, starchy foods be the original fountains of fat, what shall 
 we say of our Highland brothers, whose gaunt and sinewy strength 
 has been built up from oatmeal and buttermilk ? What shall we 
 say of our Irish brothers, whose stalwart beauty has been fashioned 
 from the simplicity of “praties ” and milk ? What shall w r e say of 
 our Indian brothers, whose lean tenacity and lanky vigour have 
 been reared upon the meagre insufficiency of rice ? What shall 
 we say of all the hardy peasantries of the world, who have more 
 than justified Dr. Lyon Playfair’s sententious science, and have 
 made the carbo-hydrates the major portion of their diet ? Let 
 Dr. Pensmore extend his travels to the Victoria Dock district, and 
 
NATURAL FOOD OF MAN. 
 
 99 
 
 he will soon find, among the Lascars of the Peninsular and Oriental 
 boats, abundant examples that obesity is not the necessary penalty 
 of the foolish use of starch. 
 
 In whatever direction I look, this theory of the “ wicked pulses 
 and cereals ” seems to me to stand condemned. It stands opposed 
 to every principle of scientific induction. Take the great principle 
 of “ continuity,” which binds in one ceaseless chain the processes 
 of evolution. Without continuity there can be no necessary rela¬ 
 tion between cause and effect—the eternal rocks of immutable 
 law become the shifting sands of changeful chance. It is only by 
 admitting this principle of continuity that we become conscious of 
 the Ideal, not as an isolated and incoherent abstraction, but as the 
 necessary sequence of natural law. Thus Man stands out as the 
 consummation of creative power ; he is the natural lord of the 
 universe, from which his lower powers have sprung ; his nourish¬ 
 ment is but the development of that which has gone before—some¬ 
 thing higher, something purer, something more beautiful—but not 
 something different and apart. 
 
 We look out into the world, and we find all the races of man¬ 
 kind making use of pulses, cereals, fruits, and nuts ; but there are 
 many signs of degradation—sickness, disease, death—and we also 
 see that to these simple elements of nourishment have been added 
 many curious complications. The foods are no longer taken in 
 their natural, vital condition ; they are cooked, and seasoned, and 
 salted. Worse still, these foods are taken at second hand, through 
 the medium of the animal world—fish, flesh, and fowl replace the 
 cereals and pulses of the first Paradise. The law of continuity is 
 not broken, only it is perverted—and the result is failure. But Dr. 
 Densmore appears upon the scene, as the interpreter of Dr. Evans, 
 and proclaims a new panacea for human ills—“ Cease to use 
 Starch ! ” and the last link is shattered which binds man to the 
 world that has gone before. 
 
 Again, I have observed—especially in the case of children—very 
 great evils resulting from a prolonged abstinence from nitrogenous 
 foods. I have in my mind now two very remarkable cases of 
 Vegetarian children—from twelve to eighteen months old—who 
 practically made no development after they were weaned from 
 their mother’s milk. All the processes of growth seemed stunted ; 
 and the parents, becoming anxious, made application for advice. 
 On enquiry I found that certain scruples as to the use of milk 
 
TOO 
 
 NATURAL FOOD OF MAN. 
 
 had practically limited the children’s dietary to fruit, nuts, and 
 grain foods. These were supplied with the utmost care, and all 
 other hygienic rules were faithfully followed. In both cases the 
 children seemed functionally healthy, but they did not grow, and 
 were entirely deficient in muscular energy. In both cases I recom¬ 
 mended a liberal use of pulse foods, and with the most remarkable 
 results. Activity of growth seemed re-established, and I have not 
 the slightest doubt that many difficulties of a similar kind are 
 caused by the popular aversion to the pulses as food. It is how¬ 
 ever, quite a mistake to suppose that this aversion to vital cereals 
 and pulses is instinctive to the young. I have made a great 
 many experiments in this direction of late, and I find that chil¬ 
 dren as a rule have no objection at all to raw wheat, barley, oats, 
 rice, peas, beans, and lentils ; and I have found in my own experi¬ 
 ence that the first instinctive repulsion of the more mature, and 
 too often more perverted palate, can be successfully overcome by 
 a little steadfast determination, such as Vegetarianism loves to 
 evoke. At present green peas are in season, and there can 
 be no more pleasant opportunity for making proof of the 
 vital values of the pulses than that which their sweet succulence 
 affords. 
 
 Again, there is surely something more than a casual significance 
 in that wonderful prayer which has echoed through Christendom 
 for more than eighteen hundred years ; and the petition, “ Give u.s 
 this day our daily bread,” becomes something worse than impious 
 ineptitude, if Dr. Densmore’s theories be true. An agnostic may 
 scoff at all arguments drawn from the Book of books, and may 
 deride the textual ingenuity which finds in the Scriptures an 
 apology for its particular belief; but no fair-minded man can deny 
 that a serious blow has been struck at the inspiration of the Bible 
 if this last censure of the Staff of Life be true. For my own part, 
 I cannot but think that the mountains have been in labour, and 
 that this pulseless, grainless beatitude may be safely left to work 
 out its own condemnation. Only I cannot forget that many an 
 impulsive enthusiast may be unconsciously involved in the pains 
 and penalties of violated law, because they have too readily 
 recepted the well-meant but mistaken advice which urges abstin¬ 
 ence from some of the elemental foods of man. 
 
PART VI. 
 
 “ My God, my Father, while I stray “ Renew my will from day to day, 
 
 Far from my home in life’s rough way, Blend it with thine, and take away 
 
 O teach me from my heart to say, All that now makes it hard to say, 
 
 Thy will be done ! Thy will be done ! ” 
 
 have seen reasons for supposing that the question which 
 Dr - Densmore has so insistently thrust upon us is not 
 wholly incapable of answer. The good doctor is as pertina¬ 
 cious as the importunate widow. I begin to think that the Vege¬ 
 tarian world owes a debt of gratitude to his persistence. At the 
 first blush, the oft-repeated interrogatory, “ Why does flesh-food 
 produce remedial results in certain cases ? ” seemed almost as the 
 insolent challenge of an adversary. Such questions are much more 
 easy to ask than to answer. 
 
 But there can be no doubt that the Densmore denunciations of 
 the cereals and pulses have stirred a stronger feeling of indignation 
 amongst Vegetarians than any other controversy of recent years. 
 And, though I believe that this denunciation is wholly mistaken, 
 yet I have also come to the conclusion that it represents one 
 of those half-truths which require interpretation only to make 
 them valuable. This interpretation will be found, not in the 
 doctor’s recommendation of abstinence from starch, nor in his 
 still more pernicious prescription of flesh-food, but rather in 
 that use of vital foods which, as I believe, completes the Vege¬ 
 tarian revelation of God’s goodwill to man. The history of 
 Vegetarianism is as yet the repeated record of disappointed failure. 
 Its leaders have stood with Moses upon the Pisgah-heights of moral 
 inspiration, but have not entered upon the promised land. They 
 have seen, through misty shadows, bright glimpses of Paradise 
 regained ; they have heard the chanting of the heavenly choir, and 
 the music of their lives has echoed with the song, “ Glory to God 
 
102 
 
 NATURAL FOOD OF MAN. 
 
 in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill to men.” And yet the 
 Ideal has never been given to them to possess. Many a willing 
 soul has been turned back from the narrow path of Vegetarianism, 
 not so much that courage has failed, as that the way has been 
 lost. 
 
 If, therefore, Dr. Densmore’s theories shall lead to the shedding 
 of new light upon the fundamental principles of Vegetarian prac¬ 
 tice, then indeed we may be grateful for all that he has so abun¬ 
 dantly written and quoted. The half-truth which, to my mind, re¬ 
 quires interpretation that it may become valuable, is this: That, 
 under certain constitutional conditions, when certain vital energies 
 are minished and brought low, the natural digestion of starchy and 
 nitrogenous foods becomes practically impossible, and that the 
 forced effort to utilise them involves, not only failure, but disease. 
 That this is only a half-truth is easily demonstrable by the fact^ 
 that the same law may be laid down as to the digestion of fruits and 
 nuts. In many cases—few of us can be without knowledge of 
 them—it is found impossible to digest fresh fruit, while the popular 
 belief as to the indigestibility of nuts is a still stronger evidence as 
 to the facts of everyday experience. We do not, therefore, 
 rashly conclude, with Dr. Densmore, that fruit and nuts are unfit 
 for human food. Rather do we reason that the vital energies, for 
 which these foods are specific, have been exhausted, and that there¬ 
 fore the “poena damni ,” the real damnation of the theologian, is 
 already begun. The “ penalty of loss ”—what a terrible thing it is ! 
 more awful than the brimstone flames of a degraded Calvinism, be¬ 
 cause more rational, more natural, more necessary. “ From him 
 that hath not, shall be taken away even that which he seemeth to 
 have.” Such are the terrible words written across the portals of 
 hell, and every inability, such as Dr. Densmore quotes, is but the 
 sign and symbol of the death that is begun. There are many 
 ranges of vital energy, but the balance of the perfect life must in¬ 
 clude them all. It is not enough to live in the spirit, and neglect 
 the body ; it is not enough to labour with the intellect, and to for¬ 
 get the aspirations of the soul; it is not enough to denounce a 
 single element of food, and to consecrate the negation with the 
 promise of life. No, the vital values of all nourishment must be 
 explored ; the specific planes of all development must be defined ; 
 and for this final triumph of inductive Vegetarianism there must 
 be found some explanation of the correlation of energy and force. 
 
NATURAL FOOD OF MAN. I O j 
 
 In this most difficult field of transcendental speculation much 
 must be forgiven. As we look through a glass darkly, we may 
 well miss much of what is hid behind. And yet, so important in 
 its possible issues is this determination of the ultimate relations 
 of force, that some attempt, however lame and inconclusive, may 
 be better than none at all. It seems to me, then, that “ force ” 
 is but the expression of energy in terms of “ motion.” Heat has 
 been well defined as a “ mode of motion,” and by analogy, force 
 may be defined as “ manifestation by means of motion.” Energy 
 is for ever unmanifested. It is the fountain-head of force—the 
 individualisation of the divine. We speak of character ; we are 
 conscious of idiosyncrasy. What is it that makes one man to differ 
 from another? What is it that differentiates the universe so that 
 in all the leaves of Vallambrosa there will not be one the exact 
 counterpart of another ? What is it that underlies the Ego, and 
 makes the summation of philosophy “to know that I am I”? 
 Surely it is the divine discretion—the polarising of energy upon its 
 several planes. Herein lies the interpretation of Life. The supreme 
 energy of godhead is capable of discretion ; but it is also capable 
 of accretion—the spirit of God moves upon the face of the water, 
 and chaos crystallises into the energy of creation. 
 
 Energy is the capital of life, while force is but its currency of 
 exchange. There are myriad forms of energy, each capable of 
 transformation into force. But, as they are transformed, they are 
 exhausted ; they are not destroyed, but they are lost; the individual 
 relation is undone, and the forces thus set free are re-absorbed into 
 the divine. Such is the doctrine of the conservation of energy. 
 But if this theory of the relations of force and energy be true, then 
 the first condition of creative power must be the constant accretion 
 of energy. And, as this tendency to accretion is intensified, the 
 creative impulse grows more strong. What is genius but specific 
 energy? We speak of a man being full of energy, because we are 
 conscious that energy is synonymous with power. There is but one 
 thing that we all need, and it is energy—vital energy—physical 
 energy—mental energy— moral energy—spiritual energy. But 
 alas ! the history of mortal life is but the sad record of the dissi¬ 
 pation of energy. From the cradle to the grave, man hurries to 
 destruction. Stimulants transform and exhaust his higher energies 
 —of that we must speak anon—the hour-glass of life is upturned t 
 and the sands speed quickly through. There is no accumulation— 
 
io4 
 
 NATURAL FOOD OF MAN. 
 
 no investment of vital force. Every asset of being is realised, and 
 the miserable bankrupt makes ready for the judgment of death. 
 Truly the world is full of death—far fallen from that first Paradise, 
 whereon God looked, and, behold everything was very good. The 
 psalmist and the preacher alike bear witness to the fall of man. 
 “ As the sparks fly upward, so man is born to vanity.” The days 
 of his life are but three-score years and ten. What is this little span 
 of man’s existence upon earth but a satire upon the Ideal! What 
 are a miserable seventy years of life but a drop in the ocean of 
 eternity ? Truly, saith the preacher to a world that knows not 
 God, “ Vanitas vanitatum , oimiia vanitas ! ,J 
 
Part VII. 
 
 * Thy bountiful care 
 
 What tongue can recite ! 
 It breathes in the air, 
 
 It shines in the light; 
 
 It streams from the hills, 
 
 It descends to the plain, 
 And sweetly distils 
 
 In the dew and the rain. 
 
 “ O measureless might, 
 Ineffable love, 
 
 While angels delight 
 To hymn thee above, 
 Thy ransomed creation, 
 Though feeble their lays, 
 With true adoration 
 
 Shall sing to thy praise.” 
 
 C^N considering the ultimate relations of energy and force, we 
 <^r have come to the conclusion that energy represents the un¬ 
 manifested divine essence, and that force is its manifestion in 
 terms of motion. We have also seen reason to believe that the 
 transformation of energy into force, upon all planes, is the source 
 and spring of mortal life. Existence is the expression of the divine 
 being in material forms ; health is the whole harmony of the medium 
 of manifestation. How, then, does this transformation of essential 
 energy into fleeting force take place ? Primarily, I believe, through 
 the exercise of the will-power. Man is a spirit, and the high range 
 of all his energies is that spiritual energy which makes him lord and 
 master of the lower animal world. 
 
 Here, then, is the Ideal which Vegetarianism has to proclaim— 
 the supreme value of spiritual health. Here is the condemnation of 
 all the petty narrowness which would confine the glorious gospel of 
 divine perfection within the squalid limits of meat and drink, and 
 would eliminate the purest teachings of religion from the propaganda 
 of the cause. Not thus shall Vegetarianism triumph. It is only by 
 remembering that absolute truth is the harmonyof life upon allplanes, 
 that true progress will be made. Vegetarianism is a gospel of the 
 physical plane—it teaches men how in the body they may begin to 
 to know God—but it is also a gospel of the mental, moral,and spiritual 
 capacities of men. In such a gospel there is nothing mean or low. It 
 sets the foundations of life four-square with God’s eternal laws, and 
 soars aloft, into the empyrean ecstacy which is communion with God. 
 The highest note in the whole gamut of vital truth is that which thrills 
 with the sweet music of spiritual life. The energy of Will, this is 
 
io6 
 
 NATURAL FOOD OF MAN 
 
 the master-harmony of life. We all of us recognise this supreme 
 energy, even if its philosophy be hidden from our eyes. The master¬ 
 ful man is he who rules the world—not the Senior Wranglers, nor the 
 Senior Classics, not the great intellectualists, nor the giants in the 
 arena of mental competition. It is the man of Individuality,of marked 
 force of character, who becomes the leader of his fellow-men—not the 
 brawny athlete, not Sandow nor Samson the strong. It is not mus¬ 
 cular power, nor mental power, nor moral power, though these are 
 all invaluable ; but it is spiritual energy, it is will-power, comple¬ 
 mented and supplemented by all other developments of vital energy, 
 which makes man the master of the material universe, the lord and 
 ruler of creation, the Son of God. 
 
 Will-power, then, is the supreme transformer of all other energies ; 
 it summons into manifested force the lower ranges of life ; it deter¬ 
 mines to its appointed task all moral, mental, and muscular growth. 
 Take the lower case—the development of physical power. The athlete 
 wishes to excel his fellows upon the running-path ; he makes up his 
 mind, as the saying is ; and, for this purpose, he begins to train. He 
 considers, perhaps for the first time, the dietetic values of food; and he 
 practises daily, to increase both staying power and speed. By the 
 exercise of his will, he determines the transformation of his reserves 
 of physical energy to specific muscles, so that the sinews of his legs 
 become strong and tough as steel. The result of this specific deter¬ 
 mination of physical energy is very marked in different athletic 
 exercises. The runner becomes all legs, the rower becomes all 
 arms ; and, unless a due balance is preserved, severe physical 
 injury may be the outcome of injudicious physical extremes. 
 Here, then, is the divine danger of this power of Will. It is the 
 gift of free choice, which makes man master of his fate. Every one 
 has the power to exercise the will in wrong directions. They 
 may wilfully violate the laws of God, and no one can stay 
 them ; but at the same time they involve themselves in the 
 penalties which are attached to disobedience. Sorrow, sickness, and 
 suffering become the Nemesis of broken law. Thus, then, the riddle 
 of life is read, the dark problem of existence is solved. Once again 
 we catch the echoes of the Preacher’s voice: “ Let us hear the con¬ 
 clusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep his command¬ 
 ments, for this is the whole duty of Man.” 
 
 But there are other and worse methods of transforming energy 
 into force, than the wholesome exercise of the will. We stand upon 
 
NATURAL FOOD OF MAN. 
 
 IO7 
 
 the dark brink of man’s perpetual fall ; and across the shadows of 
 his humiliation flit the fallen angels of degraded will, Exhaustion 
 and Stimulation—in these two words may be summed up the whole 
 sad history of human failure. In the first Paradise all was very 
 good, and Man walked with God, in full possession of the gifts of 
 life. The years wearied him not; time fled abashed before his 
 vigorous strength ; and at his feet King Death laid down his crown. 
 “ He was not, for God took him ”—such was the life-record of the 
 perfect Man. But Sin came into the world, and Death by sin. 
 Slowly, but surely, the will-power was minished and brought 
 low, and man sought out cunning devices whereby he might 
 transform his higher energies into lower forms of force. All 
 stimulants are the fruits of this search. Flesh foods—fermented 
 drinks—tobacco, tea, coffee, and every other folly of the kitchen 
 —are, one and all, transformers of vital energy. They are the 
 poisons which destroy the powers of life. “ Accumulation versus 
 Stimulation ”—such might well become the motto of the Vegetarian 
 advance. “ The science of that which is vital ”—such might well 
 be the definition of the Vegetarian programme. 
 
 We have already seen something of the specific values of vital 
 
 foods ; we have learned to believe that pulses represent the original 
 
 sources of muscular development ; that the cereals are the materia 
 
 from which brain energy is built; that fruits and nuts respectively 
 
 find nourishment for the energies of soul and spirit. It remains to 
 
 consider the science of specific poisons ; and to determine the specific 
 
 injury which is done by the use of flesh foods, of alcohol, of tobacco 
 
 and of tea. This enquiry must be reserved for another paper ] 
 
 % 
 
 suffice it, in conclusion, to prophesy that the secret of the Vegeta, 
 rian triumph will prove to be Vitality! Many failures, many dis¬ 
 appointments, there have been ; the spirit has often been willing, 
 but the flesh has been weak. Still, let no one be afraid to persevere. 
 All the grand promises of Scripture are made to those who cherish in 
 their hearts the blessed trinity of Hope and Faith and Love. The 
 Saviour’s voice speaks truly : “ Ask, and ye shall have ; seek and 
 ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto you ! ” The last 
 vision of St. John is full of the same splendid inspiration. We 
 have to find the Truth ; but, when once the path of life is opened, 
 we have to persevere. All things shall be made new, but it is only 
 to him that overcometh that the Eternal God declares : “ I will be his 
 Father, and he shall be my Son.” 
 
PART VIII. 
 
 ** We in part our weakness know, 
 And in part discern our foe ; 
 
 Well for us, before thine eyes 
 All our danger open lies. 
 
 Turn not from us, while we plead 
 Thy compassions and our need. 
 
 “ Fain would we thy word embrace, 
 Live each moment in thy grace, 
 All our selves to thee consign, 
 Fold up all our wills in thine, 
 Think and speak and do and be 
 Simply that which pleases thee.” 
 
 have said “that the secret of the Vegetarian triumph will 
 (^V prove to be Vitality. It is well to insist upon this great fact 
 again and again, until it becomes beaten into the public 
 consciousness, as an inexpugnable truth, that the essence of life 
 is not food, but force, and that he who would see long days, and 
 rejoice in them all, must learn, not to stimulate, but to accumulate 
 his strength. The fashion of the day is for Stimulation. Fish, fleshy 
 and fowl, in innumerable variety, alcohol in all its maddening mul¬ 
 tiplicity, tobacco and opium, coffee and tea in their poisonous 
 infinity, medicines and minerals in their complicated contrariety, 
 alike transform the eternal energies of being into the finite forces 
 of momentary manifestation. 
 
 But this transformation is specific. All poisons are not the same 
 poison. There is one danger of flesh, and another danger of fish— 
 there is one poison of alcohol, and another of tobacco—there is one 
 stimulant of tea, and another of salt—each in their measure and 
 degree degrading the ideal life ; but the process in each case is 
 different, and the constitutional result is specific, not only in quality, 
 but in degree. Just as all vital foods have their specific values, so 
 will all vital poisons possess specific harm. The science of vital 
 toxicology has yet to be determined ; but the first steps along a 
 dark and difficult path of specific speculation may well be taken to¬ 
 day. 
 
 The greatest triumph that has yet been won in the great battle 
 which is for ever waging between the fronted forces of right and 
 
NATURAL FOOD OF MAN. 
 
 109 
 
 wrong, may justly be accorded to the Temperance legions. More 
 than half a century of persistent attack has made the pledge of the 
 teetotaller respected through the length and breadth of the land. In 
 this great Waterloo of the nineteenth century, the Vegetarian allies, 
 like Blucher’s welcome reinforcements, may be reckoned as coming 
 up, while the pitiful handful of the Purity brigade are still struggling 
 through the shadows of that forest of false shame which makes the 
 most splendid machinery of ecclesiastical organisation but useless 
 in the day of battle, because of the bogs and quagmires which 
 beset the way. 
 
 As yet the stirring challenge, “Up Guards and at them ” has not 
 sounded along the line, but already the fight waxes fierce ; and the 
 big battalions of the unconvinced are beginning to be afraid lest 
 haply they may be found to be fighting against God. What then 
 is the result of the Teetotal charge ? This, in brief, that alcohol is 
 reckoned not as a food, but as a poison, first stimulating and then 
 destroying the nervous system of man. It matters not whether 
 this poisonous property be hidden in wine, or spirits, or beer, the 
 destructive distillation of fermented liquors is for ever the same. 
 Alcohol is engendered, and wholesome food is converted into poi¬ 
 sonous drink. Compare a cluster of purple grapes with the bottle of 
 its perverted juices ; the colour is still there—in some small sense the 
 flavour and bouquet are there also—but the wholesome body of the 
 luscious grape is gone, and the acridity of alcoholic fermentation 
 is its only substitute. 
 
 In the same way, sound, solid grain foods are distilled into watery 
 damnation, while the mash-tub and the vat become the cunning 
 contrivances for degrading the gifts of God into the delusions of 
 the devil. Alcohol has been well termed a brain-poison. Mark 
 the term well, for herein is connoted the specific injury that it 
 determines. Alcohol is, I believe, a transformer of mental energy, 
 it is specific to the intellectual plane. Here then is the interpretation 
 of the common misconception, that it is only excess which injures, 
 and that moderate indulgence in alcohol is beneficial to health. 
 “My father,” says one, “was never drunk in his life ; but he took 
 his glass of port or sherry like a gentleman, every day of his life, 
 and he died at the age of eighty-six. What do you say to that, 
 Mr. Teetotaller?” “My mother,” says another, “was always the 
 better for a glass of stout ; she never believed in it much till the 
 Prince of Wales’ illness, but ever since then she has told me that she 
 
I IO 
 
 NA'I URAL FOOD OF MAN. 
 
 can’t get on without it, and she is eighty-four to-day, and as active 
 an old lady as you may wish to see.” 
 
 My Lord Bishop speaks for himself, and says, “ I have great 
 sympathy with the Temperance movement. I believe it is doing 
 immense good amongst the more degraded classes ; no doubt 
 total abstinence is a splendid thing in the slums, but I must 
 confess that I require a little whiskey myself; in fact, my medical 
 man has ordered me to take it, for some years past. A little 
 stimulant, he tells me, is necessary for such responsible work as mine. 
 The brain pressure induced by diocesan anxieties is something 
 inexpressible in words, and it requires relief. Go on, my good 
 people, I give you my warmest approval, only you must not expect 
 me to follow you myself.” The excuses of those who shrink from 
 the marriage-feast are many and various, but the alcoholic excuse 
 is almost invariably the same, “ I don’t see that a little does me any 
 harm.” Precisely—the results of slight transformations of energy 
 are, for the most part, imperceptible ; but, none the less, every with¬ 
 drawal from the capital of being is paving the way for the ultimate 
 bankruptcy of life. Such bankruptcy may be upon many planes, 
 but, as yet, the bankruptcy of physical death is the only failure 
 recognised in the courts of philosophy or science. And yet mental 
 bankruptcy is common enough. Whence come the miserable mul¬ 
 titudes that throng our lunatic asylums with the intellectually dead ? 
 Come they not, by universal testimony, from the stifling dungeons 
 of the demon Alcohol, from the gin-palace, and from the drinking 
 club ? 
 
 The brain energies have been slowly and surely broken up ; the 
 nervous system, through which the brain-force circulates, has been 
 first inflamed and then destroyed; and the last state of the con¬ 
 firmed drunkard is softening of the brain and paralysis of the 
 controlling machinery of the body. For it must be remembered 
 that the various ranges wherein life is manifested are all co¬ 
 ordinated and interdependent. The lowest range is that of muscu¬ 
 lar life, which is in its turn controlled by the nervous system, which 
 is again subject to the sensorial system, and the master harmony 
 of all is Will. Thus, then, the ravages of drink cannot be prevented 
 from doing injury to the muscular system ; if one member is sick, 
 the whole body suffers with it; but the specific injury is that in¬ 
 flicted upon the nerves and brain. The best evidences for the 
 theory I am suggesting may be found in extreme cases. It is from 
 
NATURAL FOOD OF MAN. 
 
 I I I 
 
 the drunkard, and not from the moderate drinker, that we learn to 
 dread the dominion of Alcohol ; and so, also, from the drunkard’s 
 helpless imbecility we may best learn the specific injury that is 
 being inflicted upon the brain. There are many stages of trans¬ 
 formation of brain energy. There are many stages of getting 
 drunk. At first, the effect of alcohol is purely stimulative—the 
 low levels of brain-force are exalted under the pleasant stimulation 
 of the wine-cup. The man becomes witty, lively, and attractive 
 He is spending the draft he has drawn upon his capital of brain¬ 
 power. Then by degrees he becomes excited, flushed, noisy ; 
 already the control exercised by the brain upon the lower muscular 
 system begins to fail—the legs become indeterminate—the gait is 
 unsteady—till at last the drunkard reels along the pavement, and 
 falls into the gutter, where sleep, the sweet restorer, overtakes him 
 and wipes out the crooked writing of excess. Next morning he 
 wakes up sober, but with a splitting headache, a parched throat, 
 and a burning tongue. Nature holds out her danger-signals of 
 distress, that the foolish may be warned in time, of the penalties 
 that follow after violation of law. Thrice happy is he who takes 
 the warning in time, and signs the pledge which makes him master 
 of himself, and gives him back his brain. 
 
 It would take too long to consider all the proofs of the evil oj 
 Alcohol. Are they not written in the books of the Temperance 
 Reformation ; but it will be well to remember that life in its deepest 
 and truest sense—here and hereafter—consists in the abundance of 
 energy which has been accreted upon all planes, and that therefore 
 many a trifling waste, which is almost imperceptible in the rough- 
 and-tumble of daily life, will be found written upon the debit side 
 when the balance of things done in the flesh is struck for all to read. 
 And then my Lord Bishop, and all who follow him in his moderation 
 —falsely so-called—of foolish tippling, will find that no excuse will 
 avail to save them from the final condemnation. Inasmuch as ye have 
 wasted the gift of intellectual energy that I have given you, and have 
 taught others by your example to do likewise, therefore your portion 
 is that which ye have made for yourselves, the penalty of loss. 
 
PART IX. 
 
 O for a bliss unbounded ! Far beneath 
 A soul immortal is a mortal joy ; 
 
 Nor are our powers to perish immature 
 But after feeble effort here, beneath 
 
 A brighter sun, and in a nobler soil 
 
 Transplanted from this sublunary bed 
 
 Shall flourish fair and put forth all their bloom. 
 
 — Young. 
 
 '■yrj S we speak of the Natural Food of Man, we must remember 
 that this title is but the antithesis to the far more commonj 
 the far more conventional delusion, which may well be 
 be termed “ the unnatural food of man.” Foremost among these 
 unnatural foods, these false fruits of a perverted philosophy, these 
 dead sea apples, which crumble in the mouths of those who taste 
 them, may be reckoned the “ ambrosial weed,” “ divine Nicotiana,’’ 
 “ detestable tobacco.” It is scarcely necessary now to recall the 
 disgusting attributes of the pestiferous pipe. Surely they are 
 known to all, even to those inveterate smokers, whose chief function 
 in life seems to be that of providing chimneys for the combustion 
 of noxious gases. Surely every child, who has learned to read, 
 knows that the delicious bouquet of cigar or cigarette is compounded 
 of a strange medley of ingredients, covering the whole range of slow 
 to active poisons. A drop of nicotine placed upon the tongue of 
 a dog, will produce convulsions and death. Tobacco, burned in the 
 bowl of a brier-pipe, generates the following beautiful blend of poi¬ 
 sonous gases. First, there is carbonic oxide, which, with its con - 
 gener, carbonic acid, form the atmospheric base of sudden death » 
 and to this let every stifling life-trap, from St. James’ Hall to the 
 Black Hole of Calcutta, bear witness. 
 
 Next we may note sulphuretted hydrogen, the most pestilential 
 gas that the science of stinks has yet produced, in close alliance 
 
NATURAL FOOD OF MAN. 
 
 "3 
 
 with prussic acid, the most deadly poison that toxicologists have 
 yet discovered. And, lastly, we may not forget pyrridine and 
 piccoline, two little known, but lethal alkaloids, which like taine 
 and caffeine, the active principles of tea an 1 coffee, play havoc 
 with the nervous system, when the vital energies are spent. What 
 else remains in that delicious mixture, which becomes meat and 
 drink to its debilitated devotees—what delicate nourishment lingers 
 in the “ Honey Dew,” in the “ Little Gem,” in the pungent “ Quid,” 
 beyond this infernal blend of poisonous reek—absoluely nothing. 
 
 Stir in a pipkin, and skim off the scum, 
 
 And nothing remains as the residuum. 
 
 nothing but the smell—you can never mistake the habitual smoker. 
 The confirmed drunkard may conceal the premonitory symptoms 
 of delirium tremens, but the confirmed smoker publishes to a 
 disgusted world the secret of his folly, in every word that he utters, 
 and in every breath that he takes. No one can say that the smoker 
 goes unwarned. Nature holds up her danger signals from the 
 very first—“ Ce riest que le premier pas qae conte'P may be true of 
 many things, but it is not true of that pitiful precocity of the pipe, 
 which apes the vices which disfigure and degrade true manhood. 
 Every step costs—from the beginning to the end—in that path of 
 slumbrous sensuality which destroys the soul. Every step is signi¬ 
 ficant of the injury that is being wrought. The palate is perverted 
 —the tongue is empimpled—the lips are excoriated—the tonsils 
 are enlarged. Every sign of physical and moral deterioration is 
 written large in the tobacconists’ calendar for all to read. The very 
 railway carriages make protest not the less vehement because un¬ 
 written in bye-laws, and unrecognised in law courts—that tobacco is 
 the bane of manhood, and the curse of old age. Nor less do 
 clothes condemn with penetrating persistency the apotheosis of 
 the pipe ; and perchance within the innermost circle of the lowest 
 Hell there will exhale that odour of sanctity which now perfumes 
 the canonised cigar. But, if all these diatribes be true—if tobacco 
 be nothing else but rank poison—whence comes it that its use 
 is almost universal—that you may find a pouch in almost every 
 pocket from that of the curled darling in the Park to that of the 
 coal-heaver at Blackvvall. Almost reasonable commentary—and the 
 object of this paper is to find the answer.— 
 
 We have seen reason for supposing that alcohol is a trans¬ 
 former of vital energy upon the intellectual plane—let us now 
 
H4 
 
 NAT UR \L FOOD OF MAN- 
 
 consider the evidences for regarding tobacco as a transformer of 
 vital energy upon the psychical plane. The soul is the seat of all 
 sensation—the source of pleasure—the fountain-head of ecstasy. It 
 is in the gardens of the soul that we pluck all flowers of fancy, all 
 fruits of leeling, and learn the raptures, which are found alone in art. 
 The fine frenzy of the poet, the divine ecstacy of the musician, 
 the fierce passion of the painter, all find their satisfaction in the 
 soul ; and as the energies of the soul are great, so are the capaci¬ 
 ties of enjoyment endowed with strength. But what if these diviner 
 energies are dissipated in sensuous gratification—what if the subtle 
 poisons of the pipe can transform the power of enjoying, into the 
 fleeting shadow of enjoyment, so that the unnatural robber robs 
 himself. Surely, then, the sad history of many a ruined life were 
 told. Is it not proverbial that smoking leads to selfishness, that the 
 tendrils of unselfish feeling are withered before their time? Is it 
 not a scientific commonplace, that the use of tobacco induces 
 relaxation of the muscular system ? The correlation of Soul and 
 Body, as the negative poles, and of Spirit and Mind, as the positive 
 poles of vital energy, has yet to be explored, but in it will, I believ^ 
 be found the interpretation of this dominance of psychica force 
 over physical force. 
 
 Again, it is a matter of every day observation that the indulgence 
 in tobacco destroys the taste for fruit. ‘'No thank you, I don’t 
 care for sweets,” is the retort courteous of the habitual smoker, 
 while dessert is regarded as an irritating interlude before the arrival 
 of the cherished cigar. But as we have already seen, fruit may be 
 regarded as the specific food of the soul, and so another reason 
 stands revealed why smokers do not like fruit, and, in the words of 
 an aphorism, which will bear infinite repetition, “ From him that 
 hath not shall be taken away even that which he seemeth to have.” 
 Aa the small-soul energy is slowly dissipated by the noxious fumes, 
 the capacity for enjoyment is passing away, the life for which fruit 
 is wholesome nourishment is being destroyed ; and as this specific 
 life power wanes, so also is appetite brought low. Just as on the 
 physical plane, the invalid loses appetite for food, so also on the 
 psychical plane is the same loss common, only its origin is not so 
 generally recognised. 
 
 Again, in the unbalanced development of humanity as it now 
 is, philosophy has learned to recognise that soul-energy is the char¬ 
 acteristic of the woman, and spirit-energy is the characteristic of 
 
NATURAL FOOD OF MAN. 
 
 ll 5 
 
 the man. Now women seldom smoke, and when they thus degrade 
 their womanhood, it is generally admitted that they smoke to their 
 own shame. The cigarette is the characteristic of the worst 
 type—the fast slangy girl, such as every honest man prays 
 that his own sweet daughter may never become. But why is this 
 difference instinctively made between man and woman, unless it 
 be that man’s soul-energy is so small, that once again there can 
 be taken from him, “ because he hath not, even that which he 
 seemeth to have.” 
 
 And lastly, what a terrible light does this throw upon the evil 
 wrought by indulgence in tobacco. It is nothing less than suicide 
 of sensation, and thus the miserable victim of the tobacco fiend, 
 not content with loss of taste, loss of sight, loss of hearing, and loss 
 of smelling, prepares for himself eternal loss of the capacity of 
 pleasure. For indeed, in all dissipation of vital energy, upon what¬ 
 ever plane, this is the great truth to be remembered, that the loss is 
 not only now but hereafter. How far this loss may be redeemed 
 beyond the grave, I cannot tell; but could every young man, as he 
 lingers listlessly in the frowsty smoking-room, but realise that for a 
 momentary sensuous gratification, he is wasting the very essence of 
 existence—the very power of enjoying—then surely, without a 
 moment’s hesitation, he would cast from him for ever the seductive 
 sin, and begin to work out in fear and trembling, the salvation of 
 his soul 
 
PART X, 
 
 'nwE have seen reasons for supposing that the injury wrought by 
 (3V alcohol is upon the intellectual, and that of tobacco upon 
 the psychical plane. But if this suggestion of specific 
 injury be true, what a wealth of possibilities lies before the scientific 
 explorer who may dare to go forward. The whole direction of 
 medical science is changed, the whole balance of modern philosophic 
 methods is reversed. Lord Bacon has been celebrated as the distin¬ 
 guished champion of the deductive against the inductive philosophy, 
 and science has made merry at the folly that would evolve from 
 its own inner consciousness insubstantial theories, which could only 
 be established by the stern logic of facts. And so for many a long 
 day the intuitional faculty of the soul has fallen into disgrace, in 
 spite of the splendid generalisations which every great practical 
 invention, from the steam engine to the microphone, has justified 
 and glorified. 
 
 Intellectualism has been exalted as the consummation of human 
 progress, and a cold and abstract materialism has been delivered 
 of such monstrosities as vivisection and the vaccination laws. From 
 thisfalse estimate of the importance of intellectual capacity has sprung 
 the ugly brood of Atheism, Agnosticism, and Infidelity. Verily man, 
 by wisdom, has not known God ; and, with the wise man of old, many 
 a disappointed intellectualist of to-day is prone to cry, “ Vanitas , van- 
 itatum , omnia vanitas .” Let me not be misunderstood ; I do not 
 wish for one moment to depreciate the desirability of immeasurable 
 intellectual capacity—only it must be kept in its right place—and 
 the limits of its value must be properly recognised. 
 
 It is perfectly true that intellectualism unbalanced leads to igno¬ 
 rance, just as individualism unbalanced leads to anarchy. The 
 powers of the mind are only valuable as they are subordinate to 
 the higher intuitions of the Soul. Deduction is the natural com- 
 
NATURAL FOOD OF MAN. 
 
 ll 7 
 
 plement of induction, but let it never be regarded as a sufficient 
 substitute. I desire to throw down a gauntlet on behalf of the 
 perceptive powers of the soul. It is in the soul that we are con¬ 
 scious of knowledge, that we are in communion with the divinc> 
 and all the intellectual apparatus serves but as a means for> 
 testing and comparing the determinations of the higher power. 
 
 The deductive philosophy has been too long dominant over the 
 minds of men, and the imagination has grown dull under the pres¬ 
 sure of intellectual indigestion. There can be no true morality 
 until the soul takes precedence of the intellect, because the direc¬ 
 tion of all mental effort must be decided by something nobler than 
 itself. Take the case of vivisection, here is one of the worst in¬ 
 stances of intellectual degradation, the moral element is wholly 
 ignored, and a bastard science is built up upon the martyrdom of the 
 animal world ; with what result ? that not one single benefit to the 
 cause of health or humanity, can be produced as the result of 
 millions of experiments which have made torture the foundation of 
 failure. It could not but be so—else were God’s government a 
 mockery and a snare—it is because righteousness and judgment are 
 the throne of Jehovah, that cruelty, crouching behind the mask of 
 scientific research, stands self-condemned. 
 
 The verdict of the soul speaks with no uncertain sound against 
 this devilish tampering with the first principles of morality, and a 
 warning is set up to prevent the waste and demoralisation of intel¬ 
 lectual energy which it involves. In the same way we might have 
 been spared the painful introduction of the Densmore champion¬ 
 ship of carnage, had the intuitions of the Soul been held superior 
 to the observations of the intellect. All the hopeless blundering 
 of the Salisbury-scavenging stands revealed in its naked hideous¬ 
 ness in the chambers of the soul. It matters not what the intellect 
 may prattle of so-called cures, the higher determination of the soul 
 has been given, and we know that no good thing can come out of 
 murder, which is for ever thrice accursed. Here is the seal of the 
 Vegetarian triumph ; there are many testimonies, but the highest 
 is that moral consciousness, which makes the diet of death a thing 
 horrible to all whose eyes have been opened by the hand of God. 
 But when once the soul sees—when once the bandages of igno¬ 
 rance and false tradition are unbound, then comes the need for 
 other developments of power. The intellect becomes the best ally 
 of intuition, checking with accurate observation the inspirations of 
 
NATURAL FOOD OF MAN. 
 
 Il8 
 
 enthusiasm, while the spirit provides the force and resolution to 
 carry the noble aspirations of the soul into practical effect. 
 
 Thus, then, the times are ripe for the suggestions of the soul, 
 deductive reasoning is but a secondary instrument for the develop¬ 
 ment of humanity. And this must be my apology for these some¬ 
 what daring speculations as to the specific values of vital foods. 
 They may sound to many almost absurd ; they are as yet unrecog¬ 
 nised, but I venture to think that the immediate future will set an 
 increasing importance upon the specific philosophy of life. It is, 
 perchance, a new suggestion that there is need of specific nourish¬ 
 ment upon the several planes of body, mind, soul, and spirit 
 but if once this theory can be established by the alliance of the 
 intellect, then infinite possibilities of development become the 
 natural—nay, necessary, result of a more perfect knowledge of 
 the will of God. I have no doubt that to many the suggestion 
 of the specific value of nuts for spiritual sustenance has sounded 
 supremely ridiculous, not to say, blasphemous ; and yet it is suffi¬ 
 ciently clear that spiritual strength, like physical strength, requires 
 renewal. All spiritual phenomena are manifested through the 
 medium of material organisation, what wonder that specific condi¬ 
 tions of this medium of manifestation are necessary for harmonious 
 existence. 
 
 As in the natural, so also in the unnatural, there are, I believe, 
 specific injuries which are peculiar to the spiritual plane. What 
 will my critics say to the suggestion that tea and coffee are trans¬ 
 formers of spiritual energy into the momentary manifestation of 
 spiritual force ? 
 
 Let me give a few reasons for this supposition. In the first 
 place, neither tea nor coffee serve as foods—in the ordinary sense 
 of the word—at all. Foods must be digested, and the process 
 of digestion varies, in most cases, from two to three hours. Now 
 stimulants, such as tea and coffee, require no period of digestion at 
 all ; their action is immediate—they produce almost instantaneous 
 results. Again, we have already seen that tobacco is essentially a 
 man’s temptation, because its injury is upon the psychical plane, 
 where man is, for the most part, weak ; so tea is essentially the woman’s 
 curse, and the inference may be made that its action is upon the 
 spiritual plane, w'here woman’s power is small. Then, again, it has 
 been well said that the pessimism and irritability of the age is largely 
 due to over indulgence in stimulants and sedatives. Why is it that 
 
NATURAL FOOD OF MAN. 
 
 119 
 
 people are so constantly in the “ blues ” P why is it that they are for 
 ever out of sorts ? why is it that their spirits are so bad ? but that 
 their life power, upon the higher ranges of soul and spirit, are for 
 ever being dissipated and destroyed. Many of the ladies who 
 begin to look cheerful at the appearance of five-o’clock tea, are as 
 much victims of a vicious habit, as the confirmed inebriate, who 
 cannot—to borrow an Irishism—pass a public-house without going 
 in. Who has not shuddered at the heartfelt exclamation : “ 1 had 
 rather die than give up my tea ”—so hard is the slavery of habit, 
 so strong are the fetters of appetite. 
 
 Once more, I must call attention to the curious correlation of 
 spirit and mind, as opposed to that of soul and body. When the 
 student is putting on all steam to pass some examination, he does 
 not call in the aid of alcohol or tobacco, but tying a wet towel 
 round his heated brow, he brews himself the strongest of green tea- 
 This is an age of advertisement, and the pages of every journal are 
 crammed with the puffs of preposterously cheap tea. Social cus¬ 
 toms and shattered nerves alike combine to consecrate the ruinous 
 mistake of tea drinking, but it is a part of the gospel of vitality 
 to destroy the works of death, and so tea and coffee are alike 
 banished from the reformer’s table. 
 
PART XI. 
 
 “ And I have felt 
 A presence that disturbs me with the joy 
 Of elevated thoughts ; a sense sublime 
 Of something far more deeply interfused, 
 
 Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, 
 
 “ And the round ocean, and the living air, 
 
 And the blue sky, and in the mind of man, 
 
 A motion and a spirit that impels 
 
 All thinking things, all objects of all thought 
 
 And rolls through all things.” — Wordsworth. 
 
 are drawing near to the conclusion of our enquiry. The 
 question why the use of flesh-meat in some cases produces 
 apparently remedial results, upon which Dr. Densmore so 
 persistently insisted, is answered. We have seen that the life ol 
 man is developed upon many planes of being, and that upon all 
 planes energy is the fountain head of force. We have seen that 
 certain God-appointed foods are specific for the sustenance of all 
 developments of life, and that the result of their natural use is the 
 accretion of energy. We have learned that stimulation represents 
 the antipodes of such vital accumulation, and that the abuse of tea 
 and coffee, of tobacco, and of alcohol does but dissipate the divine 
 energies of spirit, soul, and mind—does but exhaust the very essence 
 of existence—does but destroy the very powers of life—and is, 
 therefore, unnatural, immoral, and utterly abominable before God 
 and men. We have seen that exhaustion of energy, upon whatevei 
 plane it may be produced, involves the inevitable Nemesis of violated 
 law, the “pcenam damni,” the penalty of loss, we begin to 
 understand that science and philosophy alike lend their sanction to 
 the solemn warnings of religion, and we listen again to the echoes 
 of the Saviour’s voice, and know “ that to him that hath shall be 
 given, and from him that hath not shall be taken away even that 
 which he seemeth to have,” and with the wise man of old, we 
 
NATURAL FOOD OF MAN. 
 
 12 1 
 
 affirm the same conclusion, “ Fear God, and keep his command" 
 ments, for this is the whole duty of man.” 
 
 Here, then, is the answer for the Doctor’s question. When once 
 the penalty of loss has been incurred, when once the positive ener¬ 
 gies of life have been dissolved, then, it matters not upon what 
 plane, the specific power of use is gone. In the degradation 
 of life, all natural foods may become unnatural, and, for a time all 
 unnatural foods may seem to be natural. But God is not mocked, 
 “whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap,” and “he that 
 soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption.” All whole¬ 
 some foods, nuts and fruits, cereals and pulses, may be w'ritten in 
 the black-books of a debilitated dyspepsia ; and, for a time, stimu¬ 
 lants may blind their victim to his coming doom, but though 
 
 “ The wheels of the gods grind slowly, 
 
 Yet they grind exceeding small.” 
 
 and he who listens to the foolish prophecies of the false physician 
 has only himself to thank if the last state of his life is worse than 
 the first. Foolish physicians, aye, thrice foolish physicians with 
 their bastard science built up upon post-mortems, and elaborated 
 from vivisectional research. What shall we say of inoculation, of 
 vaccination, and of the injection of attenuated virus? What shall 
 we think of Jenner, and of Pasteur, and of Koch, with their loath¬ 
 some brewings of pycemic filth ? Who shall worship in the temple 
 of Hygeia, when her altars are stained with blood, and the cup of 
 her communion is defiled with death? “Verily the prophets pro¬ 
 phecy falsely in my name, and the people love to have it so, and 
 what shall it be in the end thereof ? ” What shall it be when the 
 physicians of all countries meet in conference at Berlin—as only 
 last week they met—and with unanimous voice acclaim as the hero 
 of the hour, a professor who announces that he has found a means 
 of destroying the bacillus of tubercular disease, and who prophecies 
 that thus the ravages of consumption shall be stayed. 
 
 How can men dare to believe that God can be thus mocked ? How 
 can they dare to whisper to one another “ Jehovah, He is even such 
 an one as ourselves. We will play fast and loose with the Divine 
 law, we will decimate the ministering angels of Disease ” ; and they 
 know r not that they are digging a pitfall for their own feet ; that they 
 are making ready the sepulchre in which they themselves shall lie 
 Hearken to the thunders of nobler voices, “ My thoughts are not 
 
122 
 
 NATURAL FOOD OF MAN. 
 
 your tnoughts, neither are my ways your ways, for as the heavens 
 are higher than the earth, so are my thoughts higher than your 
 thoughts, so are my ways higher than your ways. Cease to do evil, 
 learn to do well.” Here is the divine monition for all time, cease to 
 destroy yourself, and know that Disease is but God’s scavenger for 
 the elimination of filth. O, that I had a hundred voices that I 
 might cry out, day and night, “ Cease to do evil, learn to do well ” ! 
 Know that the laws of God are health, and purity, and happiness, 
 and power. Know that health is the fulfilling of the fountains of life, 
 and that Death is their final exhaustion. Slowly, but surely, the joy 
 of life, the buoyancy of youth, wanes and fades. By degrees the 
 powers of enjoyment pass away, and exhausted Nature calls for 
 stimulants to fan the flickering flame of latent life ; for, indeed, the 
 last action of all stimulants is to destroy the latent vitality of life. 
 Just as in the science of steam we know that largest effort of com¬ 
 bustion is stored in latent heat, so in the science of health we have 
 yet to learn that the worst work of stimulants is written in the 
 exhaustion of the latent vitality of life. 
 
 Thus, then, for a time the abuse of flesh-foods, together with the 
 administration of concentrated excrementine, may produce appa¬ 
 rently beneficial results, while the use of natural foods is attended 
 with manifest misfortune ; but, for all that, the true man or woman 
 who sticks to principle, who challenges God, and says, “ though 
 thou slay me yet will I trust thee,” is the victor in the end, and 
 shall hereafter hear the Master’s voice of blessing, “ Because thou 
 hast been faithful in a few things, therefore I will make thee ruler 
 over many things, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” 
 
 The time is coming, when these difficulties of serving God will 
 be done away. As yet, we see through a glass darkly, and ignor¬ 
 ance turns pleasure into pain. But when once the specific philo¬ 
 sophy of life is explored—when once we know that invariable 
 causes produce invariable effects—then the hardest half of the 
 battle will be fought. If such specific determinations be as yet 
 speculative, that is no reason why they should not be true—and 
 many an evidence tends to show that flesh foods are the fatal trans¬ 
 formers of physical energy into physical force. Like all other un¬ 
 natural transformers of energy, like tea, like tobacco, like alcohol, 
 their first action is stimulative. The immediate result of the inges¬ 
 tion of flesh food is, that the whole circulatory system is quickened 
 —the heart beats faster, the pulse throbs quicker—all the muscular 
 
NATURAL FOOD OF MAN 
 
 123 
 
 machinery of life is driven at abnormal pressure—what wonder that 
 it soon wears out. Take the case of the carnivora, and the action 
 of flesh foods is still more conspicuous ; a tiger’s chief characteris¬ 
 tic is that fierce spasmodic energy, which makes its spring so dan¬ 
 gerous, but, when once it has lunched off a native, or had a tussle 
 with a hunter, it slinks back to its jungle lair, there to recuperate 
 the energy which it has lost. No lion or tiger could be trained to 
 do the continuous work of the stalwart steer, or patient ass, and 
 one reason is to be found in the difference of their food. 
 
 Again, the record of athletic training may be recited in proof ^ 
 the transforming powers of flesh. A raw beef-steak used to be 
 the favourite prescription for the ambitious athletic, whether upon 
 the river or upon the running path—and even to-day, though the 
 superstition is not so strong as it was twenty years ago, the 
 ’Varsity crews are dieted largely upon meat, that they may be en¬ 
 abled to develop a momentary muscular proficiency. Again, when 
 an invalid is in the last state of collapse, what is ordered for him ? 
 Beef-tea, chicken broth, Bovril, Bouillon Fleet, and half-a-dozen 
 other Devil’s stews of Beelzebubbed beef—not. that they are in any 
 sense of the word food, but because they are strongly stimulative— 
 because they are able to transform latent physical energy into effective 
 physical force. And so the vicious cycle of exhaustion and excess is 
 complete on all planes. Physical energy is transformed by flesh-foods 
 into physical force. Mental energy is transformed by alcohol into 
 mental force. Psychical energy is transformed by tobacco into 
 psychical force, and spiritual energy is transformed by tea into 
 spiritual force-—and worst of all, the forces thus generated by un¬ 
 hallowed means are exhausted to subserve a momentary need. 
 The end of all stimulation is forever the same—exhaustion, which 
 becomes the precursor of disease and death—“ wherefore my beloved 
 brethren, let us present our bodies a living sacrifice, wholly accept¬ 
 able to God, which is our reasonable service.” 
 
PART XII. 
 
 * r Come, thou Holy Spirit come, 
 
 And from thy celestial home. 
 
 Shed a ray of light divine. 
 
 Come, thou Father of the poor, 
 
 Come, thou source of all our store, 
 
 Come within our bosoms shine. 
 
 “ O most blessed light divine, 
 
 Shine within these hearts of thine, 
 
 And our inmost being fill. 
 
 Where thou art not, man hath naught, 
 
 Nothing good in deed or thought, 
 
 Nothing free from taint of ill.” 
 
 specific philosophy of life.” What is this but the cornple- 
 ment of “The Universal Reign of Law.” Surely it is a 
 wonderful and marvellous thing, that this determination of 
 the consequences of law has not long since been investigated. 
 Science prattles glibly of law, and every practical industry is founded 
 upon its interpretation ; but in their every day lives, men reck¬ 
 lessly forget the reign of law, and make chance the capricious ruler 
 of fate. And yet, try as we will, we cannot escape from law. With 
 the Psalmist, we may seek to evade our God, but the conclusion of 
 the whole matter is for ever the same. “ If I ascend up into 
 heaven, thou art there ; if I make my bed in hell, behold thou 
 art there ; if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the utter¬ 
 most parts of the sea—even there shall thy hand lead me, and 
 thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall 
 cover me, even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the dark¬ 
 ness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as the day ; the 
 darkness and the light are both alike to thee. I will praise thee, 
 for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvellous are thy 
 works, and that my soul knoweth right well.” 
 
 If, then, none can escape the omniscient overshadowing of the 
 Most High, surely the best wisdom is to determine the laws by 
 which this universe is governed. In other words, we must explore 
 the “ specific philosophy of life.” This, in some measure, has been 
 done, but the enquiry is dark and difficult, and it is with fear and 
 trembling that the suggestion of specific vital values has been 
 made. 
 
 We have seen reasons for supposing that all vital foods are spe¬ 
 cific to different planes of life development; that, as a rough apprc.v- 
 imation, it may be assumed (i) that pulse foods are specific foa 
 muscular growth ; (2) that grain foods are specific for mental 
 
NATURAL FOOD OF MAN. 
 
 125 
 
 growth ; (3) that fruit foods are specific for psychical growth ; 
 and (4) that nut foods are specific for spiritual growth. We have 
 further suggested that these four great categories may be said to 
 sum up and complete the Natural Foods of Man. It is, of course, 
 obvious how greatly these suggestions of specific values have to be 
 elaborated in departmental detail. Take, for instance, the category 
 of the fruits. Specific science has yet to determine the vital rela¬ 
 tions which each several fruit bears to the development of psychical 
 energy. We all know the delicious differences that exist between 
 grapes and figs, between apples and pears, between raspberries 
 and currants, between gages and plums. Our palate tells us so much 
 as to the specific values of fruit, but as yet the special life relation 
 is lost in darkness, and we eat at random, not knowing, nor, 
 for the most part, caring to know, the possibilities of vital incre¬ 
 ment. The same remark holds good of the pulses, grains, and 
 nuts. No one much cares whether his dinner is fortified by peas 
 or beans ; no one worries whether his matutinal meal is made up 
 from wheat, or oats, or barley ; no one conceives that there is an 
 important distinction to be drawn between the vital values of chest¬ 
 nuts and Kentish cobs. Here, then, is the Vegetarian science of 
 the future ; it will no longer linger, degrading its intelligence with 
 the imbecilities of kitchen-messing; it will no longer weary the 
 earnest student with the makirig of many books, whose sole wisdom 
 shall be recipes, and whose wit shall find its flavour in the blend of 
 spice and sauce. No, the Vegetarian philosopher, having laid fast 
 hold of the foundation truth of the vitality of food, will proceed, by 
 intuition and experiment, to determine the specific vital values of 
 each several sort of food. He will realise that the perfect life is 
 possessed of manifold powers, that upon the psychical plane there 
 is one rapture of the musician, and another rapture of the painter, 
 and another rapture of the poet. Is it a hard thing, then, to sup¬ 
 pose that for these specific energies there should be ordained 
 specific nutriment? 
 
 And passing from the simple to the complex, our philosophers 
 will begin to perceive that all existence is interfused, and that the 
 several planes of life are correlated each to each ; he will, from his 
 study of the polar affinities of force, have learned even in the 
 worlds of Chemistry and Electricity that duality is Nature’s univer¬ 
 sal law, that the higher potential is always positive to the lower, 
 and that solubility and insolubility are but other names for positive 
 
126 
 
 NATURAL FOOD OF MAN. 
 
 and negative. Then reasoning by analogy, he will appreciate the 
 polar relations of life’s four great planes. He will see that body 
 and soul are the feminine, and that mind and spirit are the masculine, 
 and will thus touch the mystery of Sex. His will be the true 
 ! philosophy of the objective and subjective, for he will be able to 
 differentiate the twain ; he will realise that the difference is as abso¬ 
 lute as the very nature of God, and he will find in it the revelation 
 of Paradise regained. Thus inspired, he will disperse with the sun¬ 
 shine of Vital Truth all the dank shadows of suffering and pain. 
 Pie will proclaim that the function of disease is the elimination of 
 the decay of death, and that all sickness is specific in its operation. 
 He will classify the positive-zymotic scourges of fever, of cholera, 
 and of plague, and will separate them from the negative invasions of 
 pneumonia, rheumatism, and cancerous growth. All this is the 
 medical science of the future, and the aim of the true physician 
 will not be the extermination of the ministering angels of Disease, 
 but the exaltation of the vital values of Health. Just as vital foods 
 have to be classified and specified, so have diseases to be interpreted 
 by the intuition of the soul. All the observations of the intellectual 
 apparatus are feeble by themselves to find out God. The powers 
 of perception, the faculty of correlation, the art of analogy are 
 necessary for the splendid survey of the ocean depths of law. But 
 what a marvellous vista of possibilities opens up with this redis¬ 
 covery of the prophetic powers of the soul. 
 
 Once more man shall be as God knowing good and evil, and once 
 more, as in the Paradise of old, he shall walk with God and know 
 not death. We have yet to learn more of the deep things of life ; 
 for when once the full determination of latent energy shall have 
 been made, the mystery of pain will stand revealed. It is a grand 
 starting point to realise that all energy is the individualisation of 
 the divine, and that force is its expression in terms of motion—but 
 that is not enough ; we have to learn that the accretion of energy 
 is a very gradual process, and that for a long time this process may 
 continue without visible results. When the polarisation of latent 
 energy is complete, then the power of enjoyment is begun. Pleasure 
 and Pain stand face to face as the antipodes of consciousness. Be¬ 
 tween them runs the rubicon, which separates latent energy from 
 vigorous life. When vital energies are so reduced that latent energies 
 must be transformed to keep aflame the flickering light of life, then, 
 and then only, is the reign of Pain begun. But such transformation 
 
NATURAL FOOD OF MAN. 
 
 127 
 
 can only be made by false and stimulative foods, whether of fish, or 
 flesh, or fowl, or alcohol, or tobacco, or tea, or mineral medicines, 
 and therefore, for the life that is set free from these, pain shall 
 become impossible. 
 
 Such is the Philosophy of Vegetarianism ; it proclaims the Ideal 
 to be peace and plenty, without limit or surcease. It heralds the 
 advent of the Golden Day, when disease and pain shall be no 
 more. It speaks with no uncertain voice, but with supreme com¬ 
 mon-sense, it urges the necessity of obedience to God’s laws—and 
 to the objection, “ How shall a man without knowledge become 
 obedient,” it makes reply, “ To him that hath shall be given—knock 
 and it shall be opened to you—Seek and ye shall find.” Every 
 step that you take, upwards and onwards, shall lead you to fuller 
 light. You may wander many a weary year in the gloomy depths 
 of the forest of ignorance, but if you are honest and faithful you 
 will come to a clearing at last, and there far off in the distance you 
 shall see the snowclad summits of the Ideal, glancing with golden 
 glory from the very throne of God. 
 
 And lastly,for I leave this difficult exploration with feelingsthat are 
 akin to pain, there is need of the reminder, that the Science of Specific 
 Values is not exhausted in the foods of Man. The unities of Natural 
 law are infinite, and so we leave these speculations, just hinting at a 
 larger thought, the specific sustenance of Natural Foods. Why is 
 it that vital pulses are so repellant to the ordinary tastes—partly 
 doubtless, because the palate is perverted, but partly also because 
 the pulses themselves have been wrongly fed—Why is it that the 
 whole Science of grain culture and fruit culture has made advance by 
 leaps and bounds during the last half century, but that only a little is 
 being learned of the science of manures. Let me illustrate my 
 point, the teeth and bones of antediluvian mammoths have been 
 found to contain fluorine, and their marvellous preservation is pro¬ 
 bably 7 largely due to the presence of this element. There are no 
 traces of fluorine in the teeth and bones of the present generation, 
 and the dentists hold high festival. If this element be essential, 
 w hy should it not be added to our food ? Why r should not our 
 grains be fed w r ith Fluor Spar ? It is an experiment that is being 
 made, enough to realise that the whole art of feeding foods is as 
 yet unknown and unexplored. 
 
 Again, take the case of fruit. The ordinary food is stable 
 manure. What wonder that good cropping is the exception rather 
 
128 
 
 NATURAL FOOD OF MAN. 
 
 than the rule, and that pests and blight destroy the best promise 
 of the Spring. Our grapes are grown out of dung-heaps, and their 
 leathery skins and tasteless insipidity testify to the failure of excre- 
 mental food. Our apples are acrid, and our pears are sleepy, because 
 the necessities of specific sustenance are so terribly misunderstood. 
 When shall we learn that flavour and fragrance alike depend upon 
 the proper determination of the fruit trees’ daily diet. For myself, 
 I have begun to believe that the theory of vital food is not limited 
 to man, and as a last and most audacious speculation, I would 
 suggest that, the best food for fruit and flowers is fresh cut grass, 
 properly grown from specific selection of organic and inorganic 
 manure, and that herein is contained the potential revolution of 
 the horticultural art. I may say no more. I have long since 
 outrun my space, but the fascination of the ideal leads the ex¬ 
 plorer on. May it be proved, as these thoughts are tested by the 
 experience of some, that they are not wholly without truth. 
 
 Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that 
 getteth understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than 
 the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. 
 She is more precious than rubies ; and all the things thou canst 
 devise are not to be compared unto her. Length of days is in her 
 right hand, and in her left hand, riches and honour. Her ways 
 are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a 
 tree of life to them that lay hold upon her, and happy is every 
 one that retaineth her. Exalt her and she shall promote thee ; 
 she shall bring thee to honour when thou dost embrace her. She 
 shall give to thine head an ornament of grace ; a crown of glory 
 shall she deliver to thee. The path of the just is as the shining 
 light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day: 
 
 “ When God of old came down from heaven, 
 
 In power and wrath He came, 
 
 Before his feet the clouds were riven, 
 
 Half darkness and half flame. 
 
 So when the Spirit of our God, 
 
 Came down his flesh to find, 
 
 , A voice from heaven was heard abroad, 
 
 A rushing mighty wind. 
 
 It fills the Church of God ; it fills 
 The weary world around, 
 
 Only in stubborn hearts and wills 
 No pWe ior it Vs found. 
 
 Come Lord, conur Wisdom, Love and Power f 
 Open our ears to hear, 
 
 Let us not miss the accepted hour, 
 
 Save Lord by love or fear.” 
 
Part i. 
 
 “ Far from my Father’s home, 
 
 Far front my Father’s breast, 
 
 Fainting I cry, Blest Spirit come. 
 And lead me to my rest ! ” 
 
 T is well at times to look 
 beyond the narrow 
 boundaries of the im¬ 
 mediate, towards the 
 widening horizon of the 
 possible. And though, 
 perchance, the vista 
 may be hazy and uncer¬ 
 tain — though drifting 
 mists may veil with in¬ 
 substantial darkness— 
 yet often some chance gleam 
 of sunshine may strike athwart 
 the darkened crests of the Ideal, 
 and touch with glory the snowy 
 silence of the Unknown. 
 
 For, indeed, it were a sad and sorrv 
 thing if Vegetarianism were to be “ cribbed, cabined, and confined” 
 within the “ narrowing nunnery walls ” of conventional belief—if it 
 were to begin and end w*th some dull gospel of eating and drink¬ 
 ing, whose apostles came rom the kitchen, whose high-priest found 
 
 E 
 
130 
 
 SPECIFIC VALUES 
 
 expression in a cook. It were a sad and sorry thing if the larger 
 issues of Vegetarianism were to be belittled or forgotten—were the 
 higher harmonies of love and life to be unspoken—and the Restau¬ 
 rant were to become the Mecca of each new disciple’s missionary 
 zeal. These beggarly elements of meat and drink are but the baser 
 symbols of a diviner sacrament—these places of refreshment are 
 but the outer courts of an Holier of Holies within. And yet here, 
 in the very cradle of our movement, there is a power of develop¬ 
 ment as yet unrealised. Like the monks of old, we Vegetarians are 
 too often content with the cold creed of custom : 
 
 “ We eat, we drink, we sleep—what then ? 
 
 We eat, we drink, we sleep again.” 
 
 And we but seldom care to ask the why and wherefore of dietetic 
 adjustment. We take what is given us, and ask no question for 
 conscience’ sake. But the time is coming when the science of 
 Specific Values will be developed and explored-—when it will be 
 understood that each separate food has its specific purpose, and pro¬ 
 duces its specific effect—when it will be realised that our present 
 system of eating and drinking is a chaos of commingled custom 
 and chance, which, in the deepest sense of the words, is “ without 
 form and void.” 
 
 Let us speculate for a moment, and unloose the pinions of fancy ; 
 let us give spur to the dull Pegasus of our imagination, and slacken 
 the curb of conventional judgment. What if the material universe 
 be but the garment of the living God ? What if Man be, in very 
 truth, the Son of God, begotten of the Divine, inbreathed with the 
 Spirit of God—the crown and completion of creation, the Lord of 
 Nature, the guide and guardian of the animal world ? What if the 
 whole scheme of existence be so exactly planned, that failure is im¬ 
 possible where obedience is assured ? What if sorrow, suffering, 
 
 and sickness be but the Nemesis of violated law, and death be but 
 
 « 
 
 the penalty of unsatisfied sin ? What if Life, with all that it 
 means of health, wealth, happiness, and power, be the birthright of 
 all—be within the reach of all, when once has been retrodden the 
 crooked pathway of disobedience ? What if all food, after God’s 
 
SPECIFIC VALUES. 
 
 1 3 1 
 
 ordinance, be pregnant with the potency of life ? What if each 
 separate seed be a tiny fountain of vital overflowing, strong to 
 wash out the daily doom of death ? What if each vital pro 
 cess demands specific sustenance, and that the harmonies of 
 mind and soul and spirit are co-ordinated with the physical needs 
 of bodily existence ? Then the conclusion of the whole matter is 
 this—that “ for him who believeth all things are possible ”—that 
 “ all things work together for good to those who love God ”—and 
 that “ to fear God and keep his commandments is the whole duty 
 of Man.” 
 
 Part II. 
 
 “ My spirit homeward turns, 
 
 And fain would thither flee ; 
 
 My heart, O Zion, droops and yearns 
 When I remember thee. 
 
 To thee, to thee I press— 
 
 A dark and toilsome road ; 
 
 When shall I pass the wilderness. 
 And reach the saints’ abode ! ” 
 
 It is scarcely possible to over-estimate the importance of the 
 classification and correlation of “ Specific Values,” when once 
 their existence is recognised as the necessary consequence of the 
 perfect reign of Law. The analogue in things spiritual is the common¬ 
 place of the preacher, that, for the full development of the spiritual 
 life, there must needs be moral motive ; and that for all psychical pro¬ 
 gress there must be the aspiration of intense desire. So also, upon the 
 intellectual plane, for the power of perfection, there must be that 
 ordered sequence of cause and effect which is in itself the proof of the 
 original creative Mind which has made “ all things very good.” This 
 is the essential condition of any true scheme of Specific Values— 
 that it should harmonise, on all planes of existence, with the 
 perfect Ideal. 
 
 And what is the practical result of such accepted co-ordination ? 
 
1 * *7 o 
 
 - xJ~ 
 
 SPECIFIC VALUES. 
 
 In the direction of diet, it means that all food, whether meat or 
 drink, has its specific value, and must produce specific results. It 
 re-affirms the scientific aphorism, that the organism is in part 
 differentiated by its environment, and emphasises the warning of 
 the prophet, “ the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children’s 
 teeth are set on edge.” It is, of course, impossible to define in 
 detail a region which is as yet, like Central Africa, unexplored ; 
 but the general features of the country may perhaps be generalised 
 from experience. For instance, the four-fold formula of Vege¬ 
 tarian propaganda has found expression in the words Nuts, Fruits, 
 Grain, and Pulses. Here are four classes of foods, divisible and 
 re-divisible into an almost infinite variety of degrees, but standing 
 out in bold outline as separate and distinct. Is the theory of 
 Specific Values applicable to these ? It seems to me that it is, 
 and that these four classes approximate generally to the necessities 
 of the four planes of existence. It must be remembered that, in 
 dealing with an illustration of foods, we are primarily speaking of 
 physical sustenance ; but, as the higher ranges of being spring 
 from the lower and are conditioned by it, so may the higher ranges 
 of food be said to determine more than the physical elements 
 of life. 
 
 Starting, then, with this assumption, it seems to me that the 
 following rough classification of food-values may be made. For 
 spiritual sustenance, there are nuts ; for psychical process, there 
 are fruits ; for intellectual development, there are grains ; and for 
 bodily building, there are pulses. Let us examine the last instance 
 more closely. For bodily building, there are pulses. The ex¬ 
 perience of Vegetarians goes far, I think, to prove the truth of this 
 statement, that, for the full development of physical strength, there 
 is need of highly nitrogenised or pulse food. Beans, peas, and 
 lentils are the standing arguments against the nitrogenous necessity 
 of flesh-foods ; and, because it is in the body that Man has most fallen 
 from the Ideal, therefore in the body it is hardest to begin to know 
 God, and the most fruitful source of discouragement and discom¬ 
 fort for the Vegetarian beginner is to be found in these very pulses 
 
SPECIFIC VALUES. 
 
 133 
 
 which belong especially to the life of the body. The probability 
 seems to me that the animalised system—super-saturated with 
 fleshly sin—revolts of necessity from the more natural supplies of 
 nitrogen, and that for a long period of probation, till the constitu¬ 
 tion is cleansed from the flesh-eating failure of the past, pulses are 
 riot only difficult of digestion, but practically useless for purposes 
 of physical growth. This, then, may be the interpretation of the 
 excremental fallacy which has deluded the dung-heap physiologist, 
 and made meat the prime motor of medical prescription. And, 
 further, this suggestion of constitutional defect may become the 
 explanation of the palatative difficulties of pulse adoption in the 
 experiment of Vital Food. It is easy to revel over fruits, fresh 
 from the garden, and perfumed with the sunshine ; it is less easy 
 for many a debilitated digestion to rejoice over the gift of nuts ; it 
 is difficult for dental decay to realise the delights of fresh 
 ripe wheat ; but most difficult of all is it to appreciate the 
 strong insistence of the pulses, which sicken the perverted 
 palate with the force of a flavour which has been forgotten. 
 " Corruptio optimipessima,” and so the defect of vital nourishment 
 becomes the strongest bulwark of the dominion of death. There 
 may be many a weary mile to retrace along the dusty road of con¬ 
 stitutional change—for Nature knows nothing of sudden conversions 
 —but when at last the “ Mene , mene, tekel upharsin ” of judgment is 
 outwritten from the wall ; when beans, whether haricot, or coffee, 
 or cocoa, and peas and lentils, untouched by flame, unscathed by fire, 
 are sweet and savoury to the taste—then the salvation of the body is 
 nigh at hand. But, speculation apart, there is abundant evidence 
 that, for prolonged manual toil, there is no weapon in the Vegeta¬ 
 rian armoury to be compared with the pulses. Broad beans and 
 green peas, cocoa nibs and coffee, supply the secret sources of 
 muscular accretion ; and the puddler or forgemai; who neglects 
 these hearty foods will soon find his bodily vigour fail. 
 
 We have spoken of but one instance, the specific relation of the 
 pulses and physical development, and of that only by way of 
 broadest generalisation ; and yet already vistas of possibility, for 
 
134 
 
 SPECIFIC VALUES. 
 
 which this theory of Specific Value must be the beacon-light, begin 
 to open before our gaze. We must reserve for another paper the 
 whole question of vital transformation, which is involved in this 
 thought of specific foods ; for, indeed, Nature is ever working for 
 the best, and when the Ideal is trampled under-foot, and man, in 
 his ignorance and folly, feasts his hunger with the husks that the 
 swine do eat, she still waits ready by her subtle alchemies to make 
 the best of a miserable job, and draws from the decay of Death the 
 modified failure which many are content to miscall Life. 
 
 > 
 
 -< 
 
 Part III. 
 
 “ Nearer, my God, to thee. 
 
 Nearer to thee. 
 E’en though it be a cross 
 
 That raiseth me, 
 Still all my song shall be, 
 
 Nearer, my God, to thee, 
 
 Nearer to thee ! ” 
 
 The further the speculation of Specific Values is elaborated^ 
 the more important will it appear. We have assumed thatall natural 
 foods have their specific preordinance, and have suggested that the 
 four main categories of foods—the pulses, grains, fruits, and nuts— 
 may correspond with the four planes of body, mind, soul, and spirit. 
 It is, of course, impossible to draw hard-and-fast lines of demarca¬ 
 tion between that which is essentially interfused and interdependent. 
 I n all cases the higher developments of existence are coherent with 
 the lower ; else there could be neither continuity nor evolution 
 The brain is nourished from the body before it can manifest itself 
 in thought, and the health of the one is conditioned by the health 
 
SPECIFIC VALUES. 
 
 135 
 
 of the other. In like manner, soul and spirit are conditioned by the 
 fleshly tabernacle in which they find their habitation ; and so, when 
 we speak of foods as specifically harmonious to mind, and soul, and 
 spirit, it must not be forgotten that such nourishment must pass 
 through the soil of the system, before it can bud and blossom and 
 fruit for the expression of the perfect man. 
 
 And more ; throughout this entire speculation it must be under¬ 
 stood that the argument is based upon the adoption of Vital Food. 
 When once the subtle harmonies of natural growth have been 
 shattered by the fierce compulsion of fire, then Creation becomes 
 Chaos, and the very foundations of logical superstructure are 
 broken up. The first condition of the perfect Ideal is obedience to 
 Nature’s laws. This is the axiom from which all subsequent pos¬ 
 tulates are drawn, that Nature is the material manifestation of the 
 Creator’s perfect will, and that her laws are therefore the standard 
 of the Ideal. Man, as the Son of God, is master of Nature and 
 lord of the Universe ; his birthright is to rule, his responsibility is 
 to obey. He can control—nay, he can, if he will, reject her com¬ 
 mands ; he can, by artificial aids, relieve himself for a time of his 
 responsibilities. He can make the elements his slaves, and bind 
 their forces to his will. He can compel the pigmies of the earth to 
 mingle mineral salt with the meal they have ground with steel ; he 
 can couple the sweet influences of air and water to soften and make 
 light the dough ; and, lastly, he can summon the spirits of the fire 
 to dissolve the tender strength of gluten and starch—and lo ! bread 
 is born into the world. And what is the result of this artificial in¬ 
 terference with God’s gift of grain ? The teeth are defrauded of 
 their natural exercise ; the ensalivation of the food is incomplete ; 
 the digestive duty of the stomach is diminished ; and last, and worst 
 of all, the vital relation of the grain is dissipated and destroyed. 
 There can be no denying the fact, that the whole system of cooking 
 is utterly unnatural ; and therefore, for the purposes of this argu¬ 
 ment, where induction and deduction are alike based upon the 
 supreme authority of Natural Law, there is no room even for the 
 conception of cooked food. 
 
136 
 
 SPECIFIC VALUES. 
 
 Assuming, therefore, that all cooked food is, within the measure 
 of its cooking, noxious, we may proceed to consider the specific 
 values of vital food. We have seen some of the evidences that 
 point to a close connection between the virtues of the pulses and 
 the necessities of the body. What grounds are there for associating 
 the cereals with special sustenance of the brain ? It may here be 
 interesting to note the peculiar corelation of nerve and brain. As 
 muscles are the signs of bodily strength, so nerves are the symbols 
 of mental activity. They are alike the media through which bodily 
 and mental force find utterance. But we know, from the witness of 
 the Chymist, that grain foods are especially rich in phosphorus, one of 
 the main constituents of brain and nerve ; and therefore we are justi¬ 
 fied in speculating upon the relationship of mental energy and golden 
 grain. It is very difficult, in these first stages of suggestion, to give 
 more than the most fragmentary generalisations for the truth of the 
 theory now broadly stated ; but Time, the supreme judge of all 
 theories, will in due course summon the witnesses, or dismiss 
 the case. 
 
 I may, however, point out in passing that the cereals are 
 essentially cultivated foods ; they exist because of the mind-energy 
 of man. Were the world but inhabited by brutes, there would be 
 no corn, it would have reverted long ago to its primitive sterility. 
 How stands the matter to-day? Everywhere there are signs of 
 triumphs to be won by the brain. The Royal Agricultural Show at 
 Windsor had no more striking exhibit at all its hundred stalls than 
 the cross-bred wheat of Messrs. Carter and Co., and no more 
 marvellous instance of the possibilities of fertilisation than the 
 white winter wheat, the progeny of brown-red parentage. I may 
 not elaborate this point—it will bear another, and more detailed, 
 investigation—enough to notice that the production and develop¬ 
 ment of cereal foods is dependent upon the brain-energy to 
 which they are made to minister. Again, a marked charac¬ 
 teristic of all grains is the shortness of their life. A single 
 year sees the birth, the growth, and the death of all the 
 grains. They are, in the strictest sense of the word, ephemeral, 
 
SPECIFIC VALUES. 
 
 *37 
 
 and therefore they are also true types of that mental energy which 
 is itself but a process of change. We instinctively associate length 
 of days with the highest triumphs of life. We call the sage, whose 
 hair is silvered with the flow of years, venerable—worthy of worship. 
 The title is just, and radiates, as language ever does, a ray of truth. 
 That which endures is a part, not of the lowest, but the highest. 
 And so we shall find that the higher ranges of soul and spirit find 
 harmonious relationship in long-lived foods, and that the lower 
 levels of mind and body draw their nourishment from pure and per¬ 
 fect, but short-lived, sources of strength. 
 
 <- 
 
 Part V. 
 
 Though, like the wanderer, 
 
 The sun gone down, 
 Darkness comes over me— 
 
 My rest a stone— 
 Yet in my dreams I’d be 
 Nearer, my God, to thee, 
 
 Nearer to thee ! ” 
 
 In formulating any theory of Specific Values, it is necessary to 
 remember that the condition of their existence is the universal reign 
 of Law, tending in its fulfilment to Perfection. This is the root from 
 which all such speculations spring. For when once we have as¬ 
 sumed that God’s laws are supreme, and their purposes in crea¬ 
 tion are definite and exact, then we are forced by logical compulsion 
 to look for the harmonies which shall be their expression. And 
 with this acceptance of the possibility of perfection come larger 
 views of life and its intention. At once the darkness of despair is 
 flooded with the sunshine of eternal hope—the doubt and dread of the 
 centuries vanish like mists before the dawn of day. No longer do 
 
specific values. 
 
 we listen to the raven-croaking of a hopeless, helpless uncertainty. 
 
 “ Ich komm, ich weiss nicht woher, 
 
 Ich geh, ich weiss nicht wohin, 
 
 Ich bin, ich weiss nicht wass— 
 
 Es wundert mich dass ich so frolich bin ! ” 
 
 may be the echo of philosophic doubt ; “ Vanitas vanitatum, omnia 
 vanitas! ” may be the verdict of scientific pessimism ; but, for him 
 whose eyes have been opened to see, not only the goodness, but the 
 glory of God, there can be but the joyous thanksgiving of the 
 Psalmist: “ Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, 
 bless his holy name.” 
 
 What, then, is this glory of God—this divine vision, which is as 
 sight to the blind, and a crown of rejoicing to those that are without 
 hope? Surely, Perfection ! Nothing less than this can satisfy the 
 intense aspiration of the enlightened soul; nothing short of this 
 can complete the chain which binds the universe with golden links 
 of love. Perfection, possible—nay necessary, when once Man 
 resumes his divine birthright, by obedience to God’s laws—here is 
 the inspiration for all moral reform—here is the mainspring for the 
 redemption of the world—here is the keynote of all the greatest 
 teaching that has been given to the world : the command of Christ, 
 the harmony of the Old Testament and the New—the summing- 
 up of all the Scriptures: the conclusion of the whole matter, “ to 
 fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of 
 Man ! ” 
 
 But what are these commandments ? This is the first practical 
 question of the seeking soul ; and all religions, whether of Christian, 
 or Buddhist,or Mahommetan, have,within the measure of their truth, 
 been the answer. And still we are far from Perfection. “The whole 
 creation groaning and travailing in pain together until now ”—is the 
 record of the wrongs which still wait to be redressed. But the con¬ 
 demnation of that which is, may well become the benediction of that 
 which shall be, if only we can keep fast hold to the central inspira¬ 
 tion of Perfection Possible ! For if, indeed, God’s laws are 
 absolute and universal ; if indeed they produce, in their fulfilment, 
 Perfection, then is all the sorrow and suffering of the past but a 
 hideous Nemesis made possible by man’s own wilful folly—and 
 
SPECIFIC VALUES. 
 
 139 
 
 more, these laws can be stated with scientific accuracy, in terms 
 of mathematical precision. Life is no longer perplexed with 
 the confusion of chaos, but reaches onward and upward, with 
 the majestic certainty of creation. For what is the meaning of 
 Law, but inviolable intention ? And what is the Ideal, but the 
 original Divine Idea, which makes for a specific end, by specific 
 means ? 
 
 Here, then, is the source and justification of all suggestion of 
 Specific Values—they are but the expression of specific purpose. 
 We have already seen reason for relating the harmonies of growth 
 and food ; and we have speculated upon the possibility of pulses 
 and cereals representing respectively the prime sources of muscular 
 and mental development. In pursuance of the'same line of thought, 
 we come naturally to the idea of fruit as representing the specific 
 sustenance of the soul.' For it is obvious that, if the several planes 
 of existence find their harmonies in bodily foods, then the higher 
 ranges of feeling must be associated with a greater refinement of 
 material adjustment. And if we search the whole world over, 
 we shall find no more subtle perfection than the form and fragrance 
 and flavour of fruit. The fabled nectar of the gods is a fitting 
 emblem of the food of the soul. All the purest and most 
 delicate intuitions find their satisfaction in the purpling clusters 
 of the ripened grapes, whilst criticism ceases before the perfumed 
 sweetness of peach and nectarine. It will be interesting to develope 
 this thought of Specific Values in larger detail; for, when once the 
 grand generalisation is granted, then there follows, of logical neces¬ 
 sity, the specific value of each separate fruit. The strawberry, the 
 cherry, the raspberry, and the plum, with all the thousand varieties of 
 tropical and hardy fruits, have not been born into the world by 
 chance. Each has its specific purpose, and the Science of Vege¬ 
 tarianism will be to determine the specific value of each. Enough 
 now to point out that the manifold deficiencies of life spring, for the 
 most part, from incomplete development, and that the remedy for 
 this repeated failure may rest in the knowledge and adoption of 
 preordained and specifically adapted food. 
 
140 
 
 SPECIFIC VALUES 
 
 Part V. 
 
 “ There let my way appear, 
 
 Steps unto heaven, 
 All that thou sendest me 
 
 In mercy given— 
 Angels to beckon me 
 Nearer, my God, to thee, 
 
 Nearer to thee ! ” 
 
 As we advance farther into the region of speculation, so does 
 the importance of certainty impress itself upon our minds. We 
 are as blind men, feeling for the way in the dark, and every finger¬ 
 post has its word of warning for our feebleness, if only we could 
 read the writing, and realise the meaning thereof. Our steps 
 hindered by our own infirmity, and we fear lest the trembling 
 light of our hope may prove some melting mirage of the sands, 
 some Fata Morgana of the marsh. And yet the dark continents 
 of the unknown wait for the advent of the explorei. There may be 
 many a danger couched like a lion in the undergrowth of doubt; 
 there may be many a league of toilsome travelling before the 
 haven of our hopes is reached ; there may be many a gloomy forest 
 to be traversed where the sunshine never comes, and where all 
 cruel, ugly shapes hold high festival—where humanity is dwarfed 
 and misshapen, and the divine is forgotten and forlorn. But still, 
 for every true knight and every chivalrous soul, there sounds the 
 summons as of old, “ Come—come—come ! ” 
 
 The dark places of the earth are full of suffering and cruelty ; 
 the whole creation is groaning and travailing in pain together. 
 Bound to the rock of Custom, the helpless Andromeda shrinks from 
 the hot breath and ravening jaws of the monster drawing near. 
 Her agonising wail shrills to the tingling stars, “ Save me, save 
 me ! ” And lo, swift from the mountain top speeds her deliverer. 
 One stroke with the falchion of Truth, one flash from the sunshine 
 of Love, and the loathly reptile sinks with stricken coils into the 
 bottomless abyss, and the maiden is rescued and won. 
 
 The wisdom of all ages is the same, the legends of all 
 
SPECIFIC VALUES. 
 
 141 
 
 nations are one. It is ignorance and false custom which destroy, 
 it is obedience and knowledge which save. The Perseus of 
 to-day is born of divine discontent ; his strength is the inspira¬ 
 tion of the Ideal. He loves not that which is, but that which 
 shall be, and therefore he looks, not to the dead Past, 
 but to the living Future, for the purpose which shall redeem. 
 This is the apology for all honest speculation ; it is the effort to 
 look upon Truth ; and even when her face is hidden behind the 
 mists of Time, yet the glory of her presence touches with gladness 
 the darkness of to-day. The suggestion of Specific Values, as put 
 forward in these papers, may be altogether mistaken, there may be 
 no exact corelation between the harmonies of being and the pre- 
 ordinances of food, and yet, if there be, then is the whole secret of 
 existence but an open book for those who are willing to learn of 
 God, and the first steps along the pathway of life are conditioned 
 by a knowledge of meat and drink. 
 
 Let us not shrink from the absolute conclusion of our thoughts. 
 If it be true that the co-ordination of Creation is complete, that the 
 harmony of God’s laws is perfection, and that therefore all foods 
 have their specific value and preordained purpose, then is it impos¬ 
 sible to attain to the Ideal without first fulfilling these forgotten laws 
 of life. If it be true that the several planes of existence are core¬ 
 lated to specific sustenance, then is it of the first importance that 
 these wholesome relations should be recognised and honoured. We 
 have already seen reasons for suggesting a close interdependence 
 between the pulses and physical development, between the cereals 
 and mental growth, between fruit and the affections of the soul. 
 Is there, then, any food of the body specifically related to spiritual 
 strength? It seems to me that there is, and that nuts may well 
 claim the place of honour in the ascending scale of nutrition. At 
 first sight this specific relationship may seem hard to find, and the 
 suggestion of any connection between spiritual growth and nuts 
 may raise a smile of incredulous dissent. And yet, as it seems to 
 me, there are many things more improbable than this interaction of 
 food and growth. It may be noted, in the first place, that nuts, like 
 
142 
 
 SPECIFIC VALUES. 
 
 fruits, are for the most part the progeny of long-lived parentage. 
 They are, many of them, born upon lofty trees, high up in the 
 breezes and the sunshine. They but seldom come under the curse 
 of cooking ; and, where they are exposed to the fatal force of fire, 
 there the immediate damage is the most obvious and absolute. 
 “ Corruptio optimipessimal* to repeat a proverb that is instinctively 
 associated with this question of Specific Values ; and if nuts be ac¬ 
 cepted as typical of the best, then small wonder is it that burnt- 
 almonds should become the poisonoussource of prussic-acid. Let any 
 one roast, or bake, or boil a grain of wheat, or rice, or maize,and it will 
 only hasten the process of digestion ; but nuts cannot be thus de¬ 
 graded without changing their entire nature for the worse. Again, 
 it may be remembered that nuts are especially a monkey-food, 
 whose chattering good spirits make one chief characteristic of the 
 Zoo. What do we mean when we talk of good spirits ? Surely 
 the common phrase breathes, as language ever does, some harmony 
 with facts. It seems to me more than probable that good spirits 
 are a sign and symbol of spiritual health, which in its turn is 
 co-ordinated with physical health. But if this be true, then 
 is spirituality no longer the making of many prayers to be 
 heard of men, but rather the overflowing of the fountains of joy 
 which spring spontaneous from the happy heart. Again, it is 
 generally recognised by scientists that the apes represent the last 
 stage of physical development, before the incarnation of the Spirit 
 of God in Man. Is it irrational to suppose that, for this final pre¬ 
 paration for the habitation of the spirit, there should have been the 
 specific adaptation of food ? And so, by another path, we are 
 brought to the same conclusion, that nuts may have special rela¬ 
 tion to spiritual growth. 
 
 This paper has already extended too far to allow of any con¬ 
 sideration of the possibility of vital values—that is to say, that cer¬ 
 tain vital foods may have a higher vital potential than others ; but 
 if this suggestion were true, then a natural inference would be that 
 the seeds of the most long-lived trees were instinct with the largest 
 vital value—or, in other words, that nuts, such as chestnuts, acorns, 
 
SPECIFIC VALUES 
 
 *43 
 
 olives, etc., are related to the highest possibilities of food. In these 
 suggestions of Specific Values, which to many will seem supremely 
 ridiculous, there is of course no room for dogmatism ; but let those 
 who yearn for spiritual strength experiment freely with the use of 
 nuts, and record the results which Experience, and Experience 
 alone, can give. 
 
lr^eqctior|. 
 
 (A Speculation).— By A. F. Hills. 
 
 Hither and thither flow the 
 forceful tides, 
 
 Compelling cyclic change and 
 interchange, 
 
 But life remaineth ever and 
 abides, 
 
 The rhythmic harmony of 
 widest range. 
 
 EACTION ” is the princi¬ 
 ple by which phenomenal 
 existence is conditioned, 
 and therefore its interpre¬ 
 tation lies at the roots of 
 all sound philosophy. It 
 is the recognition of the 
 transformation of energy, 
 which is unsatisfied till its 
 wholesome cycle ot acti¬ 
 vity is complete. The an¬ 
 tipodes of Nature are En¬ 
 ergy and Matter, and between 
 them throbs the unresting flame 
 of force. The secret of existence 
 is hidden here, and when once the 
 determination of energy is made 
 absolute, the solution 
 of life’s problem is at 
 hand. Let us then in 
 our ignorance assume 
 
reaction. 
 
 M5 
 
 that energy is the eternal expression of the Divine, the essence of 
 Godhead, the marvel of manhood, the fountain of life. As yet, we 
 know not whence it is, or what it is, but we may learn much of the 
 laws by which it is made manifest. We know that its latent power 
 may be transformed into the activities of force, which may once 
 again be moulded into the silent strength of matter. The aggrega¬ 
 tion of molecular and atomic structure is not a primary but a 
 secondary consequence of creation. Before the void and formless 
 chaos blossoms into being, there must be heard the Word of God ; 
 “ Let there be light,” and then, and only then, when the divine 
 energy has thrilled to motion, will all the fairy fabric of the pheno¬ 
 menal world be fashioned and take shape. Never was truer wisdom 
 than that strange paradox of St. Paul: “ Through faith we under¬ 
 stand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that 
 things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” 
 It is a grand thing to realise that the horse comes before the cart, 
 or in other words, that energy is the preceding condition of matter. 
 Such a philosophy, basing its conclusions upon the original and the 
 essential, rather than on the secondary and consequential, will be¬ 
 come the doom of a dunder-head materialism, which, with the same 
 voice, parades its ignorance and denies its God. It is the philosophy 
 of vital truth, and its first investigations bring it face to face with 
 the causal omnipotence of reaction. 
 
 Here lies a dark continent, as yet unexplored. Scientific men 
 have too long lingered, looking at the fringe of Nature’s garment ; 
 as yet, they have hardly dared to gaze upon the splendid beauty 
 that is hidden behind. The naturalist has prided himself upon 
 being a realist, and the idealist has been chided as a fanatic and a 
 fool. But God is not mocked, and while art and science have been 
 defiled by a degraded realism, which makes the brothel and the dis- 
 secting-table the unhallowed source of their inspiration, the sorrows 
 of humanity have been enlarged, and the bitter cry of hope deferr¬ 
 ing to despair has gone up to the unanswering heavens. 
 
 It is time for this folly to be done ; the naturalist can only become 
 true realist by breathing the ideal ; and so, because the seeing power 
 is of the soul, and not of the mind, the prophet who shall unfold the 
 
146 
 
 REACTION. 
 
 mysteries of the divine must make the intellectual servant to the 
 intuitional—deduction handmaiden to induction. The philosophic 
 methods of the last five centuries must be reversed, because man 
 knows God, not by observation, but by love. It is in the soul that 
 knowledge is born : it is in the brain that it is tested and weighed. 
 Let these two separate duties never be confuted ; the function of 
 science is not to formulate theories, but to record facts ; the function 
 of philosophy is to determine psychically the relations of existence, 
 and thus to provide the foundations upon which her sister Science 
 may build. 
 
 What then has Intuition to say as to this manifold mystery of 
 Life ? Surely this, that the one thing needful is energy, for that is 
 the cause and condition of existence. “ That we may have life, and 
 have it more abundantly,” is the prayer of the idealist, no less than 
 of the prophet or of the poet: 
 
 “ ’Tis life, not death, for which we pant, 
 
 ’Tis life, whereof our nerves are scant. 
 
 More life and fuller that we want.” 
 
 But what is this life for which we instinctively cry out? It is 
 nothing abstract—no far off vision of celestial beauty, for ever fad¬ 
 ing as a mirage before our search. No life like happiness is con¬ 
 crete ; it is the result of absolute relation, of harmonious co-ordin¬ 
 ation. But the new lesson which the philosophy of reaction teaches, 
 is that life is not simple but complex ; that it is the resultant of con¬ 
 flicting forces, not the development of single activities. Life is not 
 from within only (as many have thought), nor from without only 
 (as many have testified), but the reaction of both. If there be no 
 vital force within, there can be no manifestation of the manifold 
 forces without ; and if there be exhaustion of the vital forces with¬ 
 out, then comes eclipse for the trembling forces within. 
 
PART II. 
 
 ii 
 
 To and fro, on they go 
 
 Never ending, backward bending.” 
 
 OW shall I illustrate my meaning—let us transfer 
 this theory of reaction to the practical reali¬ 
 ties of daily health. It is possible to infer the 
 normal from the discords of the abnormal, 
 and, therefore, the invalid may well become 
 the starting point of salutary speculation. 
 The invalid, as his name witnesses, is one 
 whose vital forces are minished and laid low. 
 The balance between the universal forces 
 without, and the individual force within is broken; there can 
 be no reaction, for the impulses are all in one direction ; and just 
 as the sunshine puts out the feeble fire so will the forces in which 
 we live, and move, and have our being, resolve the tiny vital 
 force . 
 
 Here is the measure of Health. As the individual vital force is 
 great, so will the reaction with external force be abundantly mani¬ 
 fest ; but as the individual force is small, so will the reaction be but 
 worthy of the pitiful phrase, “ we die daily.” This is true, not only 
 on the physical plane, but also on the mental, psychical and spiritual, 
 this truism is the Alpha of biology, as it is the Omega of vital science. 
 What then is the logical conclusion of this theory of reaction ? It 
 is this, THAT THE INDIVIDUAL VITAL ENERGIES MUST BE EN¬ 
 LARGED THAT THE IDEAL LIFE MAYBE POSSIBLE. It is necessary 
 that direct vital accretion should take place, else is life not only a 
 failure, but an absurdity. All that we see about us, the sickness, 
 
reaction. 
 
 148 
 
 the suffering, the feebleness, the hopelessness of life are else v<u* 
 natural consequences of being born into the world. The whole 
 scheme of divine creation is impugned, and the mad motto ot the 
 Epicurean is justified, “ let us eat and drink for to-morrow we die.” 
 
 This is the philosophy of the sty, where pleasure is made the 
 summum bonum of existence ; but the religious instinct of all ages 
 has revolted against such sensual materialism, and crowned the 
 cross of sacrifice with the roses of reward. Both, however, are 
 founded upon the fallacy that the divine order has made no provi¬ 
 sion for the daily exhaustion of individual effort. To this extent 
 both alike have been impractical, and the rough common-sense of 
 the world has passed them by. But just as Religion has been 
 narrowed to a lifeless insistence upon ceremonial or doctrinal 
 observance, so has the reckless riot of selfish license waxen fat and 
 kicked. History is my witness here ; the one great need of these 
 latter days is the truth which shall harmonise the goodness and the 
 justice of God. 
 
 H ere then is the value of the theory of Vital Food ; it makes the 
 perfect life practical, because it shows it to be possible. It recon¬ 
 ciles all schools of religious thought, because it teaches that the 
 fundamental elements of all religious teaching begin in the body 
 and are conditioned by the laws of life. It interprets the miracle of 
 growth, and gives the lie to the infidelity of despair. It provides 
 the one condition by which reaction becomes possible, for it refills 
 the fountains of life. Were there no other reason, the logical 
 necessities of the theory of reaction would require that some means 
 should be found for the daily replenishing of individual energy. 
 See how the whole matter stands out clear in the light of universal 
 experience. Take the miserable dwarfed and stunted life of the 
 nineteenth century, and mark the process of its development. The 
 child is born into the world with a certain initial reserve of consti¬ 
 tutional energy. Let us for the moment deal with the physical 
 plane, and forgetting all the possibilities of pre-existence, regard 
 steadily the problem of the present life. Duly fed and nurtured 
 the child grows; the individual energies, whatever may be their 
 measure, are developed through the processes of growth ; there is 
 
REACTION. 
 
 149 
 
 vigorous reaction between the individual and the universal force, 
 with the result that the phenomenon of life, with all its possibilities 
 of power, beauty, and enjoyment, are made manifest. The child 
 becomes the man ; slowly but surely the initial energies are 
 exhausted, and reaction becomes daily more difficult ; the universal 
 force tends to overwhelm and obliterate the individual. Weariness, 
 weakness, pain, and death are the common symptoms of this general 
 failure. There is a desperate effort in many cases to resist this 
 decadence of declining strength. The desire and passion of life 
 rebel against the numbing paralysis of physical decay ; and eager 
 search is made for some means whereby the individual force may 
 be strengthened if but for a moment against the steady pressure 
 of the universal. 
 
 The mystery of medicine is born, and earth, and air, and sky, and 
 sea, are ransacked for some medicine, whereby the failing springs of 
 life may be requickened ; the science of stimulants is exalted, and 
 the carrion of fish, and flesh, and fowl, with the twin curses of alcohol 
 and tobacco are introduced into the system to fan the flickering 
 fires of life. It cannot be too often repeated, that stimulation of 
 every kind is but slow suicide, and the sure precursor of the pen¬ 
 alties of pain. The momentary reaction thus set up may seem to 
 be the promise of life ; many a flesh-eater, alcohol-drinker, and 
 tobacco smoker will say that life without those adventitious aids is 
 worthless, if not impossible, but the last end of such exhaustion is 
 worsw than the first, and the future is mortgaged for the passing 
 pleasure of the present, Here is the benediction of Vegetarianism, 
 however humble its progress. If it be nothingmore than abstinence 
 from stimulants, if it mean nothing more than the negation of 
 ceasing to do evil, it has its reward. Vegetarianism is a great 
 revealer ; it shows a man where he is ; and where it seems to fail 
 most, it has often given the truest test. But no Vegetarian may 
 rest content with the petty penury of abstinence. The nemesis of 
 reaction waives none of its necessity for him. If he still continue 
 to feast with Death ; if his food be cooked and its vitality despoiled, 
 then must there come for him, as for all others, the time when the 
 individual force is overwhelmed by the universal ; when reaction 
 
150 REACTION. 
 
 ceases, and existence is no more. This is the secret of the so-called 
 failure of Vegetarianism ; because the vital energies of the experi¬ 
 mentalist have been scanty, and because they have remained unre¬ 
 newed, therefore the reaction between the individual and universal, 
 has been feeble, and the level of life manifestation has been low. 
 
PART TII. 
 
 l< Faint the fitful forces fly, 
 
 None can see them flitting by 
 /r ^_^ Lo a counter force is sped, 
 
 ■Life is risen from the dead.” 
 
 ERE, then, is the virtue of Vegetarianism ; it proclaims 
 the marvel of vitality; it prophecies of perfection 
 possible. Its science has to be built up, the science of 
 the specific value of foods ; but when once the possi¬ 
 bilities of vital food are realised the path is open for 
 unknown progress. It is thus, and only thus, that the 
 necessities of “ reaction ” can be supplied. Surely it is both 
 a natural and a beautiful arrangement that the universal 
 forces should be made the fountain head of individual 
 energy. The sunshine, with all the sweet influence of rain and air^ 
 matures the plant, which focusses its strength. Thus has God made 
 the natural food of man ; but his primal blessing is still misread and 
 misunderstood. What can be simpler than that first command, “ Be¬ 
 hold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face 
 of all the earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yielding 
 seed, to you it shall be for meat ” ? What can be more generally 
 disobeyed ? The possibilities of vital food, together with the full in¬ 
 terpretation of this divine benediction, remain yet to be explored. 
 The pathway is dark and difficult; every footstep of the way is 
 encumbered with the undergrowth of ignorance and prejudice. Even 
 instinct fails the experimental enthusiast, for the perverted palate 
 too often makes unworthy protest at unaccustomed foods, while the 
 indolence of luke-warm faith asks for miracles before it will believe. 
 
 Let us, then, for a moment leave the debateable land of the diges- 
 
r 52 
 
 REACTION. 
 
 tion, and see what evidence there is for this theory of reaction in 
 other directions. One of the most interesting and useful discoveries 
 of the last half century is probably that of Sir William Siemen s who 
 introduced to metallurgists the enormous advantages resulting from 
 regeneration or the accumulation of heat. It is true that the crude 
 idea of using the waste products of combustion for heating the air 
 supplied for burning coal dates back before Sir William Siemen’s 
 time, but none the less the credit for bringing this idea into daily 
 practical use belongs to him, and it is with the principle rather than 
 with any priority of invention that we have to deal. 
 
 Now the principle is very simple and very wonderiul in its results. 
 If coal is exposed to heat in a retort, gas will be distilled, and if this 
 gas is mixed with a definite proportion of cold air and lighted, 
 combustion will take place. No one need go far to observe this 
 phenomenon. The nearest gas-burner and a box of matches will 
 provide it. Cold air and cold gas will burn when mixed in proper 
 proportions. If the proportion of gas be unduly increased an explo¬ 
 sion will take the place of normal combustion, and this law has been 
 utilised in the development of the gas engine In both cases, in the 
 gas-burner and gas engine, combustion is accompanied by the deve¬ 
 lopment of heat, the amount of which, in thermal units, can be 
 absolutely determined. Now for centuries the metallurgists of all 
 countries have been accustomed to carry on their operations by the 
 means of this heat, resulting from the combination of comparatively 
 cold gas and air. In their furnaces coal was piled up on the fire 
 bars, through which a current of cold air was allowed to circulate. 
 The oxygen of the air combined with the carbon of the coal, making 
 carbonic acid, which filtering through the red-hot coal was resolved 
 into carbonic oxide, and then again recombined as carbonic acid in 
 the furnace itself ; developing in its combination, heat. This brings 
 us to the great Thermic law (which is as true in the laboratory of 
 the stomach as in the cupola of the founder), that COMBINATION 
 PRODUCES HEAT, WHEREAS DISSOCIATION REQUIRES HEAT ; and, 
 for the most part, the metallurgist is seeking to dissociate, that is ? 
 to purify metal from its native impurities. 
 
 As we are now speculating through the mirror of analogy, it is 
 
REACTION 
 
 *53 
 
 interesting to note how universal and how logical is this compulsion 
 of analogy. Just as the metallurgist has to create the “ heat-of- 
 combination ” for the dissociation of the impurities of phosphorus 
 and sulphur from iron, so must the Reformer of Society create the 
 “ enthusiasm-of-unity ” before he can hope to separate the gold of 
 good living from the dross of false tradition. It is well to realise 
 this significance of analogy ; for, more masterful than the spectro¬ 
 scope, it can resolve the essential relations of existence. It is the 
 master key which unlocks the wards of Nature’s deepest mysteries, 
 
 only it must be properly handled, and be applied only where it 
 fits. 
 
 But to return to Sir William Siemen’s discovery ; he found that 
 the ordinary furnace temperatures were quite insufficient for the 
 production of the best qualities of steel, and more, that the secret of 
 the deficiency lay in the coldness of the air and gas of combustion^ 
 Because they were comparatively cold, therefore the heat of combin¬ 
 ation was insufficient. He therefore determined to super-heat both 
 the air and gas of combustion before they were allowed to combine 
 in the furnace. After many years of failure and disappointment he 
 reached the triumph that he had foreseen, and to-day the Open 
 Hearth Regenerative Furnace is (with one modification and another 
 of its method of working) to be found in every country where steel 
 is made. I have made no reference to the Bessemer converter 
 
 i 
 
 because the principle I am seeking to demonstrate is more easily 
 understood in the case of the Regenerative furnace ; but the same 
 law holds good in both, that the hotter the component elements of 
 gas and air, the more rapid and the more active will be their com¬ 
 bination. As a matter of fact the intense temperatures of the 
 modern steel furnace and glass furnace have been rendered possible 
 only by this principle of regeneration, which Sir William Siemens 
 practically developed. 
 
PART IV. 
 
 “ Tenfold hotter heat the fire, 
 
 Heap the coals up higher and higher. * 
 A l is done to your desire— 
 
 But the furnace flags. 
 
 “ Dolts and idiots, heat the air 
 That burns the fuel’s flaming flare.” 
 White the molten metal’s glare 
 
 ’Neath the spuming slags. 
 
 EFORE we turn to discuss the principle of Re¬ 
 generation let us consider the results of its 
 practical application. It has been well said 
 “ The unreliability and heterogeneity c f steel 
 plates, rolled down from Bessemer ingots, had pre¬ 
 vented designers from specifying their employment, 
 but thanks to the altered character of mild, open-hearth- 
 steel, this material, by its strikingly valuable physical character¬ 
 istics, rendered farther opposition to its use ridiculous. The 
 introduction of mild steel in marine engineering and naval 
 architecture alone, is responsible for the following important changes 
 and improvements. The strength and scantlings of marine engines 
 and vessels, and indeed of all structural engineeringhave been revo¬ 
 lutionised. For a given displacement, the use of mild steel has 
 enabled higher speeds to be obtained, and this advantage in effi¬ 
 ciency means far more in the saving in other directions, especially 
 in its tendency to increase the bulk of trade carried, and in popular¬ 
 ising sea voyages to the peoples of far distant lands. The substitu¬ 
 tion of iron by steel is therefore responsible for untold advantages 
 to our own country and to the civilised world. 
 
 Now it is perfectly certain that the results thus vividly described, 
 are the first fruits of Sir William Siemen’s regenerative system, 
 
REACTION. 
 
 *55 
 
 whereby the intense temperatures of the open-hearth furnace arc 
 secured. But what is this principle of Regeneration, but the com¬ 
 plement of the principle of Reaction, with which we have already 
 been dealing in its relation to life ? The theory of Reaction says 
 that the phenomena of life, health, happiness, etc., are not simple, 
 but that they are the resultant of conflicting forces, the expression 
 of the reaction between the individual and the universal ; and inas¬ 
 much as the universal forces are infinite, that therefore the greater 
 the individual force, the greater will be the reaction and the more 
 splendid will be the resulting phenomena. But this is exactly 
 what the regenerative theory of heat says in other words. For let 
 us realise what we mean by “dissociation and combination.” We 
 mean that the polar forces which bind all molecular structure are 
 to be resolved or intensified ; and therefore, in the case of the making 
 of steel, that the chemical affinities which unite carbon phosphorus 
 and sulphur with iron are to be resolved by the intensification 
 those chemical affinities which unite carbon phosphorus and sulphur 
 with oxygen. But how is this differentiation of chemical affinity 
 to be determined ? Only by the subtle influence of heat, and heat 
 is another name for force, the master of matter. 
 
 At last we have reached the core of the whole matter. We find 
 ourselves face to face in this illustration of the Regenerative fur¬ 
 nace, not with the perplexing variations of individual vital forces, 
 but with the obvious uniformities of universal chemical forces, and 
 we find that the value of their reaction depends absolutely upon 
 their own inherent energy, and that this energy is capable of increase 
 by a simple process of accumulation. The development of heat 
 in the furnace is proportional to the heat originally imparted to the 
 air and gas of combination—it is the reaction of diverse energies, 
 the resultant of conflicting forces—and just as the impact of a 
 cannon-ball is conditioned by its momentum, so will the efficiency 
 of a furnace be conditioned by the heat-momentum of the elements 
 of combustion. 
 
 But this, in other words, is the fundamental postulate of the 
 theory of vital food. It claims that the daily accumulation of vital 
 energy through the medium of vital food is the one foundation on 
 
REACTION. 
 
 * 5 6 
 
 which not only Vegetarianism, but all wholesome life manifestation 
 rests. It substitutes a system of accumulation for the ordinary 
 system of stimulation, and it promises for its wise adoption, infinite 
 possibilities of all that God has given to be good. 
 
 But even as we analyse these teachings of analogy, we must be 
 careful to observe the limits by which they are conditioned. This 
 process of accumulation is not infinite ; it is not even indefinite. 
 For just as these are certain well determined limits for all the oper¬ 
 ations of metallurgy, so also must there be predetermined limits in 
 the more complex processes of life. 
 
 if the temperature in the steel furnace is increased beyond a 
 certain point, the purification of the metal is not hastened but the 
 very walls of the furnace may be destroyed, and in the same manner 
 
 there may be vital limits yet unknown for the bondage of mortality. 
 
 > 
 
 These limits are not the object of our search to-day ; the great de¬ 
 termination to be made, is that of direct vital increment by direct 
 vital absorption ; and when full proof or disproof of this possibility 
 is made, it will be time enough to talk of the limits by which vital 
 increment is debarred. 
 
 Enough to believe that perfect health is the blessing of enlarged 
 vitality, and that the doom of disease will be written when the 
 accumulation of vitality is assured. 
 
PART V. 
 
 44 Meantime, refracted from yon eastern cloud 
 Bestriding earth, the grand ethereal bow 
 Shoots up immense, and every hue unfolds 
 In fair proportion running from the red 
 To where the violet fades into the sky. 
 
 Here, awful Newton, the dissolving clouds 
 Form, fronting on the sun thy showery prism, 
 And to the sage-instructed eye unfold 
 
 The various twine of light by thee disclosed 
 From the white-mingling maze. Not so the boy 
 He, wondering, views the bright enchantment, bend 
 Delightful o’er the radiant fields, and runs 
 To catch the falling glory ; but amazed 
 Beholds th’ amusive arch before him fly 
 Then vanish quite away.” 
 
 — Thomson. 
 
 ERHAPS no more interesting discovery has been 
 made during the last half century than that recently 
 presented by M. Gabriel Lippman to the French 
 Academy of Sciences, in a paper which professed 
 £'to give the long sought for solution of the pro¬ 
 blem of colour photography How long and how 
 fruitlessly this subject has been investigated every 
 photographer knows, and, for the most part, the 
 line of search has been in the wrong direction, 
 
 with the natural result that nothing has been found. It has been 
 
 generally supposed that the practical realisation of photography 
 in colours was to be discovered in specific chemical combinations, 
 which should provide a plate sensitive to all the colour-rays which 
 were reflected through the lens of the camera. 
 
 Thus in 1840 Lubeck and Daguerre established the fact that cer- 
 
REACTION 
 
 * 5 S 
 
 tain preparations of chloride of silver (notably a blend of the 
 chloride and sub-chloride) had a tendency, when exposed to certain 
 colour-rays, to reproduce the colours that had fallen upon them. In 
 1841 Herschall repeated these experiments with even more remark¬ 
 able results. In 1848 M. Edouard Becquerel followed farther this 
 line of research, and was sucessful in reproducing the image of the 
 solar-spectrum by the use of a preparation of sub-chloride of silver, 
 sensitising a film of collodion upon polished silver plates. The 
 colours, however, were feeble and impermanent. Since then many 
 experiments have been made by many investigators with many 
 mixtures, but without success. 
 
 Professor Lippmann has made a new departure, which, as it 
 seems to me, bears closely upon the theory of reaction which has 
 been developed in these pages during the last few weeks. In order 9 
 to understand Professor Lippmann’s methods, it is necessary to 
 pay some attention to the established Theory of Light. The 
 “ undulatory theory ” of light, as compared with the “ corpuscular 
 theory ” of Sir Isaac Newton, conceives of light as travelling in 
 undulations or waves through the elastic medium of the Ether. 
 The “ corpuscular theory ” conceives of light as travelling in par¬ 
 ticles along a direct path, like cricket balls hurled from the sun- 
 How far these conflicting theories of great scientists are capable of 
 harmonisation, it is not the purpose of this paper to discuss—pos¬ 
 sibly the truth lies between them both—at all events there can be 
 no doubt as to the practical results of opposing one ray of light to 
 another in the same plane and in the same path. If either ray be 
 of the same colour, that is, of the same rapidity of vibration the 
 result of their impact will be alternations of light and darkness. 
 
 In this difficult subject I perhaps cannot do better than quote 
 
 from original authority, “ On voit que dans la propagation d'un 
 
 rayon lumineux , chaque particule vibrante est en retard sur celle qni la 
 
 % 
 
 precede—les retards , en s'djout ant, font qu ’d une certaine distance , 
 dune molecule il en existe une autre qui vibre prPcisement en se?is con- 
 traire; a une distance double se trouve une vibration dans le sens 
 primitif; a une distance triple un nouveau mouvement en sens inverse 
 et ainsi de suite. 
 
REACTION. 
 
 159 
 
 De la , le curieux phenomene, en vertu duquel deux rayons de mime 
 couleur einanis de la mane source , produisent des vibrations qui 
 peuvent tantot s ajoutes en produisant des maxima de lumiire tantot 
 se detruire en donnant des minima de lumiire , ou de Vobscurite\ 
 Une petite difference dans le cheminparcouru suffit pour qu'elles soient 
 en concordance, on en discordance , cest ce qu'on appelle Vinterference ; 
 le nom de * f ranges d'interference * est donni ct Vensemble de points 
 minima et maxima ; les vibrations des molecules sont trespetites et ont 
 une vitesse moyenne de un milliard trois cent cinquante deux millions 
 de vibrations par seconded 
 
 Professor Lippmann’s great discovery consists in the original 
 interpretation of these established laws, and in their practical appli¬ 
 cation to the science of photography. At the back of a specially 
 prepared sensitive plate, he places what is to all intents and pur¬ 
 poses a mirror, for the purpose of reflecting the incident rays, whereby 
 the condition just mentioned of “ interference ” is assured. Here is 
 the great secret, here is the departure in photography. The rays 
 of light are not permitted to go only in one direction ; in chemical 
 terminology a reaction is set up—in popular phraseology the rays 
 are bent back upon each other, with the result that there are alter¬ 
 nations of light and darkness, with the further result that the 
 Iodides, Bromides and Chlorides of silver in the sensitised film, 
 are deposited, not “ en masse,” but in separate laminae of metal 
 with the result that the original colours of the rays reproduce 
 themselves permanently in the picture. 
 
PART VI 
 
 O Truth, before whose shrine we bow, 
 
 Thou priceless pearl for all who seek, 
 
 To thee our earliest strength we vow, 
 
 Thy love will bless the pure and meek. 
 
 When dreams or mists beguile our sight, 
 
 Turn thou our darkness into light. 
 
 O Life, the well that ever flows, 
 
 To slake the thirst of those that faint, 
 
 Thy power to bless, what seraph knows, 
 
 Thy joy supreme, what words can paint ? 
 
 In earth’s last hour of fleeting breath, 
 
 Be thou our Conqueror over death. 
 
 HAT is the meaning of this reaction of 
 the rays of light? Why does the placing 
 of a mirror at the back of the sensitized 
 plate produce photographic colours? It 
 is a question well worth the answering, for 
 it contains the secret of the relation of 
 matter to force. It is, perhaps, needless to say that Professor 
 Lippmann’s discovery is as yet in its embryonic stage ; he has 
 succeeded in reproducing the prismatic spectrum, and certain broad 
 colour effects as of painted glass ; but he confesses freely that he has 
 only opened the gate through which other investigators must pass. 
 All the delicate gradations of tone and hue, which make the beauty of 
 aature a joy fcr ever, escape as yet the lens of the camera. Colour 
 photography is still a dream of the future, but in Mr. Gladstone’s 
 memorable phrase, it has at last been brought within measurable 
 distance of practical politics. 
 
 What then, we repeat, is the interpretation of the facts, so far as 
 they have been already made clear ? Surely this, that colour can 
 no longer be considered as the result only of specific chemical com- 
 
REACTION. 
 
 161 
 
 bination, but as the accompaniment of specific molecular structure. 
 And how is this structure built up? By the specific action of force. 
 In the case of the sensitized plate, thin layers of silver are deposited 
 from the solution of the bath, in thicknesses proportional to the length 
 of light ray, by which they are deposited. We have already seen that 
 the speed of the known undulations of light waves is immensely 
 rapid, exceeding one thousand three hundred and fifty-two millions 
 of vibrations per second. The dimensions of light waves are twofold, 
 consisting in length and amplitude ; it is the length of the wave 
 which determines the thickness of chemical deposition, while the 
 amplitude determines the amount. The following table of the 
 length of light rays calculated in accordance with colour will be 
 interesting: 
 
 Red 
 
 Orange ... 
 Yellow ... 
 Green 
 Blue 
 
 Indigo ... 
 Violet 
 
 o*ooo688 millimetres* 
 0.0005*3 
 0*000551 „ 
 
 0*000512 „ 
 
 0*000475 
 0*000449 „ 
 
 0*000423 „ 
 
 It will be seen, that while the length of these undulations is 
 extremely small, the extensive range of the prismatic spectrum is 
 extremely compact, so that the potential of the red rays is only 265 
 millionths of a millimetre less than that of the violet rays, which 
 represent the highest potential adapted to the human eye. The 
 condition then of colour is that the deposition of matter should 
 take place proportionally to the lengths of specific undulations of 
 light, this is the chemical condition. But this is not all, there is 
 the condition of molecul ir structure, to which Professor Lipp- 
 mann’s discoveries have drawn attention. Every photograph, from 
 
 t 
 
 the time of Niepce and Daguerre downwards, has fulfilled the 
 chemical conditions, not one has fulfilled those of molecular 
 
 structure. 
 
 The earlier photographs were nearer the mark than those of recent 
 discovery ; the polished silver plates, popularly called Daguerro- 
 types, which to most of us recall the old-world costumes of our 
 grandfathers and grandmothers, were often tinged with prismatic 
 
i6a 
 
 REACTION 
 
 colours, because they unintentionally approximated to ProiuSsoi 
 Lippmann's discovery of the mirror behind the sensitized film. 
 How then does the mirror affect the question ? It is by the power 
 of refraction, which beats back the advancing waves of light, and 
 sets up the condition of “ interference,” of which I wrote in my last 
 paper. The result of this interference is that every other wave is 
 directly neutralised—there are created alternations of light and 
 darkness ; the process of deposition on the silver plate is made 
 intermittent. 
 
 But what does this mean ? That the deposit of silver is made in 
 separate laminae of metal proportional in thickness to the rays of 
 deposition, instead of, as in the ordinary process, being heaped upon 
 each other pell mell, without distinction of time or space. This, 
 then, is the condition of colour in photography (and, in truth, in 
 much else, of which we must consider hereafter) that the deposition 
 of matter must take place in layers, with space on either side, for 
 full amplitude of vibration. If such vibration is rendered impossible 
 by the absence of reaction—if the impact of the lines of force is in 
 but one direction—then the colours of hope and happiness will be 
 sought in vain, and their place will be taken by the dark shadows 
 of death. 
 
 Transfer this investigation to the domain of vital chemistry, and 
 the same principles will still hold good. The deposition of vital 
 tissue is precisely analogous to the deposition of silver upon the 
 sensitized plate. We have before seen that man is a complete 
 creation living upon many planes of development; we have spoken 
 of four, the physical, the mental, the psychical, and the spiritual ; 
 but these may in all probability be doubled, for each of these 
 strongly marked activities is dual. The vital forces which are thus 
 manifested may be compared to thevaricoloured rays of the prismatic 
 spectrum, which in their whole harmony make light and life ; and 
 just as the specific action of the prismatic rays is diverse, just as 
 the red rays are the source of heat, the yellow rays the source of 
 light, and the violet or actinic rays, the source of chemical activity, 
 so also is the specific action of vital forces diverse, making the 
 manifold music of existence sweet with the echoes of eternal song. 
 
PART VII. 
 
 ** See the wretch that long has tossed, 
 
 On the thorny bed of pain, 
 
 Again repair his vigour lost 
 And walk and run again. 
 
 The meanest flowret ot the vale, 
 
 The simplest note that swells the gale, 
 
 The common air, the earth, the skies, 
 
 To him are opening Paradise.” — Gray • 
 
 ** Who can hold a fire in his hand 
 By thinking on the frosty Caucasus ? 
 
 Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite, 
 
 By bare imagination ot a feast ? 
 
 Or wallow naked in December’s snows, 
 
 By thinking on fantastic summer’s heat ? ” 
 
 —-Shakespeare 
 
 N this context it is Interesting to recall the researches 
 of B£rard, with the official report of M. M. 
 Berthollot, Chaptal and Biot. u These philoso¬ 
 phers,” writes M. Berard, found that the chemical 
 intensity was greatest at the violet end of the 
 spectrum and that it extended as Ritter and 
 Wollaston had observed a little beyond that extremity.” 
 To show clearly the great disproportion which exists in this 
 respect between the energies of different rays, M. Berard con¬ 
 centrated by means of a lens, all that part of the spectrum 
 which extends from the green to the violet, and he concen¬ 
 trated by the means of another lens, all that portion which extends 
 from the green to the extremity of the red. This last pencil formed 
 a white point so brilliant that the ^yeswere scarcely able to endure 
 it, yet the muriate (chloride) of silver remained exposed more than 
 two hours to this brilliant point of light without undergoing any 
 sensible alteration. On the other hand, when exposed to the other 
 
164 
 
 REACTION. 
 
 pencil which was much less bright and less hot, is was blackened 
 in less than six minutes. This is the earliest intimation that we 
 have had of any hypothesis that the luminous and chemical powers 
 may be due to dissimilar agencies. 
 
 On this, the Commissioners write, “ If we wish to consider the 
 solar light as composed of three distinct substances, one of which 
 occasions light, another heat, and the third chemical-combination i 
 it will follow that each of these substances is separable by the 
 prism into an infinity of different modifications like light itself 
 Since we find by experiment that each of the three properties j 
 chemical, colorific, and calorific is spread though unequally over a 
 certain portion of the spectrum. Hence we must suppose on that 
 hypothesis that there exist three spectrums, one above another, 
 namely, a calorific, a colorific and a chemical spectrum. We must 
 likewise admit that each of the substances which compose the three 
 spectrums, and even each molecule of unequal refi angibility which 
 constitutes these substances is endowed, like the molecules of visible 
 light, with the property of being polarised by reflection, and of 
 escaping from reflection in the same position as the luminous 
 molecules.” 
 
 But if the spectrum of Vital Force be redivisible into specific 
 spectra, after the manner of the physical spectrum, then is a new 
 science of biology born into the world, and he who would master it 
 must learn by the old fashioned means of personal experiment. 
 
 What a marvellous vista of glorious possibilities is opened up by 
 the suggestion ; the methods of materialist medicine are reversed, 
 and the secrets of health are found in the plenitude of vital energy. 
 No longer can disease be treated as a morbid condition of matter, 
 but rather as the symptom of abnormal vital defect. The pharma¬ 
 copeia with its myriad pills and potions is cast into the sea, and 
 new philosophy of vital healing makes the word “ incurable ” a 
 delusion of the past. The science of specific disease has yet to be 
 determined, but that the law of specific causation rules in the little 
 world of the body, no less than in the larger world of Nature is a 
 truth which must be recognised as the very foundation of the 
 healer’s art. 
 
REACTION. 
 
 6; 
 
 The conclusion of the theory of reaction, which we have so long 
 been studying is this, that directly the individual force, or manifes¬ 
 tation of energy begins to fail (upon whatever plane), so that re¬ 
 action with the eternal forces in which we live and move and have 
 our being is no longer possible, " that then the dominion of disease is 
 begun—and farther, that directly any attempt is made to set up 
 this reaction by the stimulation of individual latent energy, that the 
 peril of pain is involved. This stimulation may take many forms 
 and find place on many planes—it may be upon the muscular plane 
 by means of fish, or flesh, or fowl—it may be upon the mental plane 
 by means of alcohol and its cognate poisons—it may be upon the 
 psychical plane by means of tobacco, opium, and the like, or it may 
 be upon the spiritual plane, by means of tea, coffee, etc., but the 
 result will be for ever the same ; the latent energies of spirit, soul, 
 mind, and body will be transformed into the momentary manifes¬ 
 tation of force, and the passing phenomena of life—but with the 
 immediate nemesis of abnormal vital exhaustion, and the inevitable 
 penalty of pain. 
 
 A new departure has to be taken in the scientific treatment of 
 disease ; and for this a new system of medical education must be 
 established. It is altogether hopeless to suppose that the laws of 
 life can be demonstrated in the dissecting room, or upon the oper¬ 
 ating table. The best fruits of clinical research are but as Dead Sea 
 apples, which crumble to ashes in the mouths of those that taste 
 them ; and the tender ministrations of the nurse may never be 
 confounded with the duties of the physician. His first duty — is 
 diagnosis ; this sounds like a truism, but it were well, if it were 
 generally recognised to be true. There can be no scientific diag¬ 
 nosis of symptoms, until the prismatic range of vitality is under¬ 
 stood. It is no diagnosis to determine that a patient is suffering 
 from so-called fever, or measles, or small-pox ; it is but the baldest 
 empiricism to suggest the exhibition of specific drugs. Such reme¬ 
 dies, especially if they are mineral, may be worse than the disease, 
 they are the expression of that medical materialism which is the 
 certain sign of a sickly nation. For if disease be but the beginning 
 of the pathway of death ; if sickness be but the symptom of defect 
 
REACTION. 
 
 of energy, what shall profit all the prescriptions unless they shall 
 contain the scientific suggestion of vitality. It is only by the addi¬ 
 tion of vital energy that the defect of vital energy can be made 
 good, and even then (to use a strange phrase), the specific spectrum 
 of disease must be determined. Else, as we have already seen, mis¬ 
 application of vital energy may mean most woeful waste 
 
PART VIII. 
 
 O Lord, who formedst me to wear 
 The image of thy Godhead here, 
 
 Who soughtest me with tender care 
 
 Thro’ all my wanderings wild and drear, 
 O Love, I give myself to thee, 
 
 Thine ever, only thine to be ! 
 
 O Love, who once in time wast slain 
 
 Pierced through and tlrough with bitter woe, 
 
 O Love, who, wrestling thus, didst gain 
 That we eternal joy might know. 
 
 O Love, I give myself to thee, 
 
 Thine ever, only thine to be ! ” 
 
 E have investigated the theory of Reaction 
 upon the physical plane; we have seen 
 that it involves the essential relations of 
 force to matter, that it interprets the mys¬ 
 teries of Health and Sickness, and that it 
 declares with no uncertain voice the virtue 
 of vitality. Life is seen to be phenomenal, 
 struck from the reaction of the individual 
 and eternal forces ; death is an index, for it measures the 
 collapse of vital forces which the wear and tear of this naughty 
 world have exhausted and undone. The conclusion of the whole 
 matter, so far as we have gone, is surely this—accumulate vitality— 
 increase all vital reserves—and learn something of the meaning of 
 vital food. Stimulation is synonymous with suicide, for it destroys 
 the good, and nourishes the bad. 
 
 Let us now consider the relation of this theory of reaction to 
 higher altitudes of being; for so sure and steadfast is the eternal 
 /i ign of this Law that if this principle of Reaction be true upon the 
 
i68 
 
 REACTION 
 
 physical plane, then will it also be true upon the psychical and 
 spiritual planes ; it will involve, and perchance harmonise, the highest 
 teaching of all religions ; it will explain the relation of the infinite 
 to the finite, of the immortal to the mortal, of God to man. 
 
 What, then are some of the most startling paradoxes of the reli¬ 
 gious world to-day ? Surely one is the difference between the actual 
 and the Ideal. Who has not sorrowed with a perplexity akin to 
 despair over the terrible gulf which lies between the heaven of our 
 hopes, and the present of our knowledge ? This paradox is as con¬ 
 spicuous in the sphere of religious belief as in that of daily exist¬ 
 ence. There are many religions claiming obedience from their 
 disciples ; many creeds and many sects ; each proclaims itself the 
 possessor of absolute truth ; each professes a perfection which con¬ 
 demns the rest. What shall we then say ? Are all religions equally 
 true ? Is one true and all the others false ? Surely not. Shall we 
 not rather believe that the religious dogmata of the ages are as the 
 prismatic rays of shattered truth ; they have passed through the 
 prism of mortal interference ; they have filtered through the media 
 of human insufficiency; they represent in proportion to their 
 radiance a range of divine truth, whose white light shall in the great 
 hereafter illumine the halls of heaven. 
 
 Let us, then, briefly consider the greatest of these religious teach¬ 
 ings in relation to this theory of reaction. Long since has Christ 
 proclaimed the divinity of manhood, and blazoned on his banner 
 the benediction of the Ideal “ Be ye therefore perfect even as your 
 Father which is in heaven is perfect.” Long since have .apostle, 
 saint, martyr, testified by life and death that union with the divine 
 is the goal of all desire. “ One with God and the Lord Jesus 
 Christ ” has become the motto of a church, which has yet to learn* 
 the inner meaning of its creed. From the mouth of all witnesses 
 we are confronted with the same truth, that the eternal energy of 
 Godhead is the Alpha and Omega of existence. We come from 
 God, we go to God—the world is created by God, it is sustained 
 by God—the universe, in the beautiful phrase of the poet, is “ the 
 manifold mantle of God”—what does it all mean but that the very 
 essence of existence is God ? And yet this is only a half truth ; it 
 
REACTION. 
 
 169 
 
 is ..too often forgotten that Energy is capable of two conditions ; it 
 may be positive or negative it may be good or evil ; it may be God 
 or devil. And this energy is for ever unmanifested, so far as th s 
 little world is concerned. It must be transformed into some mode 
 of motion, that force may be manifested through the medium of 
 matter. 
 
 Here, then, is the interpretation of the great biblical doctrines. 
 The fall of man is seen to be the nemesis of disobedience to the 
 perfect pre-ordinance of law. The divine energy of life is trans¬ 
 formed into the devilish energy of death, and henceforth sin is born 
 into the world. It is not only that the divine energies are ex¬ 
 hausted, but that the devilish energies are engendered. Each of 
 these energies the divine and the devilish, works through the reaction 
 of force, producing the phenomena of existence. The divine 
 energy produces the divine life ; the devilish energy produces the 
 devilish life ; and these two are for ever antagonistic, self-destructive ? 
 self-opposed. And yet it is quite possible that these two potentiali¬ 
 ties, the divine and the devilish should co-exist in the same person ; 
 it is more than possible it is universal. Every child that is born 
 into the world comes with this inheritance of dual influence. It is 
 the inheritance of the individual past; it is the resultant of pre¬ 
 existent forces. Philosophers have wrangled over the question of 
 u innate ideas ”—what are they but another name for the inheri¬ 
 tance of intellectual energy. But if this dual potentiality of divine 
 and devilish energy is possible, why need we farther question as to 
 the personality of the devil ? Both God and devil are within us, as 
 they are eternally without, There is an old Italian legend of a 
 monk who was haunted by the devil, and in the agony of the oppres¬ 
 sion he prayed to God that he might see the devil’s face ; as by a 
 flash of lightning the vizor of darkness was riven from his familiar’s 
 face, and, lo, as he gazed into that ghastly, sin-seamed countenance, 
 the Monk beheld and knew himself. 
 
 The parable is true. Each one is his own devil; each one is 
 possessed of the devilish energy of evil, which is capable of trans¬ 
 formation into force, and through reaction to be manifested in life. 
 How then shall this devilish energy be destroyed ? There is but 
 
170 
 
 REACTION. 
 
 one way, by the overwhelming impact of divine energy. Good only 
 can cast out evil. Positive only can polarise Negative. It is not 
 enough to cease to do evil, it is necessary also to learn to do well. 
 
 
 : 1 ; 
 
 . 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
 
 v 
 
 
 
 e«i j 
 
PART IX. 
 
 94 For ever with the Lord, 
 
 Amen, so let it be, 
 
 Life from the dead is in that word, 
 ’Tis immortality. 
 
 Here in the body pent, 
 
 Absent from him I roam, 
 
 Yet nightly pitch my moving tent, 
 A day’s march nearer home. 
 
 ** My Father’s home on high, 
 
 Home of my soul how near, 
 
 At times to faith’s foreseeing eye, 
 Thy golden gates appear. 
 
 Ah, then my spirit faints 
 To reach the land I love £ 
 
 The bright inheritance of saints, 
 Jerusalem above.” 
 
 HUS then are the forces of good and evil opposed ; their 
 numbers are ever varying. The man who signs the 
 total abstinence pledge from intoxicating liquors, re¬ 
 duces the forces of that particular evil by one, but he 
 does not increase the forces of good. The man who learns 
 ^ the value of fresh fruit has added to the negative virtues 
 of abstinence the positive virtues of use, and has increased 
 jy one the powers of good. This is no matter of haphazard 
 chance; no question of emotional rhetoric ; it is the position of 
 sound common-sense, the demonstration of exact practical science. 
 Everyone who valorously adopts the use of vital pulses, grains* 
 fruits, and nuts is by the measure of his obedience destroying the 
 forces of evil and multiplying the forces of good. If he be content 
 with devitalised foods, he is reducing the forces of evil, but his 
 abstinence is powerless to increase the positive forces of good ; the 
 woman who gives up the stupid stimulant of tea, by the measure of 
 her sacrifice decreases the forces oif evil ; but it is only as she leatris 
 
 *_■ ; -'V \ i•. !' . , . • 'JK-t.; 
 
172 
 
 REACTION. 
 
 the meaning of the splendid substitution of nuts, that she begins 
 to increase the direct leverage of good. 
 
 And so passing from the microcosm of the individual to the ma¬ 
 crocosm of the universal we find that the forces of good and evil, 
 stand still opposed. It is with these external forces, that the reac¬ 
 tions of life take place. The man possessed of a high potential of 
 divine energy makes appeal in every action of his life to an untold 
 multitude of divine influences. This is the function of prayer ; the 
 communion of the divine within, with the divine without. Thus 
 again and again we have proof of that most pregnant paradox : “ To 
 him that hath shall be given, and he shall have more abundantly, 
 but from him that hath not shall be taken away, even that which he 
 seemeth to have.” Well has it been written : “ Wherefore seeing 
 we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let 
 us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset 
 us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,” 
 because it is only as reaction is set up between the individual forces 
 and the infinite, that the highest possibilities of life are born. 
 
 Every religious teacher has insisted upon this necessity of divine 
 communion. Many have misinterpreted the glorious message, 
 which links the eternal with the present, and makes at-one-ment 
 between God and man. Here, perchance, is the explanation of that 
 cruel and barren Calvinism, which has declared man to be inherently 
 vile, incapable of good, foredoomed to hell, sometimes to be saved 
 by the separating mercies of God, but for the most part to be 
 damned, to satisfy the demands of a remorseless justice. Man is 
 born into the world inherently vile, as he is also born inherently 
 virtuous. He is possessed of twofold energies, both good and evil. 
 They are the inheritance of his past ; both are capable of develop¬ 
 ment or destruction. The good man is he who developes the good 
 and destroys the evil ; the bad man is he who developes the evil and 
 destroys the good. 
 
 But the average of Humanity is not wholly good or wholly bad 
 it is neither white or black. It is for the most part a dull drab, a 
 monotonous blend of good and evil. And why is this ? Simply 
 because the average man does not understand that there is any 
 
REACTION. 
 
 173 
 
 absolute standard of good or evil at all. He holds that all things 
 are lawful, even if they be not expedient, and the result of this 
 philosophy of “ moderation ” is that the average man is not very 
 good, or very bad. He lives on the border line between good and 
 evil, and for the most part is intolerably dull. But if the theory of 
 divine and devilish energies which we have been considering be 
 true, energies which are capable of being transformed into forces, 
 and which, by their reaction, produce the complex phenomena of 
 life, then is there much hope for practical improvement in the rel." 
 gion of the future. Let me not be mistaken ; the religion of the 
 future is the religion of the past, only it will be better understood.. 
 Christ came into the world to proclaim the possibility of perfec¬ 
 tion ; he taught that man was the Son of God, separated from the 
 divine by disobedience, reconciled by obedience, reconsecrated by 
 love. The science, the philosophy and the religion of the future will 
 be all one, for it is only wilfulness which has divided them, and sin 
 which has kept them asunder. 
 
 What a splendid inspiration is this, that every man is master of 
 himself and master of his fate—that he has the power of choosing 
 the good and refusing the evil, and that thus he may fulfil all God¬ 
 like energies, and starve all devilish desires. And what an infinite 
 vista of hope and happiness opens before the enchanted gaze, when 
 once it has been realised that each individual energy is responsive 
 to its eternal counterpart, and that thus by the reaction of their 
 respective forces, health and nappiness are born into the world. 
 
PART X. 
 
 • • i 
 
 •* For ever with the Lord, 
 
 Father if *tis thy will. 
 
 The promise of that faithful word 
 E’en here to me fulfil, 
 
 Be thou at my right hand, 
 
 Then can I never fail, 
 
 Uphold thou me, and I shall stand 
 Fight and I must prevail. 
 
 So when my latest breath 
 Shall rend the veil in twain, 
 
 By death I shall escape from death, 
 And life eternal gain, 
 
 Knowing as I am known, 
 
 How shall I love that word. 
 
 And oft repeat before the throne, 
 For ever with the Lord.” 
 
 ROM the moment that this standpoint has been 
 reached, religion begins to be practical ; it 
 seeks for those divine laws which condition the 
 accretion of divine energy, and having found 
 them, it makes obedience the sign and seal of 
 faith. Who would not be a Christian, if only 
 Christianity was understood to mean perfect 
 obedience to God’s most perfect laws ? What 
 Atheist or Agnostic would not bow down and 
 
 worship, if only they could listen to the glorious words, “ A 
 new commandment I give unto you that ye love one another.” 
 It is the false presentment of Christianity, at which honest 
 infidelity revolts. It is the barren dogmata of creeds and 
 
 councils which have been the fruitful source of heresies and dissent. 
 
 All good men and women are agreed upon the great moralities, but 
 few realise how closely they condition the most humble elements of 
 daily life, and the whole energy of spiritual aspiration is confined 
 within the narrow limits of the Sunday’s sermon. There can be 
 
REACTION. 
 
 175 
 
 no reaction between such unequal forces. What wonder that our 
 churches are empty, and that working-men are conspicuous by their 
 absence from the house of prayer, when they have learned to 
 believe that religion means little more than Sabbatical attendance, 
 and that piety is too often synonymous with systematised 
 hypocrisy. 
 
 The “ new commandment ” of love has yet to be enforced in its 
 most practical and absolute application. There can be no finer test 
 of religious teaching, whether it be contained in the words of Christ 
 or Mahomet, of Pythagoras, or Plato, of Confucius, or Buddha. 
 The commandment of love strikes a responsive chord, which re¬ 
 echoes through every earnest heart. Love is for ever the fulfilling 
 of the law, and he who loveth not, knoweth not God. 
 
 We have come to the last and most interesting stage of our 
 enquiry. Slowly but surely as we have considered the practical 
 consequences of the theory of reaction, we have been driven on 
 by the compulsion of logical necessity to the most far reaching con¬ 
 clusions. For my own part, I am free to confess, that at the first 
 commencement I had no knowledge of the goal which lay before. 
 The pathway was clear, but the end was hidden from my view. 
 We have now to take the last turn, and lo, there opens up the 
 glorious vista of perfection possible, the depths and distances of 
 divine salvation. We have seen that the phenomena of life are the 
 resultant of conflicting forces, the reaction of diverse energies—we 
 have learned that those energies are capable of a two-fold condition 
 
 —that they can be divine or devilish. We have now to realise that 
 
 < • •> * 
 
 the reactions of our daily life are for the most part false, born of the 
 unwholesome marriage of good and evil. There can be no happi- 
 ness from such an union ; the sorrows and the failure of a creation 
 travailing in pain are the nemesis of such ill-omened espousals. 
 
 There is no mystery in the misery of a fallen world ; only there 
 waits for all willing workers the responsibility of its redemption. 
 What then are the true conditions of divine reaction, what is the 
 one necessity of the perfect life ? Surely this, that the opposing 
 forces should be for ever divine, the individual with the infinite, the 
 temporal with eternal, the man with God. Here is the interpreta- 
 
REACTION. 
 
 176 
 
 tion of the fall, the secret source of the sorrows of the world. Man 
 sinned against his Maker ; he became disobedient to the law of his 
 nature, and by the very fact of his disobedience transformed the forces 
 of good into the energies of evil. From that moment the possibility 
 of self-subsistent reaction became possible, and the harmonies of the 
 eternal were iangled out of tune. Man became as God, knowing 
 good and evil ; he became lower than God, for he was both good 
 and evil. Henceforward the curse of sin fell upon him and his 
 descendants ; he became subject to the illusions of deception- 
 Every fresh step from original righteousness did but feed fat those 
 energies of evil, whereby reaction with the divine energies of the 
 individual became possible. It was a terrible fall, for the meaning 
 of it was hiaden from his eyes, but the results are written in letters 
 of fire over the history of the world. More and more, man fell from 
 that divine communion with the Eternal, which was in truth the 
 very elixir of existence. The first sin came through that sacred 
 relationship of human interaction, which has yet to be reconsecrated 
 in the marriage of the Lamb. There were two legitimate reactions 
 —that between man and his Maker, and that between man and his 
 mate ; but as he fell from the law of his God, so did he also become 
 conscious of an illegitimate reaction, which was the interaction of 
 the dual forces of good and evil within himselt. But enough of 
 Adam ana original sin. We children of the nineteenth century are 
 responsible for ourselves, we fail as the patriarchs failed, but with 
 infinitely greater intensity. We too, are separated from that divine 
 communion which is health and happiness beyond all words to tell ; 
 we too are blinded to the dual influences which make our best a 
 miserable bad ; we too live and move and have our being, not in 
 that diviner atmosphere of Godhead which is perfect peace, but 
 within that murky sin-stained darkness, which is the foretaste ot 
 Hell. 
 
PART XI. 
 
 “ Almighty God who through thine only begotten Son Jesus Christ, hast overcome 
 death, and opened unto us the gate of everlasting life ; we humbly beseech thee tha as 
 by thy special grace preventing us thou dost put into our mind good desires, so by y 
 continual help we may bring the same to good effect, through Jesus Christ our Lor> > w f ° 
 liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without en . 
 (Collect.) 
 
 ^ffiT is a wonderful thought this : that all our troubles 
 spring from our own folly; we wilfully persist in 
 cherishing that which is evil within us : we feed fat 
 our own familiar devil with fish and flesh and fowl, with 
 alcohol and tobacco and tea, and then we wonder that 
 he roars and ravins in the sanctuary of our heart, till 
 
 our better angel, longing so wearily for the heaven of its hopes, 
 begins to sicken, droop and die. And so, for most of us, life has 
 become a conflict instead of a communion ; we long for heaven, but 
 dare not, cannot enter in ; we are sad and lonely in the far off exileof 
 our sinful self-subsistence; we are separated from our Father which is 
 in heaven. We for ever struggle and continually fail, and at last 
 we seek to satisfy the hunger of our solitary souls with the husks 
 of barren dogmas and the dregs of poisoned creeds. 
 
 There is but one remedy, and it is within the reach of all ; with 
 the prodigal of old, we must rise and go to our Father, and when 
 we are yet a long way of, we shall find him waiting to welcome us 
 home, and we shall hear the joyous benediction : “ Let us eat and 
 drink and be merry, for this my son was dead and is alive again ; 
 
 he was lost and is found.” 
 
 Many and many an ingenious interpretation has been given to 
 this parable of the prodigal, but the plain obvious matter-of-fact 
 meaning has been left unheeded and untaught. 
 
 “ Let us eat and drink and be merry.” Here is the gospel of the 
 
REACTION. 
 
 178 
 
 future, for it reveals the very foundations of our faith. Too long 
 have men sought to build their heavenly castles on the insubstan¬ 
 tial air ; they have divorced the Ideal from the actual ; they have 
 separated their “ sacred Sunday ” from their worldly week, and 
 thus they have made religion a thing not understanded of the 
 people. But we have not so learned Christ ; he fed the multitude, 
 he healed the sick, he raised the dead, he feasted with the publican' 
 he argued with the doctors, he cast contemptuous scorn upon the 
 Pharisees, he wrestled all night with his God in prayer. He was 
 very man as he was very God, and the common people loved and 
 followed him. He was so preeminently practical ; to the woman 
 taken in adultery, he says " Go and sin no more ” ; to the rich 
 young man, he bids “ Go and sell all that thou hast and give to the 
 poor.” Vegetarianism is instinct with this spirit of the Christ. It 
 proclaims to the world that the beggarly elements of eating and 
 drinking are the very foundation stones of life ; that in the body 
 man begins to know his God. It blazons on its banner the splendid 
 promise of vitality, and makes communion with the Eternal the 
 
 symbol of its faith. This is the great truth which we have reached 
 
 . 
 
 through the theory of reaction—that so long as evil energy holds 
 its mastery within us, that communion with the divine is impossible, 
 and the conflict between our worse and better selves is begun. 
 There are infinite illustrations of this most fascinating speculation 
 in every range of life ; but already too much space has been devoted 
 to a single line of thought. Much must yet be written before the 
 full importance of this suggestion of reaction as the fountain-head 
 of life, can be properly appreciated. Enough to recapitulate the 
 progress that we have made—We have learned; 
 
 (1.) That energy is the essence of existence. 
 
 _ * •, / y* 
 
 (2.) That it is capable of two modes, the divine and the devilish. 
 
 (3.) That life is the resultant of conflicting forces upon many 
 planes, and that happiness springs from the reaction between 
 
 i f r . . i * 
 
 the individual and the un/versal. 
 
 (4.) That the every-day reactions of a fallen world are not ideal 
 but are self-subsistent, struck from the conflict of the good 
 and evil within the man. 
 
REACTION. 
 
 179 
 
 (5.) That such self-subsistent reactions are illusory, lor they pro¬ 
 duce the phenomena of life, without the pleasures which 
 have been pre-ordained by God, while they forever tend to 
 the exhaustion of the forces which should make for lift. 
 
 (6.) That the way to destroy evil energy is not only by abstin¬ 
 ence from evil, but by adoption of the good. Thus vital 
 foods become the final remedy for sin-stricken humanity ; 
 they are a positive force, destroying the evil and developing 
 the good. 
 
 (7.) When once the energy on any or every plane is overcome by 
 good, when once the balance sways to the side of righteous¬ 
 ness, so that communion with the infinite becomes a necessity 
 of existence ; it will be as impossible to be wicked as it now 
 seems impossible to be good. 
 
 (8J And lastly, the lesson of reaction is this, “ that to him that 
 hath shall be given and he shall have more abundantly but 
 from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which 
 he seemeth to have.” 
 
Principles qqd. Practice. 
 
 Part I. 
 
 A little learning is a dangerous thing, 
 
 Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring; 
 
 Fired at lust sight with what the muse imparts, 
 to fearless youth we tempt the height of arts, 
 
 Phde from the bounded level of our mind 
 Shott views we take, nor mind the lengths behind : 
 But more advanced, behold, with strange surprise, 
 Aew distant scenes oi endless science rise ! ”_ Pope. 
 
 N Principles we have the expression of 
 immutable, God-given laws ; Practice is 
 then application to daily life; there is 
 the same relation between the two that 
 unites the great correlatives Faith and 
 Woiks ; they are the positive and nega¬ 
 tive poles of the Ideal, dependent each 
 on the other for existence—without true 
 pnnciples there can be no wholesome 
 practice; without sound practice there 
 can be no perfect principles. But it fol¬ 
 lows, from the nature of both, that instruc¬ 
 tion must take more account of principles 
 t an practice ; for, when once the deep 
 underlying laws are rightly apprehended, 
 the right course of action is clear for all 
 who care to follow. 
 
 It is the distinction between scientific 
 theory and rule-of-thumb empiricism, be- 
 r . tween which the same fierce conflirt ic 
 
 uImT T S ?l’ WhCther in P° litics > or engineering, or commerce 
 I the final harmony when principles and practice are made one’ 
 
 And so, in the preaching of all sorial reforms, it is neceTsar^ first 
 determine the great laws which condition their existence 7 For 
 many minds there is a great horror of induction, a g eat terrofof 
 apnort reasoning; the triumphs of the novum orgalum sthl hold 
 thrall over the intellectual spirit of the age, amf the ma Jels of 
 
PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE. 
 
 1 81 
 
 modern science are held up as convincing proofs of the potency of 
 deductive rationalism. 
 
 The fact is, there can be no discord between the psychical and 
 mental processes ; they are each complementary to the other, but 
 the higher value belongs of right to the intuitions of the soul ; 
 these must be confirmed by the verdict of the intellect, but the 
 initiative rests with the percipient power of intuitive insight, rather 
 than with the notes and observations of the mental apparatus. 
 
 The history of all scientific discovery is the repeated record of 
 this unrecognised truth. Take any so-called invention, such as 
 the steam-engine, the electric telegraph, the telephone, the dis¬ 
 coveries whether of physicist, or chemist, or engineer, and it will 
 be seen that the original idea had to do with the great conditioning 
 principles—first of all, perhaps, but dimly apprehended, seen 
 through a glass darkly, but pregnant with the varied triumphs of 
 ultimate success. See Sir Isaac Newton pondering over the fall of 
 an apple from the tree ; consider Watt meditating upon the im¬ 
 prisoned forces of kettle-steam ; realise Lavoisier and Priestley 
 “ revolving in minds capacious of such things ” the affinities of 
 nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon—and each instance will be 
 but a sign and suggestion of the vis viva of intuitional insight. 
 
 No great truth comes to a man from external observation—it 
 wells up from within. All the laboured niceties of experimental 
 observation, all the unnumbered minutiae of recapitulative research, 
 are but as dust in the balance as compared with the momentous 
 importance of the deep inner truths that bud and blossom in the 
 inner consciousness of the soul. 
 
 Let me not be misunderstood ; I have no wish to undervalue the 
 elaborate investigations of the specialist, the delicate registrations 
 of the observer; only it is right that the present monopoly of 
 virtue accorded to such work should be broken down ; every 
 record of God’s dealings in his universe, so far as it is honest 
 and unprejudiced—above all, so far as it is true—is valuable 
 as an addition to the sum of human science ; but, unless it be 
 inspired and vivified by a knowledge of the laws whereof it is only 
 the product and testimony, it is shorn of more than half its power 
 for the perfecting of the world. 
 
 And as in the natural world, so also in the spiritual. There is 
 no comparison to be made between spiritual insight and practical 
 experience—both may be partly blind, both should be harmoniously 
 whole; but,‘where a discord sounds between the two, then the 
 spiritual inspiration must have free play, and all the failure and 
 disappointments of ignorant inexperience are worthless to damp 
 the kindling fires of a lofty moral motive. Wherever the spirit of 
 the Christ shines clear, wherever Love burns through the grosser 
 
l82 principles and practice.. 
 
 ' • ' ■* * ' •• • « . , I B . ‘ i 
 
 darkness of traditional selfishness, there is the beacon-light for the 
 weary wanderer, there is the pole-star for the searcher after Truth. 
 The penalties of the past may rest as lead upon the soaring 
 pinions of { actical endeavour, but the great principles of God’s 
 eternal goodness remain unchanging and unchangeable. Though 
 Vegetarianism, in individual cases, may seem to fail again and 
 again, yet the gracious promise remains untouched, “ He that 
 overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he 
 shall be my son.” 
 
 Part II. 
 
 “ He prayeth best, who loveth best 
 All things, both great and small; 
 For the dear God that loveth us, 
 
 He made and loveth all.”— Coleridge. 
 
 In the search after Truth, it is of the first importance that there 
 should be a fast grip upon principles ; they are the sheet-anchor to 
 the storm-tossed soul, when the winds of ridicule and opposition 
 roar, and when the waves of doubt and despondency rage furiously. 
 First principles are the rock upon which the superstructure 
 of all wholesome practice must be built; and it is not 
 enough to find some convenient method of life, and to rest sa¬ 
 tisfied with the convenience, for life itself is the gift of God, to be 
 used and enjoyed in harmony with his high purposes. 
 
 What, then, are the principles which underlie the practice of 
 Vegetarianism ? What are the fundamental truths which command 
 its adoption ? First and foremost is the great law of Love, which 
 is, as it were, the sunshine of its gladsome gospel. In love, Vege¬ 
 tarianism holds communion with God, whose nature and whose 
 name is Love ; in love, it puts forward its prohibition of destruc¬ 
 tion, for love and destruction are opposing and antagonistic terms. 
 The essential conceptions of love and destruction are incapable of 
 harmony, they are for ever antipodal. Love creates and cherishes, 
 for love is of God ; destruction is of the devil, and breathes the malig¬ 
 nant poison of a hate which knows not God. Take the truest type 
 of human love, the mother’s love for her child, and see what it 
 means—not destruction, but self-sacrifice, self-abnegation, self- 
 devotion, the giving up of self for the sake of another. And again, 
 across the selfish sorrows of the centuries rings clear the clarion call 
 of Christ, “He that will be my disciple, let him deny himself and 
 take up his cross and follow me.” Or again, “ It is more blessed to 
 give th an to receive ”—how dissonant a maxim for the selfish instincts 
 
PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE. 
 
 183 
 
 of a greedy commercialism ! And yet all that is noblest in us, all 
 that is most Christ-like, echoes responsive to the gracious utterance ; 
 and we know in our innermost souls that this joy of self-surrender, 
 this ungrudging giving of our best, is the very bloom of love. 
 
 Enlarge the horizon of the enquiry, and the answer is still the 
 same ; extend this first principle to the conditioning of all relations 
 between man and the animal world, in its severest simplicity—and 
 from that moment the Golden Age has begun, and the perfect 
 reign of Love has cast out fear. Take any instance, where prin¬ 
 ciple and practice are one, and the proof is there. Perhaps the 
 humblest may be the love of a little child for its pet ; and yet, 
 iouder than the roar of battle thunder, swifter than the leaden hail 
 of belching guns—sharper, to the dividing asunder of love and 
 hate, than the butcher’s knife—sounds the still small voice of love. 
 “ Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained 
 strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the 
 enemy and the avenger ”—and the picture of the puppy, gamboling 
 in happy confidence with its tiny playmate, is but the sugges¬ 
 tion of the heavenly day “ when they shall not hurt nor destroy 
 in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the know¬ 
 ledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” When once the 
 true relation between man, the vice-regent of God upon earth, and 
 the humbler animal creation, is re-established, when once the 
 master magnetism of love is reasserted, the harmonies of the first 
 Paradise ring true. Every animal is obedient to the divine 
 dominion of love : “ The ox knoweth its owner, and the ass its 
 master’s crib ; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not 
 consider.” 
 
 There are legends which tell of the birds fluttering round St. 
 Francis of Assisi, and following, almost of necessity, the Orphean 
 music of a life of love ; but it needs no legendary lore to prove this 
 fact, that the right relation between Man and the animals is that of 
 love. It is proved in every home, where the dog has learned the 
 subtlest meaning of his master’s voice, where the canary “ cheeps 
 and twitters twenty million loves ” to the mistress of its hearty 
 where the velvet-footed Persian purrs in fond affection and forgets 
 its claws ; where the satin-coated Arab neighs at the footfall 
 of a passing friend, where—ah, it matters not to labour the list. 
 Wherever Man is loving, he is lifted up and draws all Nature to 
 himself; wherever he ceases to love, he darkens the world with the 
 curse of destruction. “ The whole creation groaning and travailing 
 in pain together until now ”—the desolation, the devilry of war, 
 the death-pangs of the reeking shambles, the barbarities of the 
 battue, the horrors of Hurlingham and Monaco, the last agonies of 
 the hunted to death—these are the natural Nemesis of Hate, the 
 
PRINCIPLES AND PRACIICE. 
 
 184. 
 
 bitter fruit of the tree of Evil. The one remedy for the sorrows of 
 destruction is the first principle of Vegetarianism—the practical 
 adoption of the law of Love ! 
 
 >- -<»—o—< 
 
 Part III. 
 
 “A climbing height it is without a head, 
 
 Depth without bottom, way without an end, 
 
 A circle with no line environed ; 
 
 Not comprehended, all it comprehends ; 
 
 Worth infinite, yet satisfies no mind 
 
 Till it that infinite of the Godhead find.”— Young. 
 
 The appeal of the sweet influence of Love is to the soul ; the 
 logical compulsion of the universal reign of Law is for the mind. 
 There is no discord between these two claims ; properly under¬ 
 stood, they are harmoniously whole. Only the malevolence of 
 ignorance can contrast them as opposing terms. When once the 
 complex unity of man is apprehended, there is no room for conflict 
 between that which is intellectual and that which is spiritual. The 
 failure of Theology, falsely so called, the failure of Science, falsely 
 so called, to dominate the minds and affections of men, has arisen 
 from the same cause ; each has failed, so far as it has left the other 
 out of sight, and has made its appeal in its own strength alone. 
 So closely co-ordinated are body, mind, soul, and spirit, that the life 
 of the one is dependent upon the vigorous health of all ; their 
 sanctions, whether in principles or in practice, are the same, and 
 the Ideal is but another name for perfect harmony in all planes. 
 
 The great triumph of nineteenth-century Science is the more 
 complete determination of the universal reign of Law ; in what¬ 
 ever direction we look, we find this truth written upon the world, 
 and, as our search is more exquisitely exact, so is this certainty 
 more absolutely confirmed. This is the great fascination of Science 
 in an age of feverish unrest, and the danger of an over-arbitrary 
 dogmatism is forgotten in the mathematical demonstration of its 
 proofs. 
 
 There is an inspiration in the very thought of immutable, unvary¬ 
 ing, everlasting Law, something sensible and strong, that may re¬ 
 sist the corrosive energies of anarchic ebullition. If faith be but 
 the broken bubble of illusive hopes, if religion be but the mask of 
 pious pretence, if all philosophies be but as the narrowing vortex 
 of the whirling maelstrom of fortuitous force, there is still refuge for 
 
PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE. 
 
 the rationalist in the safe haven of facts, still work for the agnostic 
 in experimental research. Slowly, and by degrees, this conception 
 of an universal reign of Law is permeating the chaos of nescience, 
 and the clear, cold light of Science is irradiating the foggy mists 
 of popular ignorance. It is only as the intellectual eye is opened, 
 that the same great forces are seen controlling the stars in their 
 courses, and conditioning the crystallisation of the finest grain of 
 sand. 
 
 This is not all ; it is not enough to prove the permanency of uni¬ 
 versal laws ; they might be but the cruel machinery to compress 
 in one cast-iron mould the development of the universe. Not only 
 are God’s laws invariable, but they make for righteousness, and in 
 their fulfilment produce perfection. Such is the harmony of Religion 
 and Science ; the one declaring the perfect will of God, the other 
 proving its power throughout the length and breadth of Nature. 
 The full proof but waits for fuller knowledge ; but even in this 
 darkling dawn, when all things are but as shadows dimly seen, 
 there is the promise of the day. 
 
 The natural powers have been enlarged, and the horizon of the 
 intellectual world has been widened, by their aid. Look out 
 through the telescope into the infinite distances of space, and the 
 mind is overwhelmed by the universal reign of Law ; and the echo 
 of the Psalmist’s awe thrills through the starry silence : “When I 
 consider the works of thy fingers, the moon and the stars that thou 
 hast ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the 
 Son of Man that thou so regardest him ? ” And again : “ The 
 heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his 
 handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night 
 showeth knowledge ; there is no speech nor language where their 
 voice is not heard : their line is gone out through all the earth, and 
 their words to the end of the world.” And yet there is nothing il¬ 
 lusive in the planetary pageant, there is no uncertainty in their 
 majestic march ; the ebb and flow of the tides, the rising and set¬ 
 ting of the sun, the precession of the Equinoxes, the period of the 
 eclipse, can one and all be determined with unerring exactitude, 
 because they are conditioned by the reign of Law. 
 
 Or, again, look into Nature through the microscope, and see the 
 marvels of that which is infinitely minute ; and still the searcher is 
 face to face with unchanging Law. All the infinite variety of 
 tiniest detail is subject to this conditioning force of Law ; the 
 plumy down upon the butterfly’s wing, the myriad facets of a 
 beetle’s eye, the whorls and involutes of the smallest shells, alike 
 proclaim the glories of creative power. And ever, as the boun¬ 
 daries of knowledge are widened, so more surely comes the con¬ 
 viction of the universal reign of Law, which is the Will of God. 
 
Part IV. 
 
 u See, 'ull of hope, thou trustest to the earth 
 The golden seed, and waitest till the Spring 
 Summ >ns the buried to a happier birth 
 But, in Time’s furrow duly scattering,; 
 
 Thinkst thou how deeds by wisdom sown may be 
 Silently ripened for eternity ! ”—Sc hi ller. 
 
 The proofs of the universal reign of Law are everywhere to hand. 
 The secret of that “ sceva necessitas ” of Nature which is cruel only 
 to those who disobey, is whispered in every sea-worn shell wherein 
 the throb of the winds and waters makes eternal music ; it is carved 
 in the heaped-up debris of the glacial moraine ; it is written in the 
 strata of miocene deposit ; it is visible in the amcebic movement of 
 translucent protoplasm ; it is audible in the tiniest vibration of the 
 tuning-fork ; it thunders in the whirlwind of the tempest, and flashes 
 in the forked fire of the lightning; it thrills in the tender yearnings 
 of the Spring, and laughs in the lusty joyaunce of the midsummer 
 sun ; it sparkles in the diamond-dew of autumn, and glistens in the 
 smallest star of snow—everywhere we find the reign of Law, volnn- 
 iatem Dei in rebus revelatam. And, as we listen to these universal 
 harmonies, we recall the Psalmist’s cry : “ Such knowledge is too won¬ 
 derful for me ; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. Whither shall I 
 go from thy spirit ? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence ? If 
 I ascend up into heaven, thou art there ; if I make my bed in hell, 
 behold thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and 
 dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand 
 lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the 
 darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me. 
 Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as the 
 day ; the darkness and the light are both alike to thee: marvellous 
 are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well.” 
 
 Upon this rock of invariable, eternal Law is Vegetarianism built; 
 it claims the sanctions alike of morals and science ; it sees in the 
 processes of Nature but the working of God’s laws, tending in their 
 fulfilment to produce perfection. There is no link lacking in the 
 logical chain. The evidence of the farmer and the florist is one 
 with that of the stock-breeder ; it is only necessary to determine the 
 best conditions, or, in other words, the controlling laws, and pro¬ 
 gressive development is assured. The marvellous advance of hor¬ 
 ticultural science during the last few years is a proof in point. 
 Take any class of flowers, be they roses, or orchids, or carnations, 
 or chrysanthemums, or hollyhocks, or pceonies, or tulips, or hya¬ 
 cinths, or daffodils, or daisies—it matters not, from the highest to 
 
PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE. 
 
 187 
 
 the lowest, all seem capable of almost indefinite improvement. 
 Certain fixed conditions of fertilisation, of feeding, of light and air, 
 must be observed ; and then the possibilities of progress are as yet 
 unknown. To the expert, every slight difference of texture, or 
 petal, or scent, has its meaning ; Dame N ature has no mysteries for 
 those who learn to watch and to obey. All the gorgeous colours of 
 the poppy, all the rich mottlings of the calceolaria, all the sweet 
 perfume of the heliotrope, are due to specific causation—they are 
 subject to invariable Law. 
 
 And if we pass from the garden to the farm, and make ourselves 
 wise in the methods of the agriculturist, we shall find that certain 
 fixed conditions are again necessary for the production of good 
 crops. 1 here is a special price in the market for seed-wheat, as it 
 is called, because none but a fool is content to sow his land witli 
 smutty or rusty seed. More careful for their fields than for their 
 families, the farmer takes every precaution in selection of seed and 
 season ; and he knows that, with proper food and favourable 
 weather, he cannot fail of good results—and this certainty is but 
 the recognition of the reign of Law. The whole science of artificial 
 manure is but another development of the same idea ; slowly, and 
 by degrees, the laws of vegetable growth are being rediscovered ; and 
 the rationale of nitrogenous absorption by leguminous plants ; the 
 function of fluorine, titanium, and other rarer elements ; the co-rela¬ 
 tion of organic and inorganic manure in the development of stem and 
 seed—are being scientifically determined. The one impediment to 
 man’s mastery of Nature is his ignorance of God’s laws ; and, as 
 these barriers of stupidity and prejudice are broken down, so must 
 he come within measurable distance of success. 
 
 The evidence of the stock-breeder is the same ; there is no un¬ 
 certainty so long as certain fixed laws are obeyed. It is impos¬ 
 sible to produce healthy stock from immature or sickly parents ; 
 would to God this obvious fact were recognised in the procreation 
 of children, but the breeder as yet is wiser than the father, and the 
 sins of the sire are not visited on the flock. The first conditions 
 of successful breeding are perfect parentage, proper period, and 
 full maturity. When, to these elementary yet essential factors, are 
 added wholesome food, air and exercise, shelter and warmth, sun¬ 
 shine and companionship, the problem of nurture is solved, and 
 improvement, almost infinite in its possibilities, is certain. The 
 laws of life are so simple, that they are forgotten ; and miserable 
 children “ are damned rather than born into the world,” to be a 
 misery to themselves and all about them. What a revolution might 
 be wrought for the salvation of the world, were once the laws of 
 God’s perfect Will wrought into the national life—for sorrow and 
 suffering are but the Nemesis of their wilful violation. 
 
Part V. 
 
 *' A graver coxcomb we may sometimes see, 
 
 Quite as absurd, though not so light as he; 
 
 A shallow-brain behind a serious mask, 
 
 An oracle within an empty cask. 
 
 His wit invites you by his looks to come, 
 
 But when you knock, it never is at home.”— Cowper. 
 
 The reign of Law, as one with the perfect will of God, is some¬ 
 times decried by the professors of a science falsely so called. The long 
 struggle between the dogmatism of the Theologian and the nega¬ 
 tions of the Scientist is happily passing away ; a purer and more 
 peaceful atmosphere of large-minded liberality is becoming popular ; 
 the narrow intolerance of Calvinism has become less a proof of 
 piety than of prejudice, and the vindictive bitterness of divergent 
 opinion can no longer claim the sanction of sacred phrases to con¬ 
 ceal its ugly deformity. 
 
 The danger of this larger tolerance is, for many, the apathy of 
 indifference. “Who shall decide when doctors disagree ? ” is the 
 motto of the lazy lover of selfish ease. “ Let us eat and drink, Lr 
 to-merrow we die! ” does but echo the grunting of the Epicurean 
 sty. The opposing poles of helpless atheism are the false fatalism 
 which sees in failure and disappointment the cruel chastisement of 
 capricious chance, and the sensual sloth which shuts its ears to the 
 bitter cry of the world’s sorrows and dreams of pleasure for itself 
 alone. There can be no true knowledge where laws are broken : 
 there can be no true religion where love is forgotten ; and therefore 
 the darkest shadow of the atheism which knows not God rests upon 
 the lives that will not learn and cannot love. 
 
 There is no excuse for those that will not learn ; the righteous 
 laws of God are written large upon the natural world for all to read. 
 All the sciences are conditioned by this reign of Law ; the school¬ 
 master is abroad, and the final defeat of chaotic chance is at hand. 
 It were well if all enquirers as to the truth of Vegetarianism were 
 to saturate their minds with the consciousness of Law, as the bed¬ 
 rock upon which its larger superstructures are based. It matters 
 not what science is taken in hand, the evidence of one and all is 
 the same ; the great thing is at once and for ever to destroy that 
 vague ineptitude of nebulous uncertainty which conceives of effect 
 without cause, and, Micawber-like, lingers in the pleasing hope that 
 “ something will turn up.” 
 
 Vegetarianism, with its proclamation of an Ideal in Food and 
 Drink, is nothing new ; it does but repeat the solemn warning that 
 “ whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap, and he that 
 
PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE. 
 
 189 
 
 soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption ”; it does but 
 insist that the laws of Health are one with the laws of God, and 
 that they must therefore of necessity harmonise with the law of 
 love. But, until the average mind is more sensitive to the concep¬ 
 tion of universal, invariable Law, the glad tidings of the Vegeta¬ 
 rian are but as the voice of one crying in the wilderness, are but as 
 music to the deaf, and pictures to the blind. As a man lives, so 
 shall he also think ; and a dark veil hangs across the inner vision 
 of those who violate God’s laws, so that they cannot see the glories 
 of the Holy Grael, cannot hear the chanting of the angel hosts, 
 cannot believe that God’s will may be done upon earth even as it 
 is in heaven—that the Golden Age is ever at the door, for those who 
 do the thing that is right. 
 
 The apostles of the Truth seem to be visionaries and idealists, 
 wasting their efforts on the irresponsive air ; and the tidings that 
 they tell sound as the foolish fantasies of the stricken brain. “ The 
 END OF ALL DISEASE POSSIBLE IN OUR OWN TIMES ! ” says one. 
 “ What folly ; it makes me angry to hear people talk such rubbish ! 
 It is not probable that what has existed for unknown centuries will 
 cease in a moment ; commend me to the practical philanthropist 
 who sends his guinea to the hospital, instead of the fanatic who is 
 for ever canting about the laws of health.” “ The POOR NOT ALWAYS 
 WITH US ! ” says another. “ I shall not live to see the change. 
 Proverty is the necessary consequence of increasing wealth, of advanc¬ 
 ing civilisation. Something must, I suppose, be done to help it, 
 though it is difficult to say what. In any case, its excesses must be 
 kept sternly in check. Talk of its transmutation into national 
 wealth ! That’s the visionary humbug of a sentimental socialism ; it 
 is not practical, it is not common-sense.” 
 
 And so the darkness lingers, not because men are not willing to 
 work for God, but because they cannot comprehend the possibilities 
 of God’s laws fulfilled ; they cannot realise that, as the sun rises in 
 the morning, so of necessity must obedience to God’s laws bring a 
 final end to all the hideous evils which mark their violation ; they 
 cannot believe that so simple a solution of the problem is big with 
 blessing for all who put it to the proof. 
 
 There is need of a new and diviner enthusiasm to believe in the 
 possibility of perfection. Anything is better than lukewarm indif¬ 
 ference, and chilly despair. “ Blessed are they that hunger and 
 thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled,” and the crown of 
 the Ideal is kept for those who are not afraid of failure, and never 
 give up. And so Vegetarianism becomes a part of that eternal 
 conflict which is waging between good and evil, between right and 
 wrong. Its followers, however humble, are enrolled in the great 
 army of God’s soldiers, whose victory is the redemption of tho 
 
jq C PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE. 
 
 world. There can be no uncertainty as to the final issue—“ One 
 with God is for e\;er a majority.” Magna est veritas , etprcevalebit , 
 but the triumph may be long delayed by the cowardice and slack¬ 
 ness of Vegetarians. “ When the Son of Man cometh, shall he 
 find faith on the earth ? ” It is a solemn question, for “ all things 
 are possible to him that believeth.” If we have faith but as a grain 
 of mustard-seed, we shall be able to cast down mountains of igno¬ 
 rance and prejudice, and hurl them into the bottomless ocean of 
 oblivion. The golden age but waits for the individual who has the 
 courage to dc the right. Utopia is no far-distant, unknown region 
 beyond the Sunset ; heaven is no untravelled country beyond the 
 river of Death ; but the Paradise of Perfection is in our hearts— 
 when once we have become obedient to God’s perfect will. 
 
 -- 
 
 Part VI. 
 
 “ God is a worker : he has thickly strewn 
 Infinity with grandeur. God is love : 
 
 He shall wipe away creation’s tears, 
 
 And all the worlds shall summer in his smile.” 
 
 There is no conviction so assuring as the certainty which is the 
 ordered consequence of the universal reign of Law. When the 
 heavens are overcast with clouds, and the distance is blotted out 
 with tears ; when the silence of doubt grows noisy with conflict¬ 
 ing cries, and Faith trembles before the harsh accents of ill-con¬ 
 ditioned unbelief; when difficulties become as stones of stumbling 
 to the feet of effort, and failure frowns upon the upward glance of 
 hope ; when all the glories of the future are hidden from the eyes 
 by the penal curtain of a foolish past ; when the rains descend, and 
 the floods come—blessed, thrice blessed is he whose feet are set, not 
 upon the shifting sands of fleeting Fashion, but upon the rock of 
 unchanging Law. 
 
 Ever, as our knowledge is widened, do we become conscious of 
 this reign of Law. There can be no reading of the riddle of the 
 Universe apart from Law ; that is the golden key which unlocks 
 Dame Nature’s hardest problems. It is in the reign of Law that the 
 physicist finds the answer for his most elaborate research, and as 
 the philosophic, power is strong, so is he able to correlate the 
 master-forces of the world, and interpret the mysteries which con¬ 
 dition all phenomena. Take, for instance, the molecular and 
 atomic structure of matter ; science still confesses, in all humility, 
 
PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE. 
 
 191 
 
 that the law of its aggregation is hidden from her; but the 
 philosopher points to the Unity of Nature, and declares, with no 
 uncertain voice, that as the molecules are built up from original 
 atoms, so they, the foundation-stones of the universe, must be built 
 up from finer forms of concrete force, just as the great natural 
 forces of light, electricity, heat, and magnetism can be resolved 
 into etheric force, which is the matrix of all existence. 
 
 No man hath ever seen the primordial atom of which Lucretius 
 sang, and no chemist can break up the ultimate atom of modern 
 science ; and yet all the determinations of analysis, whether 
 quantitive or qualitative, are built upon the hypothesis of their 
 being, and this hypothesis is the logical conclusion of the universal 
 reign of Law. There is no proof possible of the unity of hydrogen 
 as the standard for all chemical computation—it is only babies 
 who babble of proof, and conceive of law as in itself concrete. The 
 intellectual apparatus may take cognisance of phenomena, may 
 register the records of minutest observation ; but it cannot make 
 itself the master of the processes of Law. That is reserved for the 
 higher intuitional power, which is developed on another plane. It 
 is the spiritual power of discrimination, which in morals distin¬ 
 guishes between right and wrong, and in philosophy determines 
 the relations of existence—which receives the evidences of the 
 mentai witnesses, and makes recognition of the reign of law. But 
 when once the spiritual power is quickened and enlightened, then 
 again is opened up the road which leads to God, and Man once 
 more resumes that birthright of divine power which makes him, 
 even in his humiliation, one with God and the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 It is this perception of Law which underlies all progress. The 
 whole science of modern chemistry, with its latest notation, has 
 been evolved from the root of Law. Hydrogen has been assumed 
 as the standard of unity, and all other combinations have been 
 mathematically calculated and verified upon this basis. Every 
 manufacturing industry is built up upon this scientific accep¬ 
 tance of the reign of Law. It is impossible to hope for suc¬ 
 cess apart from this obedience to Law, arid as in the natural, so in 
 the spiritual world, there is no discord between God’s laws for the 
 world, and for the bodies, minds, souls, and spirits which he has 
 placed therein ; they are harmoniously whole, and as his law of po¬ 
 larity governs the aggregation of the atoms, so does his law of love 
 control the possibilities of human life. There can be no chemical 
 affinity, no binding of the universe, without polar force ; there ( a 1 
 be no spiritual affection, no knitting of the souls of men to Gcd. 
 without the energy of love. 
 
 The expression of this reign of Law is Unity; there is the same fun¬ 
 damental essence in the polar force which binds “the sweet influence 
 
192 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE. 
 
 of the Pleiades/’ and the spiritual energy of love which makes Man 
 one with God. Only as the law of love is broken by wicked wilful¬ 
 ness, do the discords strike through the first harmonies of Creation. 
 Here is the meaning of the Fall—here is the possibility of restoration. 
 The redemption of the world but waits upon its master, Man—as he, 
 chastened by the sorrows of the centuries, becomes obedient to the 
 perfect Law of God—as he, taught by the experience of pain, for¬ 
 sakes the error of his ways—as he, burning with the inspiration of 
 love, looks up and sees all Nature as the throne of God—so does the 
 New Jerusalem descend from heaven, as a bride adorned for her hus¬ 
 band : so does the Golden Age begin. 
 
 > 
 
 < 
 
 Part VII 
 
 “ Knowledge and Wisdom, far from being one, 
 
 Have ofttimes no connection. Knowledge dwells 
 In heads replete with thoughts of other men, 
 
 Wisdom in minds attentive to their own— 
 
 Knowledge, a rude unprofitable mass, 
 
 The mere materials with which Wisdom builds. 
 
 Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much, 
 
 Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.” —Cozvper 
 
 There is no more profitable study for the searcher after vital 
 truth than the universal demonstration of the reign of Law. This 
 is the work of the future ; for as yet men grope in the dim dawn 
 of the coming day, and are affrighted by the shadows of the night. 
 Perhaps for a moment the dazzling sunshine of divine inspiration 
 .‘trikes athwart the mists and fo^s of selfish indolence, and the 
 whole world is seen flooded with light, perfect in its infinite beauty, 
 set free from sorrow, suffering, and sin—even as in the primal 
 Paradise, when all the morning stars sang together, and the Sons 
 of Gcd shouted for joy. 
 
 In that new world—new to the enraptured visionary, but old as 
 the ordinances of God—there is no death, no cruelty, no sickness, 
 no pain, no parting, no weeping, for God hath wiped away the tears 
 from every eye, and hath made all things new. But, even as the 
 glory of the vision sets aflame the fire of enthusiasm, the misty fogs 
 close over it again, and the battle between Hope and Doubt, be¬ 
 tween Faith and Fear, once more rages in the heart. “ How can 
 these things be?” is the cry of wavering courage ; “ what barriers 
 
PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE. 
 
 193 
 
 can we oppose to the stream of tendency which makes for death as 
 the necessity of life ? ” There is but one force which can reverse 
 the momentum of the centuries, which can set the world right side 
 up, and that force is the Spirit of God—the power of Wisdom, and 
 the energy of Love. When once the laws of the moral and the 
 natural are seen to be one, when once the practical details of the 
 daily life are made harmonious with the spiritual aspirations of the 
 Sunday sermon, when once the caprices of chaotic chance are re¬ 
 placed by the certainties of creative cause, when once the beggarly 
 elements of the body, the simple sacrament of eating and drinking, 
 are felt to condition the vaster issues of mind, and soul, and spirit— 
 then, and not till then, will the end of destruction, the doom of disease, 
 the knell of Death itself be rung out for the salvation of the world. 
 There is need of a greater power of correlation, the horizon of 
 perception is so limited, the power of intuition is so weak. Every 
 specialist realises in his own research the immutable reign of Law, 
 which in its fulfilment is Life and Health, Perfection and Power ; 
 but the application in the individual life is so hard, through the an¬ 
 tagonism of evil, the Nemesis of the sinful Past. 
 
 Every Engineer knows the inevitable persistence of natural law; 
 as he calculates the strains and stresses of storm-swept structures, 
 as he bridges the Frith of Forth with mighty cantilevers, as he 
 rears to the skies the Babel tower of latticed steel, as he carves 
 the isthmus and tunnels through the mountain, as he drains the 
 ocean and floods the desert, as he quarries the marble and deep- 
 mines the coal—he knows that he must become obedient to the per¬ 
 fect laws of God, or his life’s labour will be lost. The Metallurgist 
 knows, as he heats his furnace, that the next-to-nothings of infini¬ 
 tesimal admixture must be determined to ensure success. Half a 
 percent, of carbon will differentiate the characteristics of steel and 
 iron ; a quarter percent, of sulphur, phosphorus, or silicon will des¬ 
 troy the virtues of both. There is no limit, in the knowledge of to¬ 
 day, for the possibilities of the future ; and from the wholesome 
 marriage of many metals may spring a hardy offspring of alloys 
 which will alter the whole theory of modern construction. Phosphor- 
 bronze and Manganese-bronze are but the firstborn of a new family 
 of giants ; while their brother Aluminum-steel is still in the pangs 
 of travail. 
 
 Or, once again, the Electrician, as he annihilates space and time 
 with the lightning-flashj and puts a girdle round the earth in less than 
 the twinkling of an eye, knows that this seeming attribute of the gods 
 is but the victory of knowledge over ignorance. As he laminates the 
 armature of the dynamo and makes unbroken the magnetic-circuit of 
 the field, as he commutates the currents and transforms their poten¬ 
 tial for domestic use, he is only successful as he learns the laws by 
 
 G 
 
i 9 4 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE. 
 
 which his applications are controlled. As he regulates, with delicate 
 vibration, the advance of the arc, as he heats to incandescence the fila¬ 
 ment in vacuo, as he peroxydises the positive and reduces the nega¬ 
 tive plates of the accumulator—so does he but enlarge the resources 
 of civilisation by his deeper knowledge of Law. There is no miracle 
 in this marvel of Force, subject to its master, Man ; it is but the 
 presage of his fuller triumph, when he has become obedient to the 
 larger law of Love. 
 
 — -o—-o 
 
 Part VIII. 
 
 “ See what a lovely shell, 
 
 Small and pure as pearl, 
 
 Lying close to my foot, 
 
 Frail but a work divine— 
 
 Made so fairily well, 
 
 With delicate spire and whorl, 
 
 How exquisitely minute, 
 
 A miracle of design.” — Tennyson. 
 
 WHENEVER and wherever man looks out into Nature, and 
 reads her secrets, he finds himself face to face with unchanging 
 Law. For behind all natural phenomena, throned on the waters 
 and girded with the sunshine, is Nature’s God. No man can 
 escape from God’s laws ; he may persist in wilful disobedience, he 
 may sin against knowledge, he may take darkness for light and 
 light for darkness ; but the nemesis of his folly and his wilfulness is 
 for ever in pursuit. The “ Erynees ” of Greek legend, the sleuth- 
 hounds of destiny, for ever tracking the sinner to his doom, may 
 still be found in the pestilence that walketh in darkness and the 
 destruction that wasteth at noonday. 
 
 But, thanks be to God, his perfect laws are for salvation ; they 
 make for righteousness, they condition the Ideal. This is the 
 secret of success, to become obedient to the perfect will of God— 
 this is the pearl beyond price for which a man may give up all that 
 he hath with exceeding great joy. This is that true wisdom “ which 
 is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than 
 fine gold. She is more precious than rubies, and all the things 
 thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her. Length of 
 days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honour. 
 Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. 
 She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her, and happy is 
 every one that retaineth her.” 
 
PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE. 
 
 r 95 
 
 There is no possibility of escaping God’s laws. The' true wisdom 
 is to become obedient to them ; thus, and thus only, can man re¬ 
 sume his birthright of power as a child of God ; thus, and thus 
 only, can he reverse the failure of the centuries, and become again 
 the master of the universe. There is no need to search for the 
 proof of God’s perfect law—it is everywhere to hand ; it permeates 
 existence, it controls the most majestic manifestation of natural force, 
 it conditions the minutest marvel of elemental motion. Walk by 
 the ocean, and God is there, thundering in the roar of the billows, 
 whispering in the music of the waves. Take up some tiny shell, a 
 miracle of pearly irridescence, and there, deep-written in its tiny 
 whorls, is carved the law of God. And more, as the naturalist en¬ 
 larges the limits of his knowledge, he may also read the Unity of 
 Law. 
 
 It has been well said, “ The formation of the shell itself is but an 
 example of a process at work equally in the animal and vegetable 
 kingdoms. A shell, whether simple or complicated in contour or 
 colour, is the aggregate result of numberless minute membranous 
 cells, the largest of which does not exceed one-hundredth of an inch 
 in diameter, and in the majority of instances is less than one thou¬ 
 sandth of an inch. In the cavities of these microscopic chambers 
 is deposited a crystalline carbonate of lime, which makes the coat- 
 of-mail of the mollusk. Throughout nature we find the same com¬ 
 plicated results attained by the same simple mechanism. The 
 flower of the field, the shell of the sea, the bird of the air, the beast 
 of the forest, and man himself, are all so many cell-constructions, 
 wings of the one wonderful animated edifice, whose masons we 
 may behold through instruments of human construction, but whose 
 Architect is beyond the power of mortal science to compre¬ 
 hend.” 
 
 The same lesson of the Unity of Nature’s laws is to be read in 
 every application of modern Science. Cast that little shell upon 
 the heaving water, and it will float, because it displaces water by 
 air ; the same principle runs through the whole theory of naval 
 architecture. From the saucy sloop to the monstrous iron-clad, the 
 same laws of displacement and stability are involved. While the 
 mighty frames of steel are cross-stiffened with longitudinals and in¬ 
 tercostal brackets, while the double bottom is divided into multitu¬ 
 dinous compartments by water-tight bulkheads, while decks are piled 
 on decks—“ Pelion upon Ossa”—while the waterline is belted with 
 compound steel-faced armour, and the monster guns are encased 
 in mammoth turrets—one object is alone in view, to keep afloat 
 by displacing water with air. If the weights be too great or the 
 freeboard be too small, if the centre of gravity be too high or the 
 centre of buoyancy too low, if the metacentric height be negative,. 
 
x ^6 PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE. 
 
 then the penalty of violated law asserts its overwhelming power, 
 and the Royal George or Birkenhead, the Vanguard or the Captain , 
 the Grosser Kurfurst or the Eurydice, are buried deep beneath the 
 billows of the sea. 
 
 > 
 
 < 
 
 Part IX. 
 
 “ Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased, 
 
 Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, 
 
 Raze out ihe written troubles of the brain, 
 
 And with some sweet oblivious antidote 
 
 Cleanse the foul bosom of that perilous stuff 
 
 Which weighs upon the heart ?” — Shakespeare. 
 
 The purpose of these papers has been lost if the logical cer¬ 
 tainty of an universal reign of Law, of the continuity of Creation, 
 of the persistence of polarity, be still no more than the fancies of 
 an idle dream. It is upon this high level of absolute argument 
 that we plant the standard of Vegetarian proclamation. The 
 Ideal in food and drink is but one perfect chord in the whole 
 harmonies of God’s preordinanee ; but, without its full tones, hall 
 the music of life is muffled, half the possibilities of existence are 
 shattered at a blow. For when this idea of perfect Law, reigning 
 supreme over the physical life and conditioning all its vaster 
 issues, is received into the soul, then the true medicament for the 
 mind’s disease, the one panacea for the world’s sorrows, is 
 found. 
 
 This is the importance of establishing the principles of Vegetari¬ 
 anism, even as we adopt and advocate its practice. The pattern of 
 practice may vary almost infinitely, according to the bent of 
 idiosyncrasy; but the weft and warp of the fabric of our life 
 must be woven straight and true out of the changeless laws of the 
 Creator. There can be no true progress without a lofty Ideal. 
 That is the pole-star pointing straight to God. It is not enough 
 to do the thing which is right because we are bidden, still less 
 because it is fashionable, or convenient. The essence of redemption 
 is the return to God. The inner reception of spiritual inspiration, 
 the spontaneous acceptance of the noblest purpose—these, and 
 these alone, are the roots of divine regeneration, whence spring 
 the blossoms and the fruits of Love. We have seen, week by week, 
 that the evidence of all knowledge points to the same conclusion— 
 the unity, the immutability of Law. Astronomy, Geology, Micros- 
 
PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE. 
 
 197 
 
 copy, alike witness to the universal reign of Law, and proclaim that 
 its fulfilment is one with Perfection. All the industrial applications 
 of Chemistry, Electricity, Metallurgy, Engineering, and Ship-build¬ 
 ing but afford practical proof of the same certainty. And so, for¬ 
 tified by these unfailing sanctions, the searcher after absolute Truth 
 knows that Man cannot be the one exception to the universal rule ; 
 but that his life, too, must be subject to the wholesome laws of 
 life, must be obedient to the perfect will of God. 
 
 Let us turn, then, for a moment from the grand generalisa¬ 
 tions of philosophic contemplation, and examine more in detail 
 the evidences of Man’s own body for* dietetic demonstration. 
 There is a well-established axiom of Science, that design 
 is but the expression of harmonious adaptation, whereof 
 the writing is to be found, not in death, but in develop¬ 
 ment. And so a special science has arisen for the classification of 
 creation according to Structure, which has much to say upon the 
 relation of any organism to its environment. Accordingly, the 
 Comparative Anatomist becomes the first witness subpoenaed by 
 the Vegetarian for the defence of his creed. The evidence of this 
 expert is direct and complete. He points out that Man, from an 
 anatomical and physiological point of view, is clearly related to the 
 anthropoid apes, eg., the orang-outan, the gorilla, and the chim¬ 
 panzee. The dream of Darwin finds its interpretation, and on the 
 physical plane man is seen to be the descendant of the monkey. 
 It has been well said “that the most superficial observation estab¬ 
 lishes the resemblance which exists between the general physical 
 conformation of man and of the ape.” 
 
 But, passing from these more familiar and superficial features of 
 morphology, it will be interesting to examine more closely the com¬ 
 parative structure of the nervous system, the noblest and most 
 specialised apparatus of the animal economy, “ which, dominating 
 the functions of all the organs, presides over the harmony of their 
 * operations, regulates the work of all other systems and tissues, repairs 
 their lesions, maintains their integrity, and is, as it were, the preserver 
 and law-giver of the bodily kingdom. It is to the perfection of this 
 nervous system, especially to that of its ganglionic centres, that are due 
 principally, we might almost say exclusively, the degrees of elevation 
 of any given being in the animal scale. Now, it is in Man that we 
 find the supreme degree of this aggregation and ganglionic develop¬ 
 ment, and the animal which most closely imitates him in this matter 
 is the orang-outan.” 
 
 How close is this approximation of brain convolution, must be 
 left for consideration in another paper. Suffice it to say, in con¬ 
 clusion, that the normal diet of the ape is purely Vegetarian. 
 What, then, is the inference by analogy for Man ? 
 
Part X. 
 
 ** See the wretch that long has tost 
 On the thorny bed of pain, 
 
 Again repair his vigour lost, 
 
 And walk and run again. 
 
 The meanest floweret of the vale, 
 
 The simplest note that swells the gale, 
 The common air, the earth, the skies, 
 To him are opening paradise.”— Gray. 
 
 It may be interesting more closely to consider the correlation 
 of physical structure which foreshadows man in the orang-outan. 
 It is the boast of the Comparative Anatomist that correct classifi¬ 
 cation can be determined by structural analysis alone, and accord¬ 
 ingly the position of Man in the scale of animal evolution must 
 be tested by the exactest measurements of scientific observation. 
 It has been well said that “the brain convolutions, which are very 
 rudimentary in the rodents and edentates, less simple in the car- 
 nassiers, and still less so in the ruminants and solipedes, attain 
 their greatest development in the apes, and particularly in the 
 orang-outan. The disposition of the cerebral mass in the carnivo¬ 
 rous mammals shows only six convolutions, varying in regularity 
 and simplicity according to the species, but remaining in all cases 
 parallel to each other, and antero-posterior in direction. These 
 convolutions are known as the “ constant or primitive convolutions.’’ 
 It is not until we reach the elephant, the lemur, and particularly 
 the ape-group, that we find certain new convolutions, or “ folds of 
 perfectionment, remarkable by their volume and by their perpen¬ 
 dicular direction to the primitive convolutions.” Such is the testi¬ 
 mony of tfie first scientific authorities ; nor is it spoken with divided 
 voice, for Professor Mivart declares that “ the difference between 
 the brain of the orang and that of man is one, not of kind, but 
 of degree ” ; while Professor Broca, whose careful studies in anthro¬ 
 pology give special weight to his statements, confirms this opinion, 
 that the brain of the archencephalous animals—hominidse of Owen 
 —differs so little from that of the superior gyrencephalae, that the 
 only distinctive characteristics observable in the latter are alto¬ 
 gether secondary in importance. 
 
 In the same way, when the clear, cold light of science is cast up¬ 
 on the subject, the time-honoured misconceptions as to the evidence 
 of the canine teeth will melt like morning mists before the rising 
 sun. To quote once again from the declaration of authority: “ In 
 the anthropoid animals the mouth is disposed according to the hu¬ 
 man type; the tongue itself resembles that of man.” And lastly, 
 
PRINCIPLES AND PRAC1ICE. 
 
 1 99 
 
 and most important of all for the exposure of pretentious igno¬ 
 rance, “THE DENTAL MORPHOLOGY AND FORMULA 
 OF THE APES OF THE OLD WORLD ARE IDENTICAL 
 WITH THOSE OF MAN ; their cuspids are, however, longer, 
 especially in the males, and the wisdom-teeth appear at an earlier 
 age than in the human subject. The same formation is met with 
 in the orang, the chimpanzee, and the gorilla, as also is the super¬ 
 ficial disposition of the enamel, which substance in the herbivorous 
 races is quite otherwise distributed. On the other hand, the carni¬ 
 vora possess organs of mastication which can hardly be called teeth, 
 but rather spike-like instruments destined to tear in fragments the 
 meat on which they feed. Their incisives, six instead of four in num¬ 
 ber in each jaw, are small, pointed, and uneven ; the surface of the 
 molar teeth exhibits the appearance of a saw, and there usually exists 
 but one on each side, the last bicuspid or carnassial tooth being es¬ 
 pecially characteristic. Nothing of this sort is observable in man, 
 or the races which stand nearest to him.” 
 
 Surely such evidence as this is sufficiently strong and straight¬ 
 forward for ever to destroy the delusion that man’s organism was 
 created for the devouring of dead carcases ; but, that the more 
 insidious error of mixed feeding may be once and for ever dissi¬ 
 pated, hearken once more to the unhesitating declaration of anato¬ 
 mical analysis : “ By the side of the exclusively predatory animals 
 must be placed the omnivorous types, such as the Alpine bear, the 
 North American bear, the wild boar, and the hog. In these the 
 character of dentition resembles the carnivorous rather than the 
 herbivorous type, and, except that the enamel is superficially placed 
 upon the cheek teeth, has nothing in common with the human and 
 frugivorous morphology.” 
 
 What shall we more say? For the time will fail to tell of the 
 multitudinous points of anatomical resemblance of the zygomatic- 
 arch, of the temporal and masseter muscles, of the entire buccal arti¬ 
 culation, of the simple stomach, of the involved intestine, of the ver¬ 
 miform appendix, of the developed liver, of the peritoneal fold3 
 and highly organised omentum. Suffice it to say that in all these, 
 and many other particulars, Man is the lineal descendant of the ape. 
 Such is the conclusion of Cuvier, Linnaeus, Lawrence, Bell, Gassendi, 
 Flourens—in a word, of all who are competent to judge. But the 
 ape is, by origin and nature, frugivorous—so, then, also must be 
 Man. 
 
 There is no dissent possible from this conclusion of Science ; 
 here we stand fast upon the rock. * When once we have admitted 
 the claims of Science to give evidence upon this question of fact, 
 we have also admitted an unanswerable plea in favour of Vege¬ 
 tarianism. There are many motives which may influence a man 
 
200 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE. 
 
 to make the great experiment, some moral, some economical, some 
 humanitarian, some philanthropic ; but for the hard-headed intellec- 
 tualist, the worshipper of Science, the searcher after observed 
 Truth, there can be but one answer that will satisfy, and that is the 
 argument of analysis, the measurements of the microscope—in a 
 word, the record of facts. Here, then, we take our stand, and, 
 pointing to the unhesitating, unanimous verdict of Chymist and 
 Anatomist, we proclaim Vegetarianism to be a part of the eternal 
 Laws of God. 
 
 >—«©—o»—< 
 
 Part XI. 
 
 O Truth, before whose shrine we bow, 
 Thou priceless pearl for all who seek, 
 
 To thee our earliest strength we vow, 
 
 Thy love will bless the pure and meek. 
 When dreams or mists beguile our sight. 
 Turn thou our darkness into light. 
 
 O Life, the well that ever flows 
 To slake the thirst of those who faint, 
 Thy power to bless what Seraph knows ? 
 Thy joy supreme what words can paint ? 
 In earth’s last hour of fleeting breath, 
 
 Be thou our conqueror over death. 
 
 We have seen that the foundation of all morals and all science is 
 that universal reign of immutable Law which, in philosophic phrase, 
 is “ absolute Truth,” and in the language of religion, “ the perfect will 
 of God.” We have also seen that the acceptance of the Ideal, as 
 the inner relation between creation and the Creator—as the essen¬ 
 tial substance whereof phenomena are but the outer manifestation 
 —leads the searcher after Truth direct to that perfect harmony 
 where knowledge and intuition are one. We have learned that 
 this path of progress is not an ever ascending struggle of infinite 
 failure ; but rather the returning spiral of spiritual obedience. It 
 is not the unknown future whereon we fix our dim and anxious 
 gaze, blindly groping in the shadows of undeveloped aspiration. 
 Rather do we recall the first splendour of the primal Paradise, 
 when the morning stars sang together, and the Sons of God shouted 
 for joy—when God saw, and behold everything was very good— 
 and we know that the lesson we have to learn is renunciation of 
 all that is bad—adoption of all that is good. And as we listen to 
 
PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE. 
 
 201 
 
 the sweet singing of rejoicing Nature in that first garden, where 
 man was made vice-regent of God, the lord of the animal world, the 
 master of the material universe, we catch the echoes of that first 
 and last commandment, which is at once the proclamation and the 
 benediction of Vital Food : “ Behold, I have given thee every herb 
 bearing seed, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree bearing 
 seed, to you it shall be for meat ”—and we feel, rather than reason, 
 that in our bodies we must begin to know God. 
 
 And again, as we have investigated the triumphs of modern 
 Science, as we have interrogated the astronomer, the geologist, the 
 microscopist, the breeder, the florist, the engineer, the naval archi¬ 
 tect, the electrician, the chemist, the metallurgist, and many another 
 willing witness as to the infinite certainty, the marvellous perfec¬ 
 tions of God’s will revealed in fact —voluntatem Dei in rebus revela- 
 tam —we have found an increasing conviction growing up within 
 our minds, that the perfect life must be something possible, some¬ 
 thing very different from that sin-stained, sorrow-stricken, sick, and 
 suffering struggle for existence which we have learned to loathe ; 
 and that its foundations must be laid, even in the physical plane, 
 upon the eternal laws of God. For we have seen that every fresh 
 advance into the region of the unknown, every fresh secret wrested 
 from the dominion of darkness, every new conquest over the blind 
 forces of Nature, does but add proof upon proof of the possibility of 
 perfection—does but emphasize and energise the call of Christ, “ Be 
 ye therefore perfect,even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” 
 
 To this test, then, of perfect harmony with the laws of God we 
 have submitted the principles of Vegetarianism ; and, as they have 
 been weighed in the balance, they have not been found wanting. 
 In the first place, we have seen that the Vegetarian prohibition, 
 “ Thou shalt not destroy! ” is but the expression of God’s law of 
 Love ; for that love and destruction are antagonistic terms, we have 
 been forced to recognise ; that the horrors of war, the devilries of 
 vivisection, the barbarities of sport, the wholesale cruelties of 
 butchery and slaughter, are but the bitter fruits of man’s want of 
 love, and need no longer defile the earth for a day, when once Man, 
 the master, has resolved to resume his birthright, and become again 
 a child of love, a son of God. In the second place, we have been 
 taught that the witness of Science is the best confirmation of Vege¬ 
 tarian principles—we have seen that the Comparative Anatomist 
 declares, with no uncertain voice, that man, by the evidence of his 
 bones, his brain, his teeth, his skin, his hair, his hands, his intestines 
 —in a word, by the entire structure of his body, is to be classed, not 
 with the herbivora, not with the carnivora, not with the omnivora, 
 but with the frugivora, the original Vegetarians, whose normal food 
 is fruit, grain, pulses, and nuts 
 
Part XII. 
 
 “ Every spirit, as it is most pure, 
 
 And hath in it the more of heavenly light, 
 
 So it the lairer body doth procure, 
 
 To habit in. ... 
 
 For of the soul the body form doth take, 
 
 For soul is form and doth the body make.”— Spenser. 
 
 Our next witness is the Physiologist We have already learned 
 from the Comparative Anatomist that the evidence of physical 
 structure classes man with the frugivora ; we must now look 
 deeper into the sources of growth and development, and search 
 out the secrets of the Creator’s preordinance for the building of 
 the fleshly tabernacle to perfect strength and beauty. 
 
 It will be well, as we enter upon the comparative analysis of the 
 different digestive juices of the economy, to remember that “the 
 opportunities which present themselves for the study of their com¬ 
 position in the physiological, that is, in the healthy, state, are exceed¬ 
 ingly rare.” And we must, further, bear in mind that “ the secre¬ 
 tions of the economy vary with the nature of the alimentation, and 
 it seems probable that, were it possible to compare the digestive 
 juices of a person habitually kreophagist with those of another 
 habitually Vegetarian, a chemical difference would be distinctly 
 noticeable.” But, in spite of all difficulties of observation and con¬ 
 dition, the conclusion of modern Science is that “ the human saliva, 
 even under the ordinary flesh-eating regime, bears a stronger resem¬ 
 blance to that of the herbivorous than to that of the carnivorous 
 animals, for, like the former, it has the power of saccharification, 
 which has not been discovered in the corresponding secretion of 
 any of the carnivora,” while it has been also demonstrated that 
 “ the human bile presents the same composition as that of the 
 herbivora.” 
 
 Again, the celebrated experiments of Dr. Beaumont upon 
 Alexis Saint Martin have proved that “ the peristaltic movements 
 of the human stomach take place in the sense of a complete revo¬ 
 lution . . . with a continuous peristaltic movement on the side 
 
 of the greater curvature, and an anti-peristaltic movement on the 
 side of the lesser curvature. It is thus that the digestive movements 
 of the stomach are produced in herbivorous animals, and without 
 doubt it is thus also that they take place in mammals of the 
 order to which man himself belongs ; but in the carnivora there 
 exists only a simple action to and fro, from left to right, and from 
 right to left.” 
 
 In connection with this subject, it may be noted that in man the 
 
PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE. 
 
 203 
 
 whole sudorific apparatus of the skin is in exact accordance with 
 that of the frugivora, being of unusual extent and elaborate disposi¬ 
 tion ; whereas in the case of the carnivora it is conspicuous by its 
 absence, thus adding one more proof to many that man is not, in 
 any sense of the word, a flesh-eating animal. 
 
 If we turn from the evidences of the system to the results pro¬ 
 duced by the ingestion of flesh-food, the conclusion will be the 
 same. It is a matter of well ascertained knowledge, and of exact 
 experiment, that the action of flesh-foods upon the digestive pro¬ 
 cesses is directly stimulant. The pulse is the faithful witness to the 
 excitement induced by the ingestion of meat ; the whole circulation 
 is quickened ; the heart throbs faster, giving rise, as it has been 
 well said, “ to a more violent and laborious pulmonary action than 
 is either natural or necessary.” It is impossible to misinterpret this 
 evidence of heart-exhaustion. When the pulse beats more 
 quickly, the labour of the heart is thereby noted, and the results of 
 stimulation are seen. This is the invariable consequence of the 
 use of stimulants, that unnatural effort is forced upon the heart and 
 the entire circulatory system. The time has yet to come when 
 flesh-foods will be classified with alcohol, and will be recognised as 
 direct stimulants, in no way increasing the sum of vital force, but 
 only exhausting its reserves. The manifold diseases and premature 
 decay of nineteenth-century existence must be largely attributed 
 to this universal use of stimulants. Meat, alcohol, and tobacco, 
 tea, coffee, and condiments, but complete the vicious cycle of excess, 
 whereof excitement is the beginning and exhaustion the end. 
 What wonder that man’s span of life is short, when all his miser¬ 
 able years he destroys his health and power of happiness by every 
 form of foolish food, by many a draught of deadly drink—in a 
 word, by systematic stimulation, which thus becomes the grave of 
 life! 
 
 Long ago it was pointed out by Liebig, in his “ Animal Chem¬ 
 istry,” that the excessive restlessness and incessant movements of 
 carnivorous animals, eg., lions, tigers, hyenas, etc., when caged in 
 menageries, must be largely due to the stimulating nature of their 
 food. Another authority writes : “ The work of digestion and 
 assimilation appears to be much more rapid in the case of animal 
 alimentation, and consequently a proportional vital exhaustion and 
 break-up of organic tissue ensues. Now, the digestion of flesh 
 takes place principally in the stomach, while that of the principles 
 dominating in vegetable products occurs to a great extent in the 
 intestine. Therefore digestion and assimilation are more complex 
 and less rapid processes in the latter case, and the function of 
 absorption is, so to speak, more extended and generalised than it is 
 when dealing with animal food, which taxes the stomach almost 
 
204 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE. 
 
 exclusively. It is chiefly to this rapid and precocious absorption 
 of the nit.rogenised principles predominant in flesh, as well as to the 
 lack of the moderating and regulating effect of the carbo-hydrates, 
 that the excitement of animal alimentation may be attributed, an 
 excitement which, like that of alcohol, passes quickly away, leav¬ 
 ing exhaustion as the nemesis of excess.” 
 
 Such is the verdict of modern Science ; surely it is written large 
 enough in every physiological primer, that “those who run may read.” 
 
 > ~ o o < 
 
 Part XIII. 
 
 “O may thy soldiers, faithful, true, and bold, 
 
 Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old, 
 
 And win with them the victor’s crown of gold ! Alleluia. 
 
 “ And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long, 
 
 Steals on the ear the distant triumph-song, 
 
 And hearts are brave again and arms are strong. Alleluia.” 
 
 Our next witness for Science is the Chymist. He it is who 
 searches out the secrets of molecular structure, and determines by 
 exact analysis the bonds of polar affinity. When once our eyes are 
 opened to the marvels of chymistry and electricity, twin sister 
 sciences, for ever busy with the relations of matter and force—when 
 once we have begun seriously and solidly to take account of facts, 
 as revealing unerringly the ultimate laws of causation—when once 
 we have begun to understand that the material universe is no 
 expression of chaotic chance, no haphazard resultant of any “ fortui¬ 
 tous concourse of atoms ”—then, and then only, shall we begin to ap¬ 
 preciate the ordered beauty, the significant splendours, of the natural 
 world. 
 
 For, indeed, the perfection of every tiny shell upon the shore, of 
 every radiant flower in the garden, is but a promise and presage oi 
 possible perfection for ourselves. The same laws that have fes¬ 
 tooned with ferns the crystal-cool of some sun-kissed High¬ 
 land tarn, that have painted the rugged rocks with the purples of 
 the sunset, and draped the mountain peaks in virgin snow—these 
 selfsame laws condition and control our little life. Only as we be¬ 
 come disobedient to their divine majesty, and wilfully—or per¬ 
 chance ignorantly—strike discords between the laws of life and love, 
 are we haunted by that dark nemesis of suffering and sorrow which 
 now to the pessimist seems the heritage of all. 
 
PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE 
 
 2 °5 
 
 The traditions of the Alchymists—those eager searchers into 
 Nature’s secrets, who sought in their crucibles and their retorts 
 more even than the transmutation of lead into gold ; who looked, 
 and looked in vain, for the Elixir of Life—their traditions do but 
 teach us that the possibilities of the Ideal are still unexplored. 
 The triumphs of Liebig and Davy, of Priestly and Lavoisier, of 
 Faraday and Roscoe, do but emphasize the fact that the boundaries 
 of knowledge are as yet hidden by blinding mists and chilly 
 fog. The insight of genius—the intuitive perception which can 
 correlate the hidden harmonies of the universe, which can with 
 Newton discern the force of gravity in the fall of an apple, or with 
 Watt perceive the potency of steam in the boiling-over of a kettle 
 —is still so besmothered by the materialism of a Science falsely so 
 called, that facts accumulate, while their interpretation is lost. 
 The electromotive force of the soul is low, and the divine energy 
 of the inner sight is small. The marvellous discoveries of the 
 last fifty years—the myriad observations, the ceaseless experiments 
 —all point the moral of our measureless ignorance of God’s eternal 
 laws. The method of atomic aggregation, the law of molecular 
 structure, the determining energy of chemical affinity, alike evade 
 our knowledge ; and yet they are the very essence of the problem 
 of existence, the master factors of the equation of life. 
 
 But, though the Ideal, the innermost and essential harmony, be 
 hidden, yet much has been found out which we may reverently learn. 
 And, first of all, the Chymist has a great deal to say in reference 
 to the subject we have in hand—the comparative values of various 
 foods. Sometimes he is presumptuous, and declares that the diges¬ 
 tive apparatus is, after all, but a chemical laboratory, where Mother 
 Nature compounds the mystic blending of the blood ; and, forget¬ 
 ful of the supreme influences of vital force, refers all changes to the 
 standard of the test-tube and the scales. But, within limits, there 
 can be no doubt that this contention of the Chymist is correct, that 
 food is valuable in exact proportion to the elements it contains, and 
 that these can be calculated and compared. Analysis of the various 
 tissues of the body has proved that different elements go to build 
 up the varied physical structure ; and, apart from the specific in¬ 
 fluence of vital forces—of which more anon—that there can be no 
 transmutation of elements. 
 
 But if this be so, if the bones are invariably precipitated from a 
 definite solution of organic salts, such as phosphorus and lime—if the 
 grey-matter brain, the nerves, the tissues, the muscles, and the flesh, 
 arc all polarised from the fluid plasma of the blood in accordance 
 with unchanging law—then is it of the first importance to deter¬ 
 mine the exact proportion of these several elements which shall be 
 harmonious with the condition of perfect health ; and the true 
 
2o6 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE. 
 
 dietetic wisdom of the rational philosopher will be to supply these 
 necessary elements, these primal bricks of bodily building, in the 
 daily provision of food. Hereafter it will be necessary to consider 
 the more delicate reactions of vital force, but in the first instance 
 the sphere of chemical enquiry may be restricted to the material 
 elements from which the infinite marvel of the fleshly tabernacle is 
 elaborated, and bv which alone it can be built to perfect form and 
 beauty. 
 
 
 Part XIV. 
 
 “O blest communion, fellowship divine, 
 
 We feebly struggle, they in glory shine. 
 
 Vet all are one in thee, for all are thine. Alleluia. 
 
 “ The golden evening biightens in the West, 
 
 Soon, soon to faithful warriors comes their rest, 
 
 Sweet is the calm of Paradise the Blest. Alleluia.” 
 
 In the selection of food most people are the slaves of custom and 
 the victims of prejudice. They are not accustomed to consider the 
 laws which underlie the processes of digestion, but prefer an indo¬ 
 lent subjection to the tyrannies of habit ; they are, for the most 
 part, Empyricists, who declare that they have learned by experience 
 what suits their constitution ; and they laugh with ill-disguised 
 scorn at any effort to place the science of eating and drinking upon 
 a more rational foundation. 
 
 To the philosopher, trained by observation and experiment to 
 the invariable harmonies of Nature, this ill-considered negligence 
 of the fundamental laws of health is little less than appalling. He 
 sees an entire profession devoted to the diseases which are the 
 bitter fruits of disobedience to God’s laws ; and, worse than this, 
 every paper, every magazine, every hoarding in the street, is invaded 
 by an impudent quackery which waxes fat upon the folly of the 
 dyspeptic invalid. Surely the time is ripe for a revolution in these 
 things. There is a nobler ideal for the doctors of to-morrow than 
 the dreary dosing of to-day. 
 
 Better than clinical observation, more fruitful than bedside ex¬ 
 perience, more hopeful than hospital operations, is the open secret 
 of Health—the simple obedience to natural laws. Prevention is 
 forever better than cure, and the work of the Physician is to edu¬ 
 cate, rather than to restore. It will be well when the highest 
 
PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE. 
 
 207 
 
 honours are offered up on the altar of Hygeia, and when Nature, 
 the grand old nurse, is taken into consultation. There is room at 
 every medical centre for a Chair of Hygiene, a Professoriate of 
 Vitality. The whole atmosphere of the medical world is morbid 
 with disease. It is infected with the depression of the dissecting- 
 room. Sickness, not Health, has been made the specific study of 
 the budding medico ; and the barbarities of an hybrid terminology 
 have become the fitting expression of the doctrine of drugs. But 
 already there are signs of better things. The doom of pills and 
 potions is at hand. Diet is more and more recognised as the first 
 factor in the equation of Digestion, and the Art of Living may well 
 be the thesis for the next qualification of M.D.’s. Too often the 
 cause of Food Reform has been defaced by a foolish ill-feeling 
 which speaks evil of doctors, as the advocacy of Teetotallers has 
 been degraded by the abuse of publicans. It is so easy to speak 
 evil of others, so hard to do right oneself. Yet doctors, and all 
 their medicines, are but the effect, not the cause, of national folly. 
 They are day by day doing a great work for the relief, for the help, 
 of suffering humanity ; and the obligation should not be forgotten, 
 much less depreciated. 
 
 What a revolution might be wrought for the welfare of humanity, 
 if doctors became the apostles of a new Gospel of Health ! There 
 is no profession more devoted in their work, more careless of ease, 
 more sympathetic with suffering, more generous of help, more loved 
 by the sick, more kindly to the poor. The very name of doctor is 
 fragrant with the perfume of goodwill ; and the midnight summons 
 is but an incident in the constant sacrifice to duty’s call. What, 
 then, if this enormous power, this untold influence, were transferred 
 from the drudgery of disease to the service of Health? What it 
 the complex paraphernalia of instruments and medicines were to 
 be exchanged for the simple provision of perfect food ? What if 
 fresh air and exercise, cold water and warm clothing, sanitary 
 houses and ventilated drains—Purity, Vegetarianism, and total ab¬ 
 stinence from alcohol, tobacco, and all stimulants—became the re¬ 
 cognised teaching of all medical schools, whether Allopath, or 
 Plomceopath, or Eclectic ? What if the present system of furtive 
 fees were to be substituted by some rational system of payment 
 by results, so that a premium was placed upon preservation ot 
 health, rather than upon restoration from sickness ? What if dis¬ 
 ease began to be recognised as a crime, and sickness as a symptom 
 of moral defect, so that a headache was reprobated as a lie, and a 
 cold came under the censure of a theft ? What if hospitals and 
 lunatic asylums were regarded with the same horror as prisons and 
 the treadmill ; and the satire of the national salutation, “ How do 
 you do ? ” no longer insulted the common-sense of wholesome 
 
208 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE. 
 
 vigour ? What if sickness were the exception, and overflowing 
 vitality the rule ? What if lustrous eyes and rosy cheeks, pearly 
 teeth and strong-set frames, were the inheritance of all, both young 
 and old ? What if- Ah ! the possibilities of perfection are un¬ 
 
 explored—they wait for the revelation of the Ideal. 
 
 ->— ^ < - 
 
 Part XV. 
 
 “Far from my heavenly home, 
 
 Far from my Father's breast, 
 Fainting I cry, blest Spirit come 
 And speed me to my rest. 
 
 God of my life be near, 
 
 On thee my hopes I cast, 
 
 O guide me through the desert here, 
 And bring me home at last.” 
 
 The Chymist, as he enters the box, subpoenaed by Science for 
 her defence, makes an apology to the Court that his evidence 
 is of limited value, dealing as it does only with the constituent 
 elements of food ; and the Analyst, who succeeds him, professes 
 the same inability to deal with the subtler influences of vital 
 force. But the evidence of these experts, so far as it goes, is strik¬ 
 ing and conclusive. They tell us that a scientific diet is to be 
 found in the full and proper supply of all the elements necessary 
 for building up the physical body—in perfect purity and harmonious 
 proportion with the needs of vital growth. They point to the fact 
 that the various parts of the body—the bones, the skin, the nerves, 
 the tissues, the brain, the blood, are all differently constituted, and 
 require specific material for their proper development. To deter¬ 
 mine the true sources of wholesome, palatable food, whence these 
 various elements can be most conveniently drawn, is at once the art 
 and the science of the food chymist. Here, as elsewhere, the prin¬ 
 ciple of classification has been carried out to its fullest extent, and 
 food-stuff's are as a rule divided into three categories. 
 
 (i) Bone-formers, mineral matter or salts. These reside chiefly in 
 the bones, but small quantities are required in every part of the body. 
 They consist principally of phosphates, and carbonates of lime,potash, 
 soda,magnesia, and iron. These mineral matters are to be found in an 
 organic form in all natural foods, such as the cereals, pulses, fruits, 
 and nuts, and thus prevent any necessity for the common use of salt. 
 
PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE. 
 
 209 
 
 (2) The second category of heat-producers or carbon-compounds 
 can be conveniently sub-divided into two separate classes : (a) the 
 carbo-hydrates, comprising starch, sugar, gum, etc.; these contain 
 hydrogen and oxygen in the proper proportion to form water, and 
 are found in rich abundance and variety in all the cereals (wheat, oats, 
 barley, maize, etc.) and fruits, but are conspicuous by their absence 
 in all flesh-foods ; (b) fats and oils—these contain more hydrogen 
 than is necessary to form water, and during their combustion in the 
 body produce two and a half times as much heat, or heat and force, 
 as the carbo-hydrates ; their natural source of supply is to be found 
 in nuts of every kind, and various seeds, e.g. y cotton-seed, linseed, etc. 
 
 (3) The third category is that of the flesh-formers, or nitrogenous 
 compounds, such as albumen, fibrin, and caseine. These contain 
 nitrogen, in addition to carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, and also 
 small quantities of sulphur and phosphorus. They are extremely 
 complex bodies, and, like starch, sugar, etc., are capable of produc¬ 
 ing heat and force by their combustion. These are to be found in 
 the gluten of grain, and in the pulses (eg, peas, beans, and lentils), 
 where the percentage of nitrogen is considerably greater than in 
 the so-called nitrogenous flesh-foods. 
 
 There are certain food substances which do not fall under any ol 
 these heads, but for general purposes these three great classes may 
 be considered as including the main sources of food supply. It 
 may here be well to recall the great law of the “ Minimum,” which, 
 first introduced in the science of agricultural chymistry, finds full 
 application in the analogous sphere of physiological chymistry. 
 This law of the Minimum declares that the use of all elements in 
 the process of growth is conditioned by the smallest amount pre¬ 
 sent of any necessary constituent. Or, to put it in a more popular 
 form, if a proper diet were to contain, say one-fifth of nitrogenous 
 and four-fifths of carbonaceous food, then the healthy appropriation 
 of that food will be determined by the presence, either in the 
 system or the food, of this normal ratio. There may be an enor¬ 
 mous excess of carbonaceous food, but this will be all so much 
 waste and lumber, useless for growth and injurious to health, unless 
 there be also present a sufficient proportion of nitrogenous food. 
 Or, to refine the principle into greater detail ; supposing, in the 
 building up of the bones, there is needed a certain quantity of 
 phosphate of lime, the whole system might be supersaturated 
 with hyper-phosphites, and yet, if the necessary modicum of lime 
 were missing, the phosphatic foods would be but an incumbrance 
 rather than a help. 
 
 The complement of the law of the Minimum is that of the “ Nor¬ 
 mal.” This is a more obvious rule, and corresponds to the old 
 axiom of the Alchymist, “ Ex nihilo nihil Jit ” (“from nothing, 
 
210 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE. 
 
 nothing comes”) ; and it declares that the whole physical structure 
 is composed of varying, but definite, materials—that the brain 
 requires phosphorus, the nervous tissue potash, the bones magnesia 
 and lime, etc.; and that, unless these elements are present in the 
 plasma of the blood, healthy building is impossible. 
 
 The importance of this provision of all elements necessary for 
 building up the physical structure cannot be over-estimated. This 
 is the secret of a scientific diet. As a rule, men eat by habit; they 
 are the slaves of custom, the prisoners of fashion. They eat so 
 many meals a day, and scarcely care to enquire whether the material 
 thus introduced into the system is suitable or not. Like the mill- 
 horse, they go round and round in the dull rut of eating and drinking, 
 and never pause to ask whether their methods are sensible or the 
 reverse. It is only the sharp warning of pain that rouses them 
 from their apathetic slumbers, and they awake to find the whole 
 structure of the fleshly tabernacle about to fall into the gulf of 
 death ; and learn, when too late, that their whole method of life 
 has been but one prolonged mistake. 
 
 The reign of law is universal and immutable, certain elements are in¬ 
 dispensable, and without them weakness and disease are inevitable. 
 There is no accident in the attacks of rheumatism and gout, and 
 all the many ills which “ flesh is heir to.” They are not the chastise¬ 
 ments of a capricious chance ; they are the Nemesis of violated 
 law. I append, in connection with this investigation into the chy- 
 mistry of foods, a table giving the general composition of many 
 varying foods, according to the best chemical analysis (from Payen, 
 Pavy, Konig, Bell, etc.) : 
 
 
 Nitro¬ 
 
 genous 
 
 matter. 
 
 (Flesh 
 
 For¬ 
 
 mers.) 
 
 Carbo- 
 
 Hy¬ 
 
 drates. 
 
 (Starch 
 
 Sugar, 
 
 &c.) 
 
 (Heat 
 
 pro¬ 
 
 ducing) 
 
 Hy- 
 
 dro- 
 
 car- 
 
 bons. 
 
 Fat. 
 
 (Heat 
 
 pro¬ 
 
 duc¬ 
 
 ing.) 
 
 Min¬ 
 
 eral 
 
 Matter 
 
 Water. 
 
 
 Drains. 
 
 
 
 Wheat 
 
 II. 
 
 69. 
 
 1.2 
 
 i -7 
 
 i 4-5 
 
 Fine Flour.. 
 
 10.5 
 
 74-3 
 
 0.8 
 
 0.7 
 
 i 3 - 
 
 Bran .. 
 
 15- 
 
 44. 
 
 4 - 
 
 6. 
 
 14. 
 
 Oatmeal 
 
 16.1 
 
 63- 
 
 IO. I 
 
 2.1 
 
 5 - 
 
 Maize .. .. 
 
 9 - 
 
 64-5 
 
 5 - 
 
 2. 
 
 I 4-5 
 
 Rice .. 
 
 7-5 
 
 76. 
 
 o-S 
 
 0.5 
 
 14.6 
 
 
 
 NUTS. 
 
 
 
 Walnuts 
 
 12-5 
 
 8.9 
 
 31.6 
 
 i -7 
 
 1 44-5 
 
 Filberts 
 
 8.4 
 
 II.I 
 
 28.5 
 
 i -5 
 
 1 48. 
 
 
 FRUITS. 
 
 
 
 Apples 
 
 0.4 
 
 12. 
 
 I. 
 
 0.4 
 
 S 3 - 
 
 Pears .. 
 
 0.3 
 
 11.6 
 
 0.1 
 
 o -3 
 
 84. 
 
 Grapes.. 
 
 0.7 
 
 16.1 
 
 0.8 
 
 0.4 
 
 80. 
 
 Bananas 
 
 4.8 
 
 19.7 
 
 0.6 
 
 0.8 
 
 73-9 
 
 Figs (Dried) 
 
 6.1 
 
 65-9 
 
 0.9 
 
 2.3 
 
 i 7-5 
 
 Dates ,, 
 
 6.6 
 
 66.3 
 
 0.2 
 
 1.6 
 
 20.8 
 
 Tomatoes .. 
 
 1.4 
 
 8.0 
 
 • • 
 
 0.8 
 
 89.8 
 
 
 
 Carbo- 
 
 Hy- 
 
 
 
 
 Nitro- 
 
 Hy¬ 
 
 drates. 
 
 dro- 
 
 car- 
 
 
 
 
 genous 
 
 matter. 
 
 (Flesh 
 
 For¬ 
 
 mers.) 
 
 (Starch 
 
 bons. 
 
 Min- 
 
 
 — 
 
 Sugar, 
 
 &c.) 
 
 Fat. 
 
 eral 
 
 Water. 
 
 
 (Heat 
 
 Matter 
 
 
 
 (Heat- 
 
 pro- 
 
 pro- 
 
 due- 
 
 
 
 
 
 ducing) 
 
 ing.) 
 
 
 
 PULSE. 
 
 Peas .. .. 
 
 22.4 
 
 51-3 
 
 2-5 
 
 3 - 
 
 H -3 
 
 Lentils .. 
 
 24. 
 
 49. 
 
 2.6 
 
 3 - 
 
 i 4-5 
 
 Haricots .. 
 
 23 - 
 
 52.3 
 
 2-3 
 
 2.9 
 
 14. 
 
 ANIMAL PRODUCTS. 
 
 
 Cow’s Milk 
 
 4 - 
 
 5 * 
 
 3-7 
 
 o -75 
 
 86.5 
 
 Butter 
 
 2-5 
 
 0.3 
 
 86.2 
 
 I. 
 
 IO. 
 
 Cheese 
 
 38. 
 
 
 22. 
 
 4- 2 5 
 
 35-8 
 
 Eggs .. .. 
 
 14. 
 
 
 II. 
 
 I -3 
 
 7 i -7 
 
 Mutton 
 
 8.8 
 
 
 42. 
 
 I. 
 
 44.1 
 
 Beef .. 
 
 * 5 - 
 
 
 30- 
 
 5 - 
 
 ^50. 
 
 Pork .. 
 
 IO. 
 
 
 So. 
 
 i -5 
 
 38.5 
 
 Fowl .. 
 
 21. 
 
 
 
 2.5 
 
 76.5 
 
 Herring 
 
 IO. 
 
 
 7 - 
 
 2. 
 
 81. 
 
 a Therefore, if we buy 100 lbs. of beef at 6d. 
 per lb., we pay £x 5s. for the 50 lbs. of water 
 which it contains. 
 
Part XVI. 
 
 “ My God, my Father, while I stray 
 Far from my home in life’s rough way, 
 O teach me from my heart to say, 
 
 Thy will be done 1 
 
 “ Renew my will from day to day, 
 
 Blend it with thine, and take away 
 All that now makes it hard to say, 
 
 Thy will be done ! * 
 
 We have already seen, from the tables of food values, how 
 completely all the requirements of bodily building can be found in 
 the use of fruits, grains, pulses, and nuts. It is interesting, at the 
 same time, to note the relative purity and concentration of these 
 foods as compared with those of fish, and flesh, and fowl. The com¬ 
 putations of the Analyst leave no room for doubt ; the verdict of 
 the balances cannot be gainsaid. We learn, many of us for the 
 first time, that the popular prejudice which conceives of meat as 
 the first source of strength, is a delusion and a snare. We find, 
 when we begin to study the evidences of exact science, that this 
 highly eulogised foundation-food is little more than water bewitched. 
 The fashionable blcater, if we can forget the salt, is, for more than 
 four-fifths of its weight, but water. The delicate fowl, so beautifully 
 white, so toothsomely tender, “ so nourishing for invalids,” is, for 
 more than three-fourths of its weight, but water. The succulent 
 sausage, the rosy rasher, the tasty ham, the sweet fat pork, is, for 
 forty per cent, of its weight, but water. The national dish—the 
 Frenchman’s fear, the Briton’s boast—“the roast beef of old Eng¬ 
 land,” is, for full fifty per cent, of its weight, but zvater ; and so’ as 
 the note to the tables most pithily remarks, “ If we buy ioo lbs. of 
 beef at 6d. per lb., we pay £\ 5s. for the 50 lbs. of water which it con¬ 
 tains.” If, however, we prefer the ordinary rates of the water com¬ 
 pany, we shall pay sixpence for a thousand gallons, and get better 
 water to boot. 
 
 Many other curious facts may be gleaned from these tables by 
 those curious in such things. For instance, we find that the pulses 
 —peas, lentils, beans—contain, on the average, twenty-three per 
 cent, of nitrogenous matter, or nearly double that of beef, the stan¬ 
 dard nitrogenous food amongst medical men. How often has one 
 listened, with a shudder almost of despair, to the good old-fashioned 
 fable, that meat is necessary for strength, because it supplies the 
 necessary nitrogen ; and how often shall we have to listen, with a 
 shudder of disgust, to the dogmatic distinctions of experimental 
 and excremental philosophers, such as Dr. Drysdale, who seem to 
 
2 1 2 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE. 
 
 think that the dung-heap is the final court of appeal for the physio¬ 
 logist, and that the value of nitrogen is variable in the laboratory 
 of the stomach. Such scientists forget the determining influences of 
 vital force, of constitutional defect, and foist into their arguments a 
 principle which makes sickness the standard of health, and failure 
 the touchstone of the Ideal. Animal nitrogen, they say, is easily 
 digestible, vegetable nitrogen is not, and therefore flesh-food has a 
 higher specific value than pulses, though its proportion of nitrogen 
 is less ; and the proof of this is to be found—where ? In the sewer 
 and the latrine ! Alas, the prophets prophesy falsely, and the people 
 love to have it so, and what shall it be in the end thereof! ” 
 
 It may well be that the highly animalised body, the over-nitro- 
 genised tissue, the super-stimulated system, is incapable of absorbing 
 properly the nitrogenised matter of the pulses. Every physical 
 change produces its corresponding change of organisation ; the ani¬ 
 mal is more highly organised than the vegetable, the vegetable than 
 the mineral, and therefore it is easy to understand that animal 
 nitrogen is differently related to vegetable nitrogen. But the con¬ 
 clusion that animal nitrogen, because it is more highly organised, 
 is therefore more valuable, may be very far from the facts. 
 To quote from the stock maxim of the Homceopathists, “ Si mi¬ 
 ll a similibus curantur ”—“like loves like”—and therefore the 
 animalised digestion finds an attraction in animal food ; 
 but when once the system is cleansed and purified, when once 
 the gastric juices are sweetened and renewed, then the animal 
 attraction passes out of existence, and the distinction between ani¬ 
 mal and vegetable nitrogen loses its force. Nitrogen, like every 
 other element, is the same all the world over—that is the condition 
 of the reign of law—and therefore the fact that the pulses contain 
 so large a proportion is a prima-facie evidence in favour of their 
 value as food. The proof of this probability is to be found, not in 
 the waste of decay, but in the superfluity of Health. The great 
 mistake that investigators of the excremental type make is, that 
 they imagine that they can deduce the laws of Life from the de¬ 
 crepitude of death. They blind their eyes with the abnormal, and 
 fondly believe that they see the path of Law. They study sick¬ 
 ness, they experiment with ordure, they dabble with disease ; and 
 upon these rotten foundations they hope to rear the stately super¬ 
 structure of beauty and of strength. It is a vain hope—and 
 the multititudinous sickness of to-day is the Nemesis of this great 
 mistake. 
 
Vqcciqqjioq qqd l 9 qsfeqHsn|. 
 
 Part I. 
 
 4< Ten thousand times ten thousand, 
 In sparkling raiment bright, 
 
 The armies of the ransomed Saints 
 Throng up the steeps of light ; 
 ’Tis finished, all is finished, 
 
 Their fight with death and sin— 
 Fling open wide the golden gates, 
 And let the victors in ! ” 
 
 HE Commission recently appointed 
 by the House of Commons to con¬ 
 sider the facts and falsehoods of 
 Vaccination has held its first sitting. 
 The private meeting summoned by 
 invitation of the Lord Mayor has 
 affirmed, at the Mansion House, that 
 a debt of gratitude is due to M. 
 Pasteur for his proposed remedial 
 treatment by inoculation. In the face of the 
 startling evidences of the power of prejudice 
 and the force of fashion, it may be well for 
 moment to investigate the laws of which 
 
 Vaccination and Pasteurism are alike the 
 lation. 
 
 vio- 
 
 Few more powerful pamphlets have been 
 issued during the last decade than that of Df. 
 Wallace entitled, “ Forty-five Years of Regis¬ 
 tration Statistics,” in which he demonstrates 
 by a careful analysis of the Registrar-General’s 
 official returns, not only that small-pox has not diminished in the 
 same ratio as other zymotic diseases— eg, scarlet-fever and measles 
 
2 T 4 
 
 VACCINATION AND PASTEURISM. 
 
 —in spite of the enormous advance in sanitary knowledge, but 
 that a terrible increase has made itself apparent in the cog¬ 
 nate diseases of syphilis and leprosy. As we read the bold, un¬ 
 adorned recital of statistics, and follow the simple diagrams of their 
 computation, it is hard to resist the conviction that Inoculation, 
 Vaccination, and all other similar attempts to stamp out disease by 
 the artful manipulation and injection of specific virus, not only fail 
 of their immediate purpose, but carry in their train a terrible con¬ 
 sequence of intensified disaster, the Nemesis of that most fatal 
 folly— THE DOING EVIL THAT GOOD MAY COME. 
 
 Or, again, the epoch-marking book entitled, “The Natural His¬ 
 tory of Cow-pox and Vaccinal Syphilis,” by Dr. Creighton, is further 
 evidence that the great delusion of Vaccination as a prophylactic 
 against small-pox is breaking down ; and that thoughtful men every¬ 
 where, in the medical profession no less than in the clerical, are begin¬ 
 ning to realise that God’s laws of Life and Love are but expressions 
 of the same essential harmony, and that therefore all efforts to ex¬ 
 tend the term of physical life at the expense of the moral law of Love 
 are foredoomed to failure. There is a responsibility upon every Vege¬ 
 tarian to make himself acquainted with the history of Vaccination, 
 that he may be able to work for the overthrow of the compulsory 
 infliction of this disgusting and degrading rite. There can be no 
 better means of information than this little book of Dr. Creighton’s, 
 coupled with his more elaborate investigation in the new volume of 
 the “Encyclopaedia Britannica.” From the first chapter, on “Jen- 
 ner’s early troubles with cow-pox inoculation,” down to the last, on 
 “ The increasing death-rate from infantine syphilis,” the reader is 
 carried irresistibly on by a chain of argument as convincing as it is 
 complete. The extraordinary narrative of Woodville and Pearson’s 
 experiments with vaccine—the forgotten fountain of original 
 lymph—the erisypelatous discharge of horses’ heels—the family 
 history of horse-pox, cow-pox, sheep-pox, and small-pox, with all 
 the conflicting opinions as to the relationship of human and animal 
 variolae—the effects of vaccine inoculation in the first remove from 
 the cow—the unnumbered perturbations and anomalies of human- 
 
VACCINATION AND PASTEURISM. 
 
 2I 5 
 
 ised cow-pox—the horrible congruity of vaccinal sores and vaccinal 
 syphilis—the possibilities of contamination by venereal-pox—the 
 chancrous appearance of the ordinary vaccinal ulcer—all these, and 
 many other developments of the original vice of vaccine, are stated 
 and discussed with the most delightful clearness of style, and should 
 be read by all who care for the proper preservation of health. 
 
 And yet, face to face as we are to-day with the enormous amount 
 of prejudice which exists upon this question ; recognising, as we 
 must, the formidable array of statistics with which the medical 
 world has fortified its pet theory of prophylaxy ; we must find some 
 argument more potent than figures, more convincing than facts 
 wherewith we may persuade men that Vaccination, Pasteurism, In¬ 
 oculation, and the like, are a delusion and a snare. For, indeed, the 
 experience of this very Vaccination-mania has proved that statistics 
 are onlyone degree less misleading than deliberate falsehood. If the 
 argument of Statistics were irrefragable, then Vaccination is hedged 
 about with the dignity of truth, for no fallacy has ever been more 
 boldly bolstered up with the supposititious strength of countless 
 calculation. But the present conflict is something more than a 
 fight of figures ; there is, indeed, abundant room for dispute in this 
 direction alone. The accuracy of the records, the method of their 
 presentation, are all open to the gravest condemnation. It is only 
 the expert who may decipher the complicated puzzles of Vaccina¬ 
 tion arithmetic ; but the agitation of the Anti-Vaccinists, a small 
 but spirited minority, is already informing the public mind on the 
 mysteries of the medical census. The curious ratio of disease and 
 death reported between the Vaccinated and Unvaccinated, not only 
 in great epidemics such as that of Sheffield, but in the normal re¬ 
 turns of annual sickness, has raised a suspicion of the justice 
 which casts into one class the infant too young or too sickly to be 
 allowed the privilege of vaccination ; the vagrant, so ill-regulated 
 as to have avoided it; and the father who, with deliberate deter¬ 
 mination, has defied it. And this suspicion is intensified by the 
 fact that the death-rate thus reported of the so-called unvaccinatcd 
 IS VASTLY IN EXCESS OF THE RECOGNISED DEATH-RATE OF THE 
 
VACCINATION AND PASTEURISM. 
 
 2 I 6 
 
 TIMES WHEN VACCINATION AND SANITATION WERE ALIKE UN 
 KNOWN. 
 
 But, after all, the public mind is apt to be confused by this con¬ 
 troversy of statistics, and is ready to cry out, “ Who shall decide 
 when doctors disagree ? ” Those who have suffered from the fatal 
 effects of vaccine virus, either in their own persons or in those of 
 their children, help to swell the chorus of remonstrance against the 
 intolerable iniquity of State compulsion in such a matter as this ; 
 but the great majority, like Gallio of old, care for none of these 
 things, and remit their right of private judgment in favour of the 
 professional verdict which upholds as sacred this meddling with the 
 machinery of life. It is therefore necessary to leave the controverted 
 ground of statistical argument, and to examine the principles which 
 make for or against the inoculation theory. It is hardly necessary 
 to point out that Vaccination and Pasteurism are conditioned 
 by the same universal laws that underlie the processes of Health. 
 If therefore it can be shown that Vaccination is a violation of 
 eternal law, then also, by the same proof, is Pasteurism condemned ; 
 and time only is needed to accumulate the confirmatory evidence of 
 fact 
 
 - O - - <; ■ 
 
 Part II. 
 
 “What rush of Alleluias 
 Fills all the earth and sky, 
 
 What ringing of a thousand harps 
 Bespeaks the triumph nigh ! 
 
 O day for which creation 
 And all its tribes were made ! 
 
 O joy for all its former woes 
 A thousandfold repaid ! ” 
 
 As we leave the battle-field of Statistics, and ascend towards 
 the mountain-tops of Principle, let us cast a backward glance upon 
 the fight that is now waging so fiercely between the upholders of 
 
VACCINATION AND PASTEURISM. 
 
 21 7 
 
 Vaccination and their opponents. And, even as we gaze, we be¬ 
 come conscious of a confusion which, like the battle-smoke, con¬ 
 ceals the progress of the fray. It has been well said by an 
 eminent medical man, “ There is absolutely no point in connec¬ 
 tion with the practice upon which there is anything like general 
 agreement. Take, for instance, the following questions : ‘ What is 
 the true source of “Vaccine lymph”?’ ‘What is its nature, and 
 what are its pathological effects ? ’ ‘ How often must we be 
 
 vaccinated in order to be safe from small-pox?’ ‘What is the 
 degree of protection afforded?’ ‘ In what way should the opera¬ 
 tion be performed—by one, or many punctures ? ’—and so on. 
 Under these circumstances, it is quite useless to appeal to autho¬ 
 rity, for it may be asked which of the authorities we are to 
 follow? Whether Jenner, who thought the virus came originally 
 from a disease in the horse; or Dr. Martin, of Boston, who 
 thought it must occur spontaneously in the cow; or Dr. S. 
 Wilks, who doubts if there is such a disease as vaccinia, or the 
 bulk of British medical opinion, represented by Dr. Ceely, who 
 thought it was transmuted small-pox ; or Dr. Creighton, who 
 thinks it more nearly related to phagedenic ulcers of a constitutional 
 type.” 
 
 But everywhere we can see, behind the smoke-haze of conflicting 
 opinion, that the battle is being carried on all along the line ; and 
 that, in all directions, the vaccinators, in spite of their big battalions, 
 show signs of panic and retreat. From the indignant guardian, 
 who rages at the resistance of the poor and winks at the refusal 
 of the rich, to the depressed official vaccinator, who begins to find 
 his occupation gone, all who have part or lot in the infliction of 
 this diseased and disgusting rite look anxiously to the report of the 
 Commission now sitting, that the ground they have lost may be 
 regained. They feel that they are on their defence, and they 
 tremble at the possibility of failure. 
 
 And they have good reason for their fears ; for, as we mount the 
 perilous peaks which lead us past the pit-falls of prejudice, past the 
 precipices of professionalism, past the crevasses of conservatism, up- 
 
2 18 
 
 VACCINATION AND PASTEURISM. 
 
 wards and onwards to the mountain-tops, where Truth is throned and 
 night is turned to day, we see that the battle is already won, and that 
 the blind perverters of the reign of law—the rash polluters of the 
 stream of life—are self-destroyed. There can be no hope for them 
 that they shall succeed, for they are fighting against God. The great 
 laws they have violated will become their judges, and shame and 
 confusion of face will be their portion at last. And why ? Because 
 God’s laws are founded on Love. In them Mercy and Truth are 
 met together, Righteousness and Peace have kissed each other. 
 The moral law is the very woof and warp whereon is woven the 
 perfect physical life. There is no balm of healing to be distilled 
 from the gall of cruelty—no savour of life unto life to be ex¬ 
 pressed from the decay of death. Inoculation, Vaccination, and 
 Pasteurism, and all other meddlesome interferences with the ma* 
 chinery of life, are not only useless, they are immoral ; for they are 
 the deliberate denial of the antagonism of right and wrong—the 
 continuity of cause and effect. Whether from the religious, or 
 the philosophic, or the scientific standpoint, they stand self-con¬ 
 demned, because they sin against the fundamental condition of ex¬ 
 istence. When once they stand at the bar of Principle, they ad¬ 
 mit their guilt, for they embody the primal rebellion of evil against 
 good. They confess by their very being that they are of the old 
 serpent-brood which long since brought sin and misery into the 
 world, for they tempt the foolish and the feeble to sin, with the 
 promise, “Ye shall not surely die, for God doth know that in the day 
 ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as 
 gods, knowing good and evil.” 
 
 Surely the sin of doing a little harm that good may be born from 
 it is more subtle than any other seduction of the Evil One, and it 
 is the sin of interference with the laws of life. For the claim of 
 Jenner, and Pasteur, and their many less notable disciples, is briefly 
 this: We can, by the judicious introduction of a specific contagion, 
 anticipate the onslaughts of disease ; we can, with the magic poison 
 of our blending, make impregnable the citadel of life. But the claim 
 sitclf is the defiance of God ; it is the devil’s whisper, “ Ye shall be as 
 
vaccination and pasteurism. 
 
 219 
 
 gods, knowing good and evil.” For the very essence of the Ideal 
 is this, that good is born of good, and evil of evil, and that it is 
 impossible—a very contradiction in terms—for good to be born of 
 evil. This is the fundamental truth in which we know God ; and 
 only as we become obedient to his laws, and so do good, shall 
 we garner the harvest of our seed, in good come back again. And 
 therefore, if we wilfully sow disease into our systems we shall of 
 necessity reap corruption, a corruption first of the body, but con¬ 
 taminating mind, soul, and spirit alike. 
 
 There is but one way of winning the rose of Health, and that is 
 by living in accordance with the laws of Health. There is no un¬ 
 certainty here—though the path be straight and narrow, and there 
 be few that find it, yet it leads to the heaven of our hopes. “ Live 
 well, and thou shalt be well ! ” is a maxim as old as the centuries ; 
 and still we find prigs and pedants making poisons the panacea for 
 our woes—the poison of alcohol, the poison of tobacco, the poison 
 of minerals—and, deadliest of all, the poison of disease. What 
 wonder that the hospitals are full, and that the mourners go about 
 the street ? for life is swallowed up in death, and the moan of the 
 misanthrope seems true : “ Vanitas vanitatum , omnia vanitas!' 
 
 Part III. 
 
 “ O how glorious and resplendent, 
 Fragile body, shalt thou be, 
 
 When, endued with so much beauty, 
 Full of health, and strong and free, 
 Full of vigour, full of pleasure, 
 
 Thou shalt last eternally ! ” 
 
 ON the ground of morals, there can be no apology for inocula¬ 
 tion, whether of the Jennerian or the Pasteurian type. Both sin 
 against the very essence of all moral law, that good is born of 
 
220 
 
 VACCINATION AND PASTEURISM. 
 
 good, and bad of bad. But let us for a moment consider the 
 whole question of the prophylaxy of Disease from the lower ground 
 of expediency, knowing, even as we do so, that there can be no 
 fundamental divorce between that which is expedient and that 
 which is right But, for the sake of argument, let us translate 
 all ethical considerations to the serener spheres of Jupiter and 
 Mars, and investigate this pre-eminently scientific question from 
 the broad standpoint of common-sense. 
 
 We must begin as children, with the very A B C of physio¬ 
 logical interpretation. What is the function of Disease ? And the 
 answer is one which it were well that all Vaccinists should con¬ 
 sider. THE FUNCTION OF DISEASE IS THE ELIMINA¬ 
 TION OF MORBIFIC MATTER FROM THE SYSTEM. 
 It is the cleansing of the body from the sewerage of decay, the 
 breaking down of the jerry-building of Sin. The proof of this 
 generalisation is writ large for all to read in zymotic disease. 
 Who can be so blind as not to see the scarlet significance of erup¬ 
 tion ? It is the casting out at the surface of the dead matter from 
 within. Small-pox, measles, scarlet-fever, cholera, leprosy, and 
 plague alike witness for God’s eternal Truth. 
 
 For those whose eyes are opened, the dreaded scourges of pesti¬ 
 lence are but angels in disguise, sent by the Almighty Father to 
 destroy the dominion of the devil, and to cast out the dread doing 
 of Death. And how do they come? Herein is the triumph of 
 medical research. The germ theory of disease, accepted as it is by 
 the best minds of to-day, will serve to intensify the sacrilege of In¬ 
 oculation. For what does this theory express and demonstrate, 
 but that in the midst of life we are in death, and in the blended 
 spheres of life and death we live and move and have our being. 
 Around us and about us swarm the multitudinous germs which 
 make for health or sickness—so small, that the eye cannot see 
 them ; so still, that the ear cannot hear them ; they move, the mes¬ 
 sengers of God, to work his sovereign will. Like Man himself, their 
 sway is dual—benignant, when the harmonies of existence are in 
 accord ; malignant, when the bells of life are jangling out of tune. 
 
VACCINATION AND PASTEURISM. 
 
 221 
 
 And for each there must be found its “ specific nidus ” before it 
 can be developed at all. All the microbes and bacteria and bacilli 
 of the medical savant are governed by this law. The commence¬ 
 ment of exact classification has scarcely been begun ; but enough 
 has already been learned of these tiny ministers of the Most High 
 to formulate the law of their existence. Complex as are the con¬ 
 ditions of their manifestation, there is no variation in their individu¬ 
 ality. From the virus of small-pox, small-pox will be begotten ; 
 from the purulent discharge of typhoid, will typhoid invariably be 
 born. This is the law of all infection ; this is the condemna¬ 
 tion of Inoculation, and its condemnation is two-fold. For, first of 
 all, it denies the efficacy of an unnatural inoculation ; and secondly, 
 and more earnestly, it denies its desirability. It declares that it is 
 impossible that Vaccination should alleviate the ravages of small¬ 
 pox ; and more, that even if it could, the latter end of the system 
 would be worse than the first. 
 
 Let us examine the first protest, “ that it is impossible that Vac¬ 
 cination, or any other injection of the virus of disease, attenuated 
 or otherwise, can alleviate the ravages of disease.” If the 
 theory of Disease already stated be accepted, then the proof of 
 this protest follows as a logical sequence. For if it be granted 
 that the function of Disease is to eliminate morbific matter, and that 
 ail disease germs require a “ specific nidus ” for development, then 
 it necessarily follows that, unless the system is full furnished with 
 decay, the germ of disease cannot be developed—or, even if it be 
 born into the body, that before long it will find its occupation gone. 
 And surely universal experience is the confirmation of this simple 
 conclusion. For we find that the severity of all disease attack is 
 exactly proportional to the health or sickliness of the sufferer. The 
 wholly healthy man is altogether impregnable to its onslaught. 
 The half healthy man is rapidly convalescent. The rotten, broken 
 constitution is ripe and ready for the decay of Death. 
 
 In other words, the possibility of disease is in the ratio of man’s 
 defect from the wholesome laws of God. What is this but the 
 paean of the Psalmist: “ I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge 
 
222 
 
 VACCINATION AND PASTEURISM. 
 
 and my fortress, my God, in him will I trust. Surely He shall de¬ 
 liver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pes¬ 
 tilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings 
 shalt thou trust ; his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou 
 shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow 
 that flieth by day, nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, 
 nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall 
 fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not 
 come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see 
 the reward of the wicked. Because thou hast made the Lord, which 
 is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation, there shall no 
 evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.” 
 Here is, for all, the true prophylaxy—the one secret of Health—to 
 “ make the Lord our refuge,” to become obedient to his perfect will, 
 to live in accordance with the laws of health—this is better .than 
 all inoculation, more potent than Pasteurism, of more virtue than 
 Vaccination. When once this splendid truth is realised, when 
 once the function of disease is understood, the doom of quackery is 
 nigh at hand. 
 
 Part IV. 
 
 “ Just as I am, thou wilt receive, 
 
 Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve; 
 Because thy promise I believe, 
 
 O Son of God, I come ! 
 
 T ust as I am, thy love unknown 
 Has broken every barrier down ; 
 
 Now to be thine, yea thine alone, 
 
 O Son of God, I come ! ” 
 
 We have seen that the first protest against Vaccination, and ali 
 cognate inoculation, “ that it is worse than useless,” is abundantly 
 proved by the evidence of statistics and the philosophy of facts.. 
 
VACCINATION AND PASTEURISM. 
 
 323 
 
 We have seen that the death average from small-pox during the 
 last century of sanitary advance has not decreased in the same 
 ratio as that of other diseases, such as typhoid, cholera, scarlet-fever, 
 etc., but rather that the ravages of syphilis and leprosy have been 
 extended and intensified. And the inference we have drawn from 
 these startling figures is, that Vaccination has been a hindrance 
 rather than a help, and that its compulsory infliction by law is a 
 moral and statutory iniquity. We have also seen that a just con¬ 
 ception of the function of disease is in itself the condemnation 
 of all such meddling with the machinery of life, and that evil fruit 
 is the natural and necessary consequence of the sowing of 
 evil seed. 
 
 Let us now consider the second protest against Vaccination and 
 Pasteurism, “ that, even were they efficacious in the prevention of 
 specific disease, they are eminently undesirable.” It will be well 
 for a moment to recall the genesis of these so-called prophylaxies. 
 In the case of Vaccination, a bitter and apparently interminable 
 strife is still raging over this seemingly simple question. What is 
 true vaccine, and whence is its proper source ?—these are the red 
 rags of a controversy which is now dividing the best minds of the 
 medical world. We know very well the source of the original pre¬ 
 scription, for Jenner has himself told us, in papers read before the 
 Royal Society, that his first steps in this investigation were sug¬ 
 gested by the immunity of milk-maids from the attacks of small¬ 
 pox ; and that this immunity was, in his mind, to be traced to the 
 prophylactic absorption of a certain erysipelatous discharge from 
 the ulcerated udders of the cows ; and, lastly, that these ulcers 
 were generated by the greasy handling of farriers who had been 
 tainted with the purulent matter which flows from the hocks and 
 hoofs of unhealthy horses. This all sounds very nasty, when 
 printed in black and white ; and yet we must undoubtedly look 
 upon it as the original fountain-head of the far-famed prophylaxy 
 of Vaccine. 
 
 But it is not to the nastiness of the original prescription that we 
 desire to call attention, so much as to the more important fact, 
 
224 
 
 VACCINATION AND PASTEURISM. 
 
 THAT ALL SUCH SECONDARY INFECTION MUST BE 
 SUBJECT TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL TAINTS OF THE 
 SYSTEM FROM WHICH IT IS SECURED. This is the in¬ 
 variable indictment against secondary inoculation. For, whether 
 the lymph—as it is now euphemistically called—be derived from 
 the horse or the cow or the calf, or even from the human system, by 
 the arm-to-arm process, it remains in all cases substantially the same 
 —the pus-poison of malignant fermentation. It is for ever the 
 progeny of pyasmic parentage, it is the offspring of specific disease 
 And this infantile organism is conditioned by its environment; it 
 carries with it the taint of the blood from which it has been begotten, 
 and so we find the sins of the father, in a new and terrible form, 
 visited upon the children, and the vicious taint is engrafted upon 
 the baby life. 
 
 Surely it is time that this wilful offence against the purity of our 
 little ones should be cast into the midst of the sea. Read the 
 terrible tale of the Registrar-General, and realise that Inoculation 
 breeds the worst forms of disease. It has been well written : “ There 
 is also good reason to believe that many other blood diseases are 
 transmitted and increased by the same means, since there has been 
 for many years a steady increase of mortality from such diseases 
 which is terrible to contemplate.” We have heard a great deal 
 recently of leprosy and vaccination, concerning which Mr. Haugh- 
 ton, M.D., writes: “Recent researches have now placed it beyond 
 doubt that leprosy can be and is transmitted by vaccination, so that 
 this fact has now to be faced by those who advocate a continuance 
 of the practice. Amongst others, the recent investigations of Mr. 
 William Tebb in the West Indies have accumulated a body of 
 evidence that cannot be gainsaid, and which renders the use of 
 any kind of animal inoculation in that locality a matter of grave 
 anxiety. Dr. A. M. Brown, of London (formerly Medical Officer 
 of Health at Sydney), has also written upon the subject, showing 
 the affinities which exist between leprosy, vaccinia; and syphilis, 
 and the manner in which each may assist in the transmission of 
 the other.” 
 
VACCINA'] ION AND PASTEURISM. 
 
 225 
 
 The following table gives the increase of five of these diseases, 
 from the Registrar-General’s Annual Report for 1880: 
 
 Annual Deaths in England per Million Living.* 
 
 Average of 5 Years. 
 
 1850-4 
 
 1855-9 
 
 1860-4 1 1 865-9 
 
 1870-4 
 
 1875-9 
 
 1880. 
 
 Smallpox . 
 
 279 
 
 199 
 
 191 
 
 148 
 
 433 
 
 82 
 
 25 
 
 Syphilis. 
 
 Cancer. 
 
 Tabes Mesenterica . 
 
 Pyaemia, &c. 
 
 Skin Disease. 
 
 37 
 
 302 
 
 265 
 
 20 
 
 12 
 
 5 i 
 
 327 
 
 261 
 
 18 
 
 15 
 
 64 
 
 369 
 
 272 
 
 24 
 
 16 
 
 82 
 
 404 
 
 316 
 
 23 
 
 i 7 
 
 81 
 
 442 
 
 299 
 
 29 
 
 18 
 
 86 
 
 493 
 
 330 
 
 39 
 
 23 
 
 84 
 
 5 i 6 
 
 37 i 
 
 22 
 
 Totals 
 
 636 
 
 672 
 
 745 
 
 842 
 
 869 
 
 971 
 
 993 
 
 Progressive Increase . 
 
 0 
 
 36 
 
 109 
 
 206 
 
 233 
 
 335 
 
 357 
 
 “We here see,” says the writer, “a constant increase in the mor¬ 
 tality from each of these diseases, an increase which in the sum of 
 them is steady and continuous. It is true, we have not, and cannot 
 have, direct proof that Vaccination is the sole cause of this increase, 
 but we have good reason to believe that it is the chief cause. In 
 the first place, it is a vera causa , since it directly inoculates infants 
 and adults, on an enormous scale, with whatever blood-disease may 
 exist unsuspected in the system of the infants from whom the vac¬ 
 cine virus is taken. In the next place, no other adequate cause has 
 been adduced for the remarkably continuous increase of these 
 special diseases, which the spread of sanitation, of cleanliness, and 
 of advanced medical knowledge, should have rendered both less 
 frequent and less fatal. The increased deaths from these five causes , 
 from 1855 to 1880, exceed the total deaths from small-pox during the 
 same period l So that, even if the latter disease had been totally 
 abolished by vaccination, the general mortality would have been in¬ 
 creased, and there is much reason to believe that the increase may 
 have been caused by vaccination itself.” 
 
 But, if this terrible indictment be true, then is the cup of condem¬ 
 nation full to overflowing. What advantage is there if we 
 
 ♦This Table has not been continued in later Reports; but we find that Cancer (the 
 only disease of the five separately tabulated) goes on steadily increasing, the mortality for 
 the five years, 1881-85, being given in the 48th Report as follows :—Syphilis, 92; Cancer, 
 544. Small-pox, for the same period, was 78.— Ed. 
 
 H 
 
226 
 
 V \CCINATION AND PASTEURISM. 
 
 banish small-pox (and of that the proofs are conspicuous by their 
 absence^ and substitute syphilis, leprosy, and cancer? “ Quem 
 Deus vult perdere , priiis dement at” Verily, the doom of madness 
 is written upon such wickedness—the madness which cometh upon 
 those whom God will destroy. 
 
 
 Part V. 
 
 ** O Saviour, Christ, our woes dispel, 
 
 For some are sick and some are sad, 
 
 And some have never loved thee well, 
 
 And some have lost the love they had ; 
 
 And none, O Lord, have perfect rest, 
 
 For none are wholly free from sin, 
 
 And they who fain would serve thee best 
 Are conscious most of wrong within.” 
 
 We have seen the danger which all inoculation involves. There 
 can be no escape from the constitutional taint with which it is 
 impregnated; and the terrible increase, during the vaccination 
 period, of cancer, leprosy, syphilis, plague, pyaemia, etc., utters a 
 solemn warning against the wilful poisoning of the stream of life. 
 The sad history of many a life-long cripple, the victim of this filthy 
 medical mistake, were surely enough to condemn the whole matter 
 —but no ; the defenders of this unclean thing still claim degrees 
 of uncleanness, and shelter their mischances with the shield of 
 State compulsion : “ If only the lymph be pure, there is no danger 
 in vaccination for the most delicate”! But what an hypothesis! 
 The gravamen of the whole charge against inoculation is, that its 
 lymph cannot be pure, from whatever source it be taken. It 
 is true that Monsieur Pasteur and his disciples have experi¬ 
 mented in the art of attenuating pyaemic virus. They have 
 boasted that they can make the infection of malignant disease 
 “ small by degrees and beautifully less ”—till, at last, its infective 
 
VACCINATION AND PASTEURISM. 227 
 
 potency shall be so delicately regulated that it cannot hurt a 
 babe in arms. But, granted that this boast be true—and it is 
 one about which many of our best minds hold the gravest doubts 
 —granted that it weie true that it is possible to attenuate the 
 poisonous properties of all virus, it would only mean that the effi¬ 
 cacy of the process was proportionally reduced. If the infection 
 be weak, then its efficacy must be weak—that is an almost obvious 
 truism, for all who have studied and comprehended the function of 
 disease. If the infection be strong, then is the danger of its intro¬ 
 duction unspeakably great. If the patient be healthy, there can be 
 no need for the prophylactic purgative. If the patient be un¬ 
 healthy, there can be no advantage from the inoculation of this so- 
 called pure lymph. The very fact that the system is stored with 
 the morbific accumulation of years, proves that some drastic agent 
 is required for its elimination. 
 
 And this thought brings us naturally to an argument which 
 has hitherto, so far as I know, been altogether neglected by 
 anti-Vaccinators. It is the second protest of which I have already 
 spoken, that Vaccination, even if it were proved to be a preventive 
 of small-pox—would not be therefore necessarily desirable. Let 
 us assume, for the sake of argument, all that the most ardent ad¬ 
 vocates of Jenner’s jugglery claim, and grant that the universal en¬ 
 forcement of Vaccination at all periods of life would absolutely 
 bring to an end the possibility of small-pox. We will not quibble 
 about such trifles as the quality of the Vaccine, the source of its 
 supply, the danger of its degradation, the possibility of its infecting 
 the people with the terrible taint of more loathsome diseases—we 
 will resolutely blind ourselves to these facts of the present, and will 
 assume that small-pox is no more. And then we ask, How are we 
 the better for this artificial interference with the laws of God ? 
 Cur bodies are still full-furnished with decay ; the machinery of 
 life is still clogged with the sewerage of sin ; only the scavenger has 
 been stopped his rounds, and the .safety-valves of eruption have 
 been closed for good. “ For good,” did I say ! No, there could be 
 naught but evil were the Millennium of the Vaccinists at hand ; 
 
228 
 
 VACCINATION AND PASTEURISM. 
 
 for the very first thing we have to learn, in the alphabet of Health, 
 is that the body is subject to the laws of God. There is no such 
 thing as doing wrong and being well. We cannot eat flesh, and 
 drink spirits, and smoke tobacco, without paying the penalty of our 
 folly. “ The wheels of the gods grind slowly, yet they grind ex¬ 
 ceeding small ”—and punishment, lame-footed as it may seem to 
 some, catches the sinner when he has forgotten his sin. 
 
 It may be possible so to affect the system by the inoculation of 
 a specific virus, that it is no longer subject to the ordinary attack 
 of disease—and this point is not proven—but, even if this were 
 possible, the triumph of those who think thus easily to escape their 
 God is but the stupidity of the ostrich, who hides his head in the 
 sand and thinks he cannot be seen. It may be far better to suffer 
 the righteous wrath which sends as its ministers the plague and the 
 pestilence, than to postpone the day of reckoning by the childish 
 chicaneries of Jenner and Pasteur. It may be better to fall into 
 the hands of God, than to be given up to the tender mercies of these 
 diluters of disease. And lastly, let us all remember that those ten¬ 
 der mercies are detestably cruel—that the laboratories of the Vivi- 
 sectionist are, for their victims, worse than the Inferno of Dante’s 
 vision, more fiendish than the barbarities of the battue. Of such 
 torture-chambers might a new “ veiled prophet ” say : 
 
 “ Now know that hell, with all its power to damn. 
 
 Can add no curse to the foul thing I am.” 
 
 Mons. Pasteur may write to the Times , and profess to be, above 
 all things, humane ; he may urge that the cry of a wounded bird is 
 as a stab to his sensitive soul—but what avail such words, when his 
 own Institute is the witness to the contrary? Such is the power 
 of professional pre-occupation to callouse the conscience and to blind 
 the moral sight! “ The whole creation groaning and travailing in 
 
 pain together until now ” is a fit motto for the entrance ; while 
 above might be written in blood, upon a background of black, 
 “ Abandon hope, all ye who enter here ! ” It is all very well to talk 
 of anaesthetics and chloroform ; but no code of morals can 
 justify the abomination of desolation which such a treatment as 
 
VACCINATION AND PASTEURISM. 
 
 229 
 
 Pasteurism involves. Read the opinion of the best Veterinaries, 
 and realise what this inoculation against hydrophobia means : 
 
 “ Dreadful as hydrophobia may be to the human being, rabies is 
 worse to the dog. It makes its approaches more gradually, it lasts 
 longer, and it is more intense while it endures. Towards the last 
 the dog’s thirst increases, but with it comes the swelling of the 
 throat. He will then plunge his head into water, so ravenous is his 
 desire, but not a drop of liquid can he swallow. He is the victim 
 of the most horrible inflammation of the stomach, and intense in¬ 
 flammation of the bowels. His state of suffering is most pitiable 
 He flies at and pulls to pieces anything that is within his reach. The 
 noise he makes is incessant and peculiar. It begins as a bark, which 
 sound, being too torturing to be continued, is quickly changed to a 
 howl, which is suddenly cut short in the middle. And so the poor 
 wretch at last falls, fairly worn out by a terrible disease.” 
 
 What answer has Mons. Pasteur for such a statement as this, or 
 that made by Mr. Crawford in the Fortnightly Review : “ Pasteur 
 HOLDS THAT TO HAVE VACCINES ALWAYS READY TO HAND, OF 
 THE REQUISITE DEGREE OF ACTIVITY, THERE MUST BE A CON¬ 
 STANT TREPANNING OF THE ANIMALS, WHOSE LIVING BRAINS HE 
 WANTS FOR A VIRUS-GARDEN.” Such a system is a grosser viola¬ 
 tion of the Law of Love even than of the Law of Life. By both, 
 now and for ever, it stands condemned, for he that loveth not, 
 knoweth not God 
 
Y I'qit Gql^ni'e. 
 
 (A Speculation.) 
 
 ** III fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 
 
 Where wealth accumulates and men decay ; 
 
 Princes and lords may flourish or may fade— 
 
 A breath can make them, as a breath has made— 
 
 But a bold peasantry, their country’s pride, 
 
 When once destroyed, can never be supplied.”— Goldsmith. 
 
 HE English agricultural industry is de¬ 
 pressed—this has been its normal con¬ 
 dition for many years. The corner¬ 
 stone of the fabric of commercial 
 prosperity, the keystone of the arch 
 of industrial success, is failing through 
 spontaneous degeneration. Through 
 all the southern counties farmers hang 
 heads at the approach of Audit ; and 
 farms are to be had for the asking by those 
 who will undertake to till them. The engineer¬ 
 ing trade, the ship-building trade, the cottoq 
 trade, may all be at their busiest ; the blast¬ 
 furnaces may be belching forth their lava tor¬ 
 rents day and night, the million wheels of the spinning-mills may 
 never stand still ; but, for all this feverish activity, there can be found 
 no corresponding energy in the farming world. The seasons come 
 and go—sometimes wet and sometimes dry, sometimes good and 
 sometimes bad—but a persistent depression seems to have settled 
 upon the unfortunate tiller of the soil. It * is alway Black 
 Friday on the farm, and the soured agriculturist talks gloomily 
 of “ putting up the shutters.” His heart is sick with disappointed 
 hope. 
 
 Again and again has the panacea for prosperity been thrust upon 
 him by the unpractical philosopher. He has been told to plough 
 
FRUIT CULTURE. 
 
 231 
 
 up his land and convert it into pasture, that he may grow meat for 
 the market ; and this advice has been all too faithfully accepted, 
 with the most disastrous financial results. He has been told to find 
 salvation in milk and eggs ; but chicken-farms have scarcely been 
 more successful than dairy-produce in producing a balance on the 
 right side of the sheet. Then Ensilage was puffed as the farmer’s 
 sheet-anchor in wet seasons; but the manufacture of fermented hay 
 hasdone but little to hasten the advent of that agricultural millennium 
 whose chariot-wheels are so terribly long in coming. And to-day 
 the English farmer, like another Fatima, stands straining his eyes 
 into the dull distance, and calls to the watcher on the house-top, 
 “ ‘ Are they coming, Sister Ann ?—are they coming ? ’—-those good 
 times which I have been so often promised, but which I begin to 
 fear will never come again.” 
 
 And Vegetarianism, like the faithful sister she is, answers, loud 
 and clear, “ They are coming !—they are coming ! ” But not from 
 that direction at all. You have looked too long up and down the 
 old high-road, where the ruts have been hardened in by the wheels 
 of countless generations. They are not coming thence. They are 
 coming through the garden—up along the orchard—they are 
 stealing past the beehives—they are perfumed with the flowers—- 
 they are diamonded with dew—they are sparkling with the sunshine 
 —their cheeks are beautiful with peachen bloom—their eyes are 
 lustrous with the purple of the grapes—their teeth are milky as an 
 autumn nut—their breath is sweet as fresh, lipe fruit—but they are 
 yet a long way off. They are waving their hands to you to come 
 out and welcome them ; they seem half afraid to come to this 
 inhospitable farm. Old Blue-blouse the butcher is in the slaughter¬ 
 house. Come, let us run out, and see if they can promise us any 
 help. 
 
 Ah, what a tale it is these Good Times have to tell ! Farmer 
 Down-in-the-Mouth smacks his lips as he listens to the delicious 
 melody of their song. “ Cherry ripe—Cherry ripe! ” is blended 
 with the sweet refrain, “ Ripe strawberries, ripe strawberries ! ” and 
 all the fairies of the forest are dancing round the enchanted ring 
 where the Good Times prophesy of what shall be. Is it pos- 
 
232 
 
 FRUIT CULTURE. 
 
 sible that it can be all true ? Is it possible that the stock¬ 
 breeder’s best investment is, not shorthorns, but glass ?—not fat 
 beasts, but fruit-frames ? Is it possible that as many tons of hot¬ 
 house grapes can be raised on an acre of ground, as are now pro¬ 
 duced in potatoes ? The imagination is staggered at a “ poten¬ 
 tiality of riches beyond the dreams of avarice.” Talk of gold 
 mines in the far Transvaal—talk of diamond fields in the barren 
 vandt of the Boers—they are a delusion and a fraud, when 
 compared with the golden usury of grapes, or the diamond panes 
 of glass ! 
 
 There are just 2,240 pounds in a ton. Twenty tons of grapes 
 can be grown upon every acre of ground. Hot-house grapes are 
 now selling from 2s. 6d. to 3s. 6a. per pound. Take the lower 
 figure ; and an acre of glass land will give back the stupendous 
 total of ^5,600. The ordinary agriculturist is well content if he 
 can make £10 total produce for every acre of wheat— e.g. y five 
 quarters of wheat at 30s., and 50s. for the straw. What a poor 
 little miserable penury is this, w r hen placed side by side with the 
 profit of grapes ? There is plenty of room here for the reduction 
 of price which the development of grape growing will bring. 
 Divide the gross total by ten, so that every child in the East- 
 End slums may revel upon hot-house grapes at three-pence per 
 pound, and there will still remain over £joo as the product per 
 acre of land. 
 
 Let us reason this matter out a little more closely in figures. Take 
 a farm of ten acres, devoted solely to grapes grown under glass ; 
 assume the cost of erecting these vineries to be 2s. per square foot 
 of land, thus covered. This is a full estimate, and would include 
 glazing, painting, hot-water piping, making of vine-beds, pur¬ 
 chase of vines, etc. The total cost for ten acres would be ^43,560. 
 Assume five per cent, for interest on capital invested and deprecia¬ 
 tion ; this would give an annual charge of ^2,178. The other 
 expenses might be estimated as follows : Twenty gardeners, at 30s. 
 a week, ^1,560 ; coal, say 20 tons per diem for 100 days in the 
 year, at 12s. per ton, £1,200. This gives a gross annual expendi¬ 
 ture of ^4,938, say ^5,000. The receipts may be estimated as fol- 
 
FRUIT CULTURE. 
 
 233 
 
 lows : 200 tons of grapes, at 3d. per lb., £5,600 ; but, in addition to 
 this, may be reckoned the profits from early vegetables, grown 
 under the same roof, eg., potatoes, carrots, peas, etc.; such fruits as 
 figs, tomatoes, etc.; flowers for forcing, eg, roses, lilies, bulbs of all 
 kinds ; and the general profits from this branch of the business 
 ought not to be less than £100 per acre. This gives a grand pro¬ 
 fit of £1,600 for a year’s work on a ten-acre farm. But suppose 
 the grapes to be sold at 6d. per pound—and who would not rejoice 
 at the near prospect of such an eventuality!—the fruit-farmer’s 
 profit would mount, by leaps and bounds, from £i,6co to £7,200 
 per annum. 
 
 And what is true of grapes is equally true of all the finest 
 classes of fruit. Peaches, apricots, nectarines, figs, apples, pears, 
 can all be grown with advantage under glass, and will well repay 
 their shelter from the stormy winds that blow—ow—ow. Farmers, 
 awake! Vegetarianism cries aloud, to make you rich—the knell 
 of the carcase is sounding, the doom of the dead-meat trade is 
 near at hand ! Sheep may be stricken with fluke, cattle may be 
 decimated with pneumonia, corn may be a drug in the market— 
 but fruit will not fail. Therefore, make fruit the fore-front of 
 your attack, and your victory is sure! 
 
 Part II. 
 
 ** Fruit, fruit, beautiful fruit, 
 
 W hich grows at the tree-top and not at the root; 
 Out in the sunshine and out in the air, 
 
 Distilling a nectar so rich and so rare. 
 
 What are they whispering into my ear ? 
 
 Make haste and pick me, and eat me, my dear ! ” 
 
 I LOOK forward with the utmost confidence to the time when 
 hot-house grapes will be selling at a penny per pound ; but it 
 is not come yet. The whole science of grape-growing has to 
 be revolutionised, the art of glazing hundreds of acres of pasture- 
 Jand has to be developed, and the entire system of distribution 
 
234 
 
 FRUIT CULTURE. 
 
 has to be organised, before hot-house grapes at a penny per 
 pound come within measurable distance of practical politics. 
 English hot-house grapes at sixpence per pound are well within 
 the range of practical possibilities, and this is a part of the Vege¬ 
 tarian gospel which changes the poverty of pasturage into the 
 wealth of vineries, and transmutes the dross of the dung-heap into 
 the pure gold of apples and pears. 
 
 For, indeed, glass-houses are not the only refuge of the desti¬ 
 tute farmer. The English climate, with its moderate variation of 
 temperature, and its subtle variety of sunshine and rain, is su¬ 
 premely suited for the growth of hardy fruits. English apples 
 and English pears need not be ashamed to stand before kings, so 
 delicate is their flavour, and so gorgeous the roses on their russet 
 cheeks. They are as prolific as they are palatable. Ripston- 
 pippins and Blenheim oranges, Cox’s orange-pippin, and many 
 another delicately-scented variety, grow with a lavish luxuriance 
 that has yet to be understanded of the farmer. I have seen a big 
 Blenheim bowing its branches beneath the autumn-wealth of 
 sixteen bushels of mellow fruit ; and fifty such trees can be grown 
 upon every acre of land. The market price for the best English 
 apples varies from five to ten shillings a bushel, and the supply is 
 miserably inadequate to meet even the paltry demand which now 
 exists. It is obvious, then, that fifty trees, bearing sixteen bushels 
 apiece at five shillings a bushel, will give a gross product of £200 
 per acre—and a very respectable total too, when it is remembered 
 that the expenses of cultivation are almost nominal, and the pick¬ 
 ing, packing, and distribution of the fruit is the only remaining 
 charge upon, the year’s returns. 
 
 But if this be true, how is it that the fruit-growing industry has 
 so woefully degenerated during the last fifty years ? Walk through 
 the orchards of Kent, and the proofs of this degeneration are on 
 every hand. The trees are dwarfed and shrivelled and stunted— 
 eaten up with vermin, and shrouded with lichen. Round their 
 desolate roots are thick carpetings of grass ; while their skinny, 
 scraggy arms wave a plaintive protest of starvation to every passer¬ 
 by. What wonder that from such parentage there should be little 
 
FRUIT CULTURE. 
 
 235 
 
 fruit, and that the harvesting of such barrenness should be flavour¬ 
 less acridity. The fact is, that farmers have forgotten how to grow 
 fruit ; they talk very learnedly of root-pruning and mulching ; but 
 their hearts are in the meadows where the big bullocks are fattening 
 for the butcher, and the apples and pears have for the most part 
 to take their chance. But better times are coming. Everywhere 
 fruit-growers are astir ; Methwold promises to become a new para¬ 
 dise of co-operative enterprise, the Fruiterers’ Company is promis¬ 
 ing premiums, the columns of the Times are filled with a vigorous 
 correspondence upon the virtues of varieties, and all the signs of 
 the times point to a rapid development of fruit-farming in the im¬ 
 mediate future. 
 
 In view of this general awakening, I desire to make the follow¬ 
 ing speculative suggestions, partly based on personal experience, 
 and partly evolved from the inner consciousness of meditation. 
 There can be little doubt that the failure of fruit-growing at present 
 is for the most part due to insufficient food. What, then, ought 
 this food to be ? In the first place, we must remember that the 
 eternal duality of nature is to be found in the fruit-tree no less than 
 in the man. A fruit-tree is not all fruit, but has to develop leaves, 
 and branches, and trunk. Now, the food of the one is not neces¬ 
 sarily the food of the other ; and this brings me to my first point, 
 that a great deal too much is expected from a liberal mulching of 
 stable-manure. I have myself grave doubts whether such filthy 
 food should be given to fruit-trees at all, and whether we may not 
 perceive in the extension of the dung-heap the original source of 
 all those winged plagues and pests which Miss Ormerod has so un¬ 
 successfully sought to exterminate. Grapes are, as a rule, ruined 
 with overmuch sewage and overmuch heat, with the result that they 
 become thick-skinned and thin-flavoured, slow to ripen, and quick 
 to rot. In the same way, the whole science of fruit-tree dietetics 
 has been so miserably neglected, that no one knows what is neces¬ 
 sary to produce fragrance, flavour, or colour, in any variety of fruit. 
 I would suggest that every fruit-tree requires a certain proportion 
 of mineral matter, eg, lime, magnesia, sulphur, phosphorus, etc., in 
 its food, and that without this proportion it cannot bear fruit ; and, 
 
FRUIT CULTURE. 
 
 236 
 
 further, that this mineral matter should not be presented to the 
 sensitive rootlets of the tree in a crude inorganic condition. A 
 dose of raw mineral salts is better than nothing at all ; but the pro¬ 
 cess of its transmutation is too intolerably slow to meet the require¬ 
 ments of this bustling age. 
 
 Another point: no fruit-trees should be grown in grass, else the 
 porosity of the soil to the sweet influences of sunshine, air, and rain 
 is choked and hindered ; while the trees, like Tantalus, are starved 
 in the midst of seeming abundance. Round every tree-trunk 
 should be swept a circle co-extensive with the radius of its 
 branches ; and this little plot should be kept carefully cultivated 
 and dressed with well-considered manures. Here it is that the 
 little fruit-roots grow, quite distinct from the great tap-roots which 
 anchor down the tree ; and, if they are properly fed, they will never 
 run into evil ways, burrowing down into the cold, hungry gravel, 
 where the only remedy is the swift sharp shock of the pruning- 
 hook. In a well-regulated condition of fruit-culture, there should 
 be no need for root-pruning. 
 
 How, then, shall we prepare the food for the fruit trees ? In 
 the interspaces of the orchard grow grass ; manure it heavily with 
 mineral matter (nitrate of soda, superphosphate of lime, sulphate 
 of ammonia, sulphate of magnesia, etc.), and give a good top¬ 
 dressing of stable-manure. This is the food that grasses love ; 
 they will transmute, with marvellous alchemy, the crude mineral 
 matter into organic mineral matter. In th 1 early autumn mow 
 down this luxuriant grass, chaff it small and fine, and then dig it 
 into the little patches where the hungry fruit-roots live. In this 
 method the double danger of stable-manure and crude minerals 
 may be avoided, and the processes of fruit development be in¬ 
 definitely enlarged. 
 
 It is too late to speak of the specific values of these mineral 
 foods ; but I would, in conclusion, throw out the suggestion that 
 the halogens (bromine, iodine, and fluorine) have been too much 
 neglected in the past, and that the connection between them and 
 the varying flavour of fruit may be much more close than is 
 generally known. 
 
✓ 
 
 FToWev FqviTjfqg, 
 
 Part I. 
 
 ** I n a ll places then, and in all seasons, 
 
 Flowers expand iheir light and soul-like wings. 
 
 Teaching us, by the most persuasive reasons, 
 
 IIow akin they are to human things ; 
 
 And with childlike, credulous affection, 
 
 ^ We behold their tender buds expand, 
 
 Emblems ( f our own great resurrection, 
 
 Emblems of the bright and better land.” —Longfellow. 
 
 E have seen some of the profits to be 
 looked for from the extended farming 
 of fruit ; we have seen that this great 
 industry of the future naturally divides 
 itself into two great departments, the 
 cultivation of hardy fruit out of doors, 
 and the production of more delicate 
 fruit under glass. We have, further, 
 seen that the success of fruit farming 
 depends largely upon conditions as yet 
 unexplored ; and that, for the fruit farmer no less than for the food 
 reformer, the science of specific values has a lesson which must be 
 learned. 
 
 But what were fruit without flowers ? These fairest gifts of 
 Nature are so indissolubly intertwined, by the inspiration alike of 
 poet and painter, that we cannot separate them if we would ; and 
 
FLOWER FARMING. 
 
 238 
 
 every horticulturist, from the Grand Old Gardener—the father of 
 the race—down to the humblest window-gardener in some White¬ 
 chapel slum, knows that some of the sweetest joys of life are those 
 that we gather from the fragrance of our flowers. No, the fruit 
 farmer of the future will be, ipso facto , a flower farmer ; and, if he 
 be wise, will thereby half his expenses and double his profits. The 
 marriage of fruit and flowers will become the fruitful parentage of 
 health and beauty in the coming race. We want to decentralise 
 our crowded cities ; we want to turn back the inflowing tide of 
 pauperism and disease, that it may no longer swamp our back 
 alleys with its malarious subsidence, but rather that it may fertilise 
 our barren fields with its magic of labour, that “ turns sand into gold.” 
 Dirt, it has been profoundly said, is only matter in the wrong 
 place ; and so, with a bolder generalisation, we may prophesy that 
 the poverty which is always with us in the monotonous East End is 
 but the wealth of untold riches in the wrong place. What wonder 
 that millions of men, women, and children are morally dirty, are 
 intellectually dirty, are physically dirty, when they are in the wrong 
 place—when they are sweltering all the summer through in stifling 
 slums, when they are shivering all the winter through in miserable 
 attics! What wonder that gin-palaces flaunt their fascinations at 
 every corner of the street, and tobacconists and butchers, hospitals 
 and prisons, stand shoulder-to-shoulder in a grim fraternity of cause 
 and effect—when the people have forgotten how to grow flowers 
 and how to eat fruit! Surely there is nothing more pathetic, in 
 the whole annals of district-visiting, than the cracked flower-pot 
 with its withered plant, and the sad story of the scarlet-geranium 
 which came from the country bright with bloom, but v/hich “ won’t 
 grow flowers here, please mum ; but I’m main glad when it has a 
 leaf!” 
 
 Ah, the pity of it! “ Flowers won’t grow here, please mum ”— 
 that is the moral of flesh and alcohol and tobacco—that fearsome 
 trinity of ugly hags whom man, in his blindness, clasps to his 
 bosom as the Graces, and who throttle the life out of him with 
 their skinny fingers, as he hugs them closer and closer still. And 
 yet, as it has been well written, “ How the universal heart of man 
 
FLOWER FARMING. 
 
 2 39 
 
 blesses flowers ! They are wreathed round the cradle, the altar, and 
 the tomb. The Persian in the far East delights in their perfume, 
 and writes his love in nosegays ; while the Indian child of the 
 far West claps his hands with glee as he gathers the abundant 
 blossoms—the illuminated scriptures of the prairies. The Cupid 
 of the ancient Hindoos tipped his arrows with flowers ; and orange- 
 flowers are a bridal-crown in England to-day. Flowers garlanded 
 the Grecian altars, and hang in votive wreaths before the Christian 
 shrine. And these are all appropriate uses. Flowers should deck 
 the brow of the bride, for they are in themselves a type of marriage. 
 They should twine round the tomb, for their fresh beauty is a 
 symbol of the resurrection. They should festoon the altar, for 
 their fragrance ascends in perpetual worship before the Most 
 High.” 
 
 “ Flowers, when the Saviour s calm benignant eye 
 Fell on your gentle beauty, when from you 
 That heavenly lesson for all hearts he drew, 
 
 Eternal, universal as the sky— 
 
 Then, in the bosom of your purity, 
 
 A voice he set as in a temple shrine, 
 
 That life’s quick travellers ne’er might pass you by, 
 
 Unwarned of that sweet oracle divine. 
 
 And though too oft its low celestial sound 
 By the harsh notes of work-day care is drowned 
 And the loud steps of vain unlisting haste, 
 
 Yet the great lesson hath no tone of power 
 Mightier to reach the soul in thought’s hushed hour 
 Than yours, meek lilies, chosen thus and graced.” 
 
 Who can walk in the garden, as the Spring’s sweet breath stirs the 
 bursting buds, without learning something of the lessons that 
 flowers come to teach ? The crocus-blooms, which paint our bor¬ 
 ders in purple, white, and gold, whisper of the Father’s love, which 
 made all things very good ; and the gorgeous tulips, no less than 
 the virgin lilies of the valley, proclaim to all who care to listen the 
 goodness of God. As old Bishop Hall quaintly puts it, “ Whence 
 is this delicate scent in the rose and the violet ? It is not from the 
 root, that smells of nothing ; not from the stalk, that is as scentless 
 as the root ; not from the earth whence it grows, which contributes 
 no more to these flowers than the grass that grows by them ; not 
 from the leaf, not from the bud—yet here I now find it. It cannot 
 be but that it was potentially in that root and stem, and there 
 placed, and thence drawn, by that Almighty Power which hath 
 
2 40 
 
 FLOWER FARMING. 
 
 given these admirable virtues to several plants, and induces them 
 in his due season to these excellent perfections.” 
 
 Flowers and Fruit !—they are the twin-angels which haunt the 
 Vegetarian home. Their visits yet are few and far between, for 
 Heaven comes not nigh when Man is far from God. They fade 
 before the glare of the public-house ; they droop and die in tobacco- 
 tainted air. But they love the sunshine and the sweet country 
 air, and they call the weary worker “ far from the madding 
 crowd,” to “ green fields and pastures new.” 
 
 “ Come away, come away, 
 
 Come and play, come and play, 
 
 Leave ynur work for once to-day, 
 
 Take a little holiday ; 
 
 Try and be a trifle gay— 
 
 That’s what flowers always say.” 
 
 Palt II. 
 
 “ Mammon led them on— 
 Mammon, the least erected spirit that fell 
 From heaven ; for e’en in heaven his looks and thoughts 
 Were always downward bent, admiring more 
 The riches of heaven’s pavement, trodden gold, 
 
 Than ought divine or holy, else enjoy’d, 
 
 In vision beatific ; by him first 
 
 Men also, and by his suggestion taught, 
 
 Ransacked the centre, and with impi> us hands 
 Rifled the bowels of their mother Earth 
 For treasures, better hid.”— Milton. 
 
 We have seen something of the value of flowers from the moral 
 point of view, and I doubt not that the fruit and flower farmers of 
 the future will be urged by some higher purpose than the merely 
 sordid greed of gold. They will have learned that the secret of 
 happiness is simplicity, and that the return to Nature is the re¬ 
 turn to God. They will be philanthropists in the best sense of the 
 word, for they will teach the toiling multitudes that the drudgery 
 of loveless labour is not the appointed lot of man, and that to 
 rise up early and to late take rest, and to eat the bread 
 of carefulness, means more the worship of Mammon than the 
 
Fl.OWhR FARMING. 
 
 2 4-1 
 
 ministry of Christ. They will not strive nor cry, upon the plat¬ 
 form of popular preaching, neither will their voices be heard in the 
 street ; but, far away from the dirty, smoky town, they will live the 
 God given life of health and happiness, and they will write in the 
 gorgeous characters of fruit and flowers all the lovely symbolism of 
 the perfect life. 
 
 Many of our millionaires to-day are babbling of a Gospel of 
 Wealth ; and they offer up some tiny tribute upon the altar of 
 avarice—a public park, or a library, or a gymnasium—and believe 
 that thus they have given hostages to Fortune, that thus their 
 name shall not perish with them, but shall be written in the gold 
 of gratitude by those who follow after. But such a gospel of 
 wealth is a fraud ; it finds no counterpart of the command “ Sell all 
 that thou hast and give unto the poor ! ” No, the rich young man 
 goes away sorrowful now, as he did of old, for the message of the 
 flowers is a hard saying—to all who love the consciousness of 
 abundant possessions. 
 
 And what is this message ? It is one with that of the sunshine, 
 of the water, and of the air ; and it proclaims that God’s best 
 gifts are for the many and not for the few, that they are free to all^ 
 that they are bought without money and without price. And so, 
 meditating upon the springs of moral motive, I am half-ashamed 
 of what I have lately written upon the profits of fruit and flower 
 farming. I have made appeal to an unworthy impulse; I have set 
 the searching after silver before the service of Man. But, though 
 it is true that the cultivation of grapes and peaches, of apples and 
 pears, of roses and lilies, of tulips and begonias, is big with the 
 balances before which the banker bows ; yet, when the real profit 
 and loss of life’s account is taken, it will be seen that the true gos¬ 
 pel of Wealth is given to those who have been willing to distribute 
 rather than to accumulate. “ The profit of the land is for all ”—so 
 runs the declaration of Holy Writ ; and he who makes this profit, 
 not for himself alone, but for the world at large, will find an invest¬ 
 ment into which he may safely fund his wealth. 
 
 This is the function of the fruit and flower farmer—to make the 
 good gifts of God available for all. When hothouse grapes are 
 
242 
 
 FLOWER FARMING 
 
 sold in the market at a penny a pound ; when roses and lilies of 
 the valley are the rule rather than the exception in the humble 
 home ; when fruit and flowers are recognised, not as the luxuries, 
 but as the necessities of life, then the mission of Vegetarianism 
 will be in part fulfilled. And how shall these things be? Not till 
 the Art of feeding, the Science of specific values, is understanded of 
 the philosophers of the farm. 
 
 Once more we are face to face with the suggestion of Vital Food 
 In the rose-garden and in the orchard, no less than in the internal 
 laboratory of the digestion, there is the necessity of vital force. 
 There would be no fear for the fatal effects of a frost, were the fruit 
 trees full of life ; it is the feeble flowers, and the weakly buds, 
 which are killed by every eager nipping wind. Hardy health is 
 the expression of abundant vitality, whether in trees or in men ; 
 and the first condition of such vitality is the plentiful provision of 
 vital food. If this theory be true, then the top-dressing of the 
 future will not be dead dung, but something that is alive. 
 
 I have already made the suggestion of grass as the middle term 
 between the mineral and the higher vegetable worlds. What 
 if the barbarous practices of modern horticulture be but the 
 bitter fruits of a false system of food ? Root-pruning is 
 vaunted as the remedy for barren trees, and every English 
 garden points its own moral, with its stunted rose trees cut 
 down to the very quick. This incessant cutting and carving, 
 this constant interference with unnatural growth, is the outcome of 
 unwholesome food. Our rose trees are either starved or surfeited 
 with stable manure, and the result is failure which needs to be 
 removed. But when once full development, whether for fruit or 
 flowers, is ensured, then the day of the pruning-hook will be dead 
 and gone. “ Then shall the earth bring forth her increase, and God, 
 even our own God, shall give us his blessing.” 
 
& System of Diet 
 
 "Withoqt Sfqtfcli. 
 
 A Rejoinder. 
 
 “ Brain and muscle must be fed. 
 
 Give them pulse and whole-meal bread, 
 
 Soul and spirit claim their share, 
 
 Nuts and fruits make feasting fare. 
 
 HAVE read with much interest and care the 
 papers which Dr. Densmore has recently con¬ 
 tributed upon his pet theory of a starchless 
 diet, and once again I must take up my pen 
 to repeat what I have already written almost 
 to weariness, that his system is not so much a 
 diet as a cure. For confirmed invalids I 
 think there is much value in Dr. Densmore’s 
 suggestions as to the indigestibility of starch, 
 but Vegetarianism proclaims the Ideal, and> 
 therefore, has much to say in defence of the cereals and pulses 
 which Dr. Densmore denies. I have no wish to magnify differ¬ 
 ences. I desire most heartily to thank Dr. and Mrs. Densmore 
 for the good work they have done in insisting upon the supreme 
 importance of fresh fruits and nuts as foods. A great impetus 
 has, as I believe, been given to the Vegetarian movement by the 
 Densmore controversy, and the vegetarians have learned much 
 from the experiments which have been made in the direction of 
 abstinence from cooked starch. There can, I think, be no doubt 
 that abundant evidence has been given during the last fifty years 
 that Vegetarianism (so far as it has meant only abstinence from 
 fish, and flesh, and fowl), has failed to realise all the fair promises 
 which its disciples have looked to enjoy. And there can be no 
 
244 
 
 A SYSTEM OF DIET WITHOUT ST ARC!. 
 
 less doubt that many stages of disease a r e made not better but 
 worse by the adoption of hot and mushy messes of farinaceous 
 food. For some constitutions, wholemeal bread has proved almost 
 the gate of death unto life, while for others it has been the abomin¬ 
 ation of desolation, the anathema-maranatha, the last straw that 
 has broken the camel’s back. 
 
 Now the first question that Dr. Densmore ever asked the 
 Vegetarians was this : “ Why are these things so?” and the ques¬ 
 tion was more easy to ask than to answer. It was the question 
 which has perplexed every wise physician since the mania of 
 medicine began. It was the Sphinx’s riddle, which has long 
 crystallised into the medical maxim, “that what is one man’s meat 
 is another man’s poison.” Dr. Densmore has propounded his own 
 answer, but it is admittedly only an answer to half the question. 
 He says, “Starch foods are in many cases found to be difficult of 
 digestion, because all starch foods are unfit for human food.” He 
 points to isolated instances of invalidism, and says triumphantly, 
 here is my proof. “ Take away starch foods in this particular case, 
 and you will find immediate improvement—force your wholemeal 
 bread, pease pudding, upon this debilitated digestion, and you 
 prepare your own failure. Ex uno disce omnes ”—and then with a 
 generalisation which is as superficial as it is unphilosophical, Dr. 
 Densmore denounces the pulses and grains as the enemies of the 
 human race, and extols, with extravagent eulogy, the fruits and 
 nuts which are themselves so deeply tainted with the old Adam of 
 amylaceous abomination, so stained with the original sin of starch. 
 To adopt the same methods of argument it would be easy for the 
 constitutional dyspeptic to frame a most terrible ind ctment 
 against the fruits and nuts themselves. We should hear once 
 again, in wearisome repetition, the nursery fables of colic and 
 cholera as the penalty of feasting not wisely but too well upon 
 peaches and plums ; we should be inundated with the querulous 
 verbosity of the advertising quack when every hypochondriac was 
 asked to give his opinion upon the digestive difficulties of nuts. 
 Another doctor would arise who would denounce with more than 
 Densmore-determination, the walnut and the chestnut, the coker- 
 
A SYSTEM OF DIET WITHOUT STARCH. 245 
 
 nut and the cobnut, the Brazil nut and the French nut, as a 
 “damnable diet of death,” and a new heresy would be born into 
 the world, whereby the Vegetarian should be confounded, and the 
 food foundations of existence should be logically or illogically 
 destroyed. 
 
 But, fortunately, the Densmore answer to the Densmore riddle 
 is incomplete, and the fallacy of its argument is easy of refutation. 
 We can all delight to agree with Dr. Densmore when he writes, 
 “ Health is the result of obedience to Divine Law. It can only be 
 brought about by a life of purity and temperance, aud to obey 
 Divine Law is the duty of man, and the highest possible ethics. 
 Disease is the c ause of more suffering, directly or indirectly, than 
 any other condition of earth,” etc., etc. All this is undeniably 
 true, but it scarcely affects the question of the insufficiency of 
 starch. When, however, Dr. Densmore proceeds to prove his 
 point by such statements as, “ Cereals are not spontaneously pro¬ 
 duced by Nature, wheat is an abnormal state of some plant.” We 
 are inclined to ask for some evidence which is not equally applic¬ 
 able to the cultivation of fruit and nuts. Hot-house grapes will 
 not flourish in the Sahara, nor will peaches and nectarines 
 luxuriate in the steppes of Siberia. The hedge nut and the road¬ 
 side crab have to be improved beyond recognition before they can 
 be sold in the market, and the conclusion of the whole matter is 
 surely this, that cultivation is one condition of the art of living, or, 
 as Darwin would have phras edit:—Selection is the first postulate of 
 the science of progressive development. But the principal fallacy 
 of the starchless beatitude still remains to be exposed ; let us call 
 it the physiological fallacy, or the deception of the duodenum 
 Let us consider this fallacy with all courtesy, for it is the corner¬ 
 stone of the Densmore discover y, and its distinctness involves the 
 overthrow of the Densmore doctrine. The fallacy has been very 
 succinctly stated, “ A scrutiny of the diet of civilisation will show 
 that cereals and starch foods are a predominating element in it ; a 
 like scrutiny of man’s natural food (it being conceded that fruit and 
 nuts constitute that diet) reveals the fact that this food has but a 
 subordinate proportion of starch in its composition. 
 
PART n, 
 
 Set the sails to every wind, 
 
 Box the compass North and South, 
 
 In every land and every clime, 
 
 The gate of eating is the mouth. 
 
 T will be well to consider carefully the physiological 
 basis of the Densmore hypothesis, because the fallacy 
 therein expressed is one which is largely concealed by 
 the ordinary dietetic habits of Society. 
 
 Because the common confusion of baking and boiling 
 produces for the most part a stodgy, lifeless mass, which is 
 swallowed rather than eaten, it is assumed that the entire process 
 of digestion is to be completed in the stomach, and that if it can be 
 proved that “ Starch Foods ” are not digested in the main stomach 
 that therefore they are unfit for human food. 
 
 This is the exact position that Dr. Densmore assumes, and for 
 which he claims the sanctions of Science,—though the conclus¬ 
 ions of world-wide experience confute his theories, and the records 
 of universal history deny his doctrine. He has, as it seems to me, 
 already written his own condemnation. 
 
 “ Examining further into the laws of physiology and the process of 
 digestion, it is found that starch foods undergo a very different process in 
 digestion from that of fruits and nuts. Starch Dods, while requiring the 
 same time and digestive force in passing through the main stomach 
 necessary for the digestion of natural foods, yet remain substantially un¬ 
 digested, and are passed on to the second stomach (a small intestine 
 only ten inches in length) for digestion.” 
 
A SYSTEM OF DIET WITHOUT STARCH. 
 
 247 
 
 The physiological fallacy is that starch foods have to be digested 
 if at all, in the smaller intestine. 
 
 Dr. Densmore persists, in spite of many friendly reminders, in 
 overlooking the important functions of the saliva, the prime 
 potencies of the mouth. With Professor Goodfellow, he chooses 
 to regard the function of the saliva as mainly mechanical, and 
 stultifies his intelligence with bastard experiments upon baked 
 bread-crumbs, and prostitutes his physiological perceptions to a 
 profitless insalivation of porridge. Such experiments with their 
 conclusions are altogether worthless ; they form a fit foundation 
 for that pseudo-science which is built up of observation un¬ 
 tempered by intuition, and which is the characteristic feature of 
 the intellectual materialism of the age. The physiology of the 
 mouth has yet to be explored, and the crowning condemnation 
 of the Densmore doctrine is reserved for the analyst, who first 
 experiments with the insalivation of vital foods. For the cereals 
 and pulses have their own delicious digestive, which is destroyed 
 by every kind of baking and boiling ; there is no more dominat¬ 
 ing element in the problem of dyspepsia, than “the fatal facility 
 of fire,” which has brought to birth that Frankenstein’s monster 
 of the nineteeth century, that chimaera of a complex civilisation, 
 that curse of the kitchen—the cook. 
 
 It is well that Dr. Densmore should have had the opportunity 
 of ventilating his ideas ; it is well that his disciples should publish 
 exact details of their practical experience, but it must not be for¬ 
 gotten that the cycle of constitutional change is exceedingly slow 
 —its smallest rhythm measuring seven years, its largest perchance 
 thrice seventy times seven. An experience therefore of a few 
 months—or as has been elsewhere proudly published—of a few 
 weeks and even of a few days, is absolutely valueless for the 
 establishment to final conclusions. The philosopher who dog¬ 
 matises upon the dietetic vagaries of a month becomes too often 
 the blind guide, whose destination is not the delights of the divine 
 but the depths of the ditch. 
 
 It may well be that a temporary abstinence from cooked starch, 
 may prove a partial cure for many digestive derangements—for 
 
248 A SYSTEM OF DIET WITHOUT STARCH. 
 
 the simple reason that the specific functional energy is exhausted, 
 and the machinery of life is thrown out of gear. The whole 
 question now and always resolves itself into one of vitality. Here is 
 the corner stone of the whole structure of Hygienic-science. Food 
 so far as it is regarded from the material point of view is but the 
 bricks and mortar from which the divine tabernacle is fitly 
 fashioned. But vital food is something much more than this—-it 
 is rich with the potency of life. Vital energy is the formative 
 power which ranges in due order all the provisions of the garden 
 and the orchard ; It is the creative power which perfects the 
 physical Ideal into the roses and lilies of beauty. As vital energy 
 is abundant-—so are all the possibilities of life enlarged. What 
 a truism it sounds, but every method and tradition of medicine is 
 its denial. The whole science of stimulants has to be overthrown 
 before the gospel of vitality can be throned in the hearts and in¬ 
 telligences of the people. Alcohol and Tobacco—Tea and Flesh 
 foods alike, bear witness to the delusion that vitality can be en¬ 
 gendered by exhaustion. It is the old fallacy of perpetual motion 
 repeated in the domain of nutriment. If food contains no separate 
 store of vital energy, it is impossible but that it must exhaust 
 the reserve capital of life. Every stimulant is but a direct draft 
 upon the bank of being, which prepares the way by swift or 
 gradual stages for the final bankruptcy of death. And such bank¬ 
 ruptcy takes place on many planes. There is physical death, 
 there is mental death, there is moral death, and there is 
 spiritual death. 
 
FART III. 
 
 u What is it conquers the world ? 
 
 What but the goodness of God ? 
 
 What but the greatness of Man ? 
 
 What is it dominates all ? 
 
 What but the Spirit and Soul ? 
 
 What but the Body and Mind? 
 
 What is it beautifies life ? 
 
 What but the flaming of force ? 
 
 What but the power of Love ? ” 
 
 TRANGE and wonderful are the arguments with which 
 Dr. Densmore adorns his theory of the sin of Starch. 
 He writes, without apparently realising that there 
 is anything ridiculous in the remark. 
 
 “The hypothesis, that sweet fruits and nuts are the 
 natural food of man, supplies the strongest scientific 
 reasons going, to prove that man is naturally frugivorous, 
 and explains the heretofore paradoxical fact to Vegetarians 
 that beef-eating Englishmen and Germans are manifestly 
 leading in modern achievement, material and mental, and 
 are fast dominating the planet. We can see no good 
 reasons why the exclusively cereal-eating Asiatics and Eastern nations are 
 small in stature and feeble in mental and physical powers and achieve¬ 
 ments, while the Englishman with his traditional roast beef has unwitt¬ 
 ingly been feeding himself with a food that is digested in the main 
 stomach, and that gives him the needed amount of nutrition without 
 digestive strain and its resultant prostration.” 
 
 This monomania of the “ main stomach ” is terribly delusive 
 
250 A SYSTEM OF DIET WITHOUT STARCH. 
 
 Surely Dr. Densmore cannot think that the saving virtue of beef and 
 mutton is their digestibility in the main stomach. I scarcely know 
 how to criticise such a statement, or such a conclusion. Every 
 sentence in the passage I have quoted seems to contain its separate 
 mistake. It is not true that the English and Germans are 
 physically stronger than the nati ves of the East. The work which 
 is daily done by the porters and laikjis of Constantinople is a 
 standing evidence to the contrary. The Arabs and the Zulus are 
 perhaps the finest specimens of physical perfection upon the face of 
 the globe, and they are, for the most part, Vegetarians—and the 
 first foundation of their Vegetarianism is grain food. Again it is 
 not true that roast beef (even though it be digested in the main 
 stomach) has built up the muscular majesty of the Briton. The 
 hardy Highlander, the stalwart Yorkshireman, the lad of Devon, 
 the Irish bhoy, one and all protest against this misrepresentation 
 of history and of fact. It is Scotch brose, Irish potatoes (the 
 starchiest of starchy) it is wholesome frumenty and stiff pease¬ 
 pudding that have built up the muscles that have embanked our 
 railroads, and excavated our canals. 
 
 So far as muscle is concerned the roast beef of old England is a 
 fraud which has long since been played out. Every trainer to-day 
 knows that success on the river or running-ground is not to be 
 won by the engorging of underdone beef-steaks, but by the judic¬ 
 ious use of grain foods and vegetables. It is the detestable soups 
 of the shambles, and the bestial broths of the butcher which 
 threaten the muscular supremacy of the English athlete. Bovril 
 and Bouillon Fleet, condensed mutton and beef-tea may all be 
 digested in the main stomach, but none the less are they de¬ 
 structive of muscular en ergy, none the less are they a true diet of 
 death. Dr. Densmore’s reasons for the advance of the Anglo- 
 Saxon are altogether irrelevant, and may be classed with Dr. 
 Mortimer Granville’s sinister suggestions, which make beef and 
 beer, tobacco and brandy, the basis of civilisation, and the pillars 
 of the State. But no one who cares to think will ever be 
 persuaded that the curses of the gin-palace, and the slaughter-house 
 have ever added one jot or one tittle to the sum of England’s 
 
A SYSTEM OF DIET WITHOUT STARCH. 251 
 
 greatness ; rather have they defiled and besmirched it; they have 
 been the obstacles which have hindered, not the encouragements 
 which have helped. 
 
 Again it is not true that the Eastern races whom Dr. Densmore 
 has depreciated are in any exact sense Vegetarians. They are 
 not, as he says, exclusively cereal-eating ; they could not be such 
 and live. At the same time there is large room for the develop¬ 
 ment of the races of the East by the extension of their dietetic 
 horizon. With many English Vegetarians they have to learn the 
 meaning of vitality; they have to add to their frugal fare of rice 
 and durrha, the rich abundance of fruits and nuts. But when all 
 these things have been done, there remains the great factor of 
 racial-distinction. Dr. Densmore, and al4 like-minded philosophers, 
 must restudy the problem of spiritual incarnation. The higher 
 energies are ever more potent than the lower. It is the supreme 
 energies of soul and spirit which have made England great, and 
 have made Englishmen masters of the world. Comparisons are 
 proverbially odious—else one might point to the nimble-wittedness 
 of the French, the philosophic concentration' of the Teuton, the 
 sympathetic abandon of the Celt, the dogged resolution of the Slav 
 —and demonstrate the victorious advance of moral momentum. 
 Enough to point out the pathway along which all students of racial- 
 distinctions must make research. 
 
 It is not as men have magnified their “main-stomachs” that 
 they have become servants of God and leaders of men ; but as they 
 have developed all their noblest energies, as they have set their 
 affections upon things above and not upon things below, as they 
 have lived lowly, and loved highly, so have they become more 
 than conquerors, so have they learned that the Kingdom of 
 Heaven is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and 
 joy, in the Holy Ghost, so have they become redeemers of the 
 world, so have they found the Truth, and the trnth has set them 
 free. 
 
PART IV. 
 
 “ Securus judicat orbis terrarum.** 
 
 “With one extensive view, 
 
 Survey mankind from China to Peru.** 
 
 “ Quod semper, quod ab omnibus, quod ubique.” 
 
 HE most crushing condemnation of the starchless 
 Paradise is, perhaps, to be found in the practical 
 experience of the world. Philosophers may 
 theorise as dogmatically as they please. This 
 has been their privilege from time immemorial, 
 but the rough commonsense of the unlearned 
 multitude has again and again proved the wis¬ 
 dom of the simple. It may be well to put this starchless beatitude 
 to the rough and ready test of universal experience. 
 
 There can be no gainsaying the fact that the verdict of the great 
 majority is in favour of starch. The cereals and the pulses are the 
 substantial foods of the people. Let Dr. Densmore destroy the 
 golden harvesting of wheat, and what answer shall be made to the 
 hungry multitudes of Europe ; let him with the same pernicious 
 fallacy ravish the rice fields, and what consolation shall be given to 
 the teeming myriads of Asia ; let him banish with a presumption 
 that is akin to madness, the lentil and the bean, and who shall save 
 him from the avenging .fury of the African? And lastly let him 
 dare to depreciate the stalwart majesty of maize, and all America 
 shall cry out shame upon Densmore, the destroyer. There will be 
 no land whither he shall escape from his enemies. By the lonely 
 
A SYSTEM OF DIET WITHOUT STARCH. 
 
 253 
 
 tarn, in Lochaber’s misty solitude he shall meet the raging High¬ 
 lander, who, with a wild skirl upon the bag-pipes shall bid him 
 stand and give back his brose. In the far fastnesses of Thibet, he 
 shall tremble before a menacing Mahatma, and shall hearken to 
 the agonising cry, “ I perish for a pea.” As he listens to the 
 famous echoes of Killarney he shall be haunted with a nation’s 
 lamentations ; worse than banshee or bogie shall be the ghosts of 
 a people who have lost their praties and their prastes. 
 
 What answer can be given to the antagonists of starch? Every 
 acre of arable land upon the face of this great globe makes 
 laughter its reply. The virgin soils of the wide West, the undulat¬ 
 ing prairies of Minnesota and Iowa proclaim the imperial monarchy 
 of wheat; the mighty wharves and granaries of Odessa repeat the 
 same triumphal strain ; the blue waters of the Mediterranean bear 
 upon their bosom the golden wealth of myriad cornfields, and yet 
 Dr. Densmore is not afraid to advocate a diet without starch. For¬ 
 tunately his followers are few, and they are learning by failure the 
 rigorous necessity of the laws of God. 
 
 The great triumph of rational science is the demonstration of the 
 principle of continuity ; upon its foundation is built up the logical 
 conclusions of evolution, and it is upon this broad platform of 
 development that religion and science shall yet shake hands. This 
 is the truth that The Vegetarian has now been hammering into 
 the public consciousness for many years. It has repeated times 
 without number that Vegetarianism is no new-fashioned fad, but 
 the most solemn tradition of the past, the most prevailing practice 
 of the present, the most sacred sacrament of the future. The 
 millions of the world’s majorities are Vegetarian ; the healthy and 
 hardy peoples of all lands and all climes are Vegetarian—because 
 they are eaters of pulse and cereals, and fruits and nuts—rather 
 than gorgers of fish, and flesh, and fowl. 
 
 The law of continuity declares that all progress must be by 
 degrees, line upon line, and precept upon precept, here a little and 
 there a little—the machinery of the past may be improved—the 
 life-habits of nations may be revitalised—but the first condition of 
 evolution is this, that the substratum of existing facts should be 
 
254 A SYSTEM OF DIET WITHOUT STARCH 
 
 recognised, and that it should be made the foundation of all future 
 building. 
 
 Without such continuity creation would be one with chaos, and 
 the millennium of the ignorant radical would be at hand. There 
 are two kinds of radicalism, one very good and one very bad. 
 The former is determined to cut down to the very roots all that 
 sins against the laws of God, eg, the eating of dead flesh, the 
 drinking of poisonous alcohol, the smoking of pestilential tobacco. 
 The latter is willing, with the pliant politician, to destroy anything 
 that stands in the way of votes, whether it be the Irish Church or the 
 House of Lords. Now, Vegetarianism is compelled by its very exis¬ 
 tence, to be at once ultra-radical and ultra-conservative. It has to 
 destroy that which is bad, and most jealously retain all that is good— 
 and the touchstone by which it assays all theories, whether they be 
 gold or dross,is this very law of continuity. I f the new theory requires 
 a complete resolution of all existing habits of Society, then by its 
 very presumption, it stands self-condemned. But if it points to 
 fresh possibilities of progress, based on the traditions of the past, 
 but throwing new light upon the causes of failure and imperfection, 
 then Vegetarianism regards such a claim as worthy of respectful 
 consideration. It has to be proved before the bar of Time, but 
 the very modesty of its assumptions gives hopes for its success. 
 
 Who, then, can deny that the Densmore doctrine is a wilful vio¬ 
 lation of dietetic continuity—that is why The Vegetarian has reso¬ 
 lutely refused its claims. It is not change, but perfection, that we 
 seek, and all the possibilities of Vital Food have rung down the 
 centuries unheeded and unknown in that first commandment with 
 promise, “ Behold, I have given thee every herb bearing seed, and 
 every tree in which is the frutfc of a tree bearing seed, to you it 
 shall be for meat.” 
 
Iqdificlqqlisrq qi\d Socialism. 
 
 Part I. 
 
 “ With songs and crying and sounds of acclamations, 
 
 Lo, the flame risen, the fire that falls in showers ! 
 
 Hark, for the word is out among the nations— 
 
 Look, for the light is up upon the hours— 
 
 O fears, O shames, O many tribulations, „ 
 
 Yours were all yesterdays, but this day ours. 
 
 Strong were your bonds, linked fast with lamentations, 
 
 With groans and tears built into walls and towers ; 
 
 Strong were your works and wonders of high stations, 
 
 Your forts blood-based and vampires of your powers ; 
 
 Lo, now the last of divers desolations— 
 
 The hand of time, that gathers hosts like flowers— 
 
 Time that fills up and pours out generations— 
 
 Time at whose breath confounded empire cowers.” 
 
 — Swinburne. 
 
 T has been well said, “ Extremes meet,” and the 
 point of proverbial wisdom has never been more 
 completely demonstrated than in the alliance of 
 Individualism and Socialism. For indeed, at the 
 first glance, these two phases of thought seem 
 wide-sundered as the poles ; and yet the history 
 of all social agitation does but prove how close 
 they are akin. If we look at “the tendencies of 
 the times,” we must be impressed by that vast 
 social evolution which is, slowly yet surely, chang¬ 
 ing the face of our most cherished institutions ; 
 and yet, if we examine the process of develop¬ 
 ment, we can but be struck with the inevitable 
 assertion of the individual. The same fact holds 
 true abroad, as well as at home. In Russia the 
 Nihilists, whose aim is social destruction, join 
 forces with the revolutionaries, whose hope is 
 social reconstitution. In Germany, the Anarchists 
 
256 
 
 INDIVIDUALISM AND SOCIALISM. 
 
 are hand and glove with the Social-Democrats. In France, the 
 Boulangists find their best friends in the Monarchists. Everywhere 
 Society is stirred to its depth, and men wonder what the morrow 
 shall bring forth. 
 
 But most curious of all these political confederations, is that 
 which binds to one warfare the Individualist, who makes the “ ego ” 
 the mainspring of all progress, and the Socialist, who calls combi¬ 
 nation the secret of success. For what is the theory of the 
 Individualist ? Surely it is this, that the first condition of morals 
 is freedom, that the essence of virtue is will. The perfect law ‘of 
 liberty is his Ideal ; unfettered choice is his sole demand. He wages 
 constant warfare with the tyranny of interference, whether it be 
 the domineering of despots, or the more subtle domination of the 
 State. “ Laissez-faire ” is the motto of his House of Commons. 
 “ Live and let live ” is the pass-word of his House of Lords. He 
 has the fullest sympathy with all efforts for the helping of the 
 people, for the uplifting of the masses, for the inspiration of the 
 lukewarm—so long as they are unattended by the “ fasces ” of 
 force. But he loathes the maxim of a misbegotten statecraft, 
 which declares “ everything for the people, and nothing by the 
 people ” ; and protests, with passionate earnestness, that reform is 
 from within, and never from without. For the political Indivi¬ 
 dualist, all property is sacred, for it is the expression of individual 
 effort, the crown of individual success. And by the same sanction 
 is consecrated that full freedom of contract which underlies the 
 abstractions of political economists, and establishes the relations of 
 Capital and Labour. 
 
 For the intense Individualist, there is no danger so menacing 
 as the interference.of the State, no peril so portentous as parlia¬ 
 mentary prohibition. He waxes wroth over the wrongs of minori¬ 
 ties, and denies the right of numbers to determine the destinies of 
 the few. He demonstrates that social reform is after all but the 
 improvement of the individual unit, and that force in the sphere of 
 morals is a contradiction in terms. He barbs his choicest 
 sarcasms against the follies of the Statute-book, and urges as 
 
INDIVIDUALISM AND SOCIALISM. 
 
 257 
 
 triumphant the sweet suasion of example. For such an one 
 there can be no dallying with the curse of Compulsion. It is 
 “ anathema maranatha ”—“ the abomination of desolation spoken 
 of by Jeremy the prophet”—the Anti-Christ, whose bestial mark 
 is upon the foreheads of its servile slaves. 
 
 The rampant Individualist is strenuously insistent upon the 
 rights of property and of person ; he thunders vengeance (theo¬ 
 retically) upon the saucy Socialists, who declaim that Individualism 
 has been weighed in the balances and has been found wanting, and 
 that the millennium of the Majority is at hand. For him there is 
 no hope in such a prospect ; it is the marriage of misery with mad¬ 
 ness, whose offspring shall be “ red-ruin and the breaking up of 
 laws.” For him the dream of the land-nationaliser is a delusion 
 and a snare—the enfranchisement of leaseholds is robbery and 
 wrong—the taxation of ground-rents is imposture and a fraud- 
 For him all government is a work of supererogation, all Acts of 
 Parliament but superfluities of naughtiness. For him taxation is 
 an ill-considered insult, and the executive machinery but a spend¬ 
 thrift waste. But, that we may properly appreciate the strength 
 of the Individualist position, we must first consider the Socialist 
 retort, whereof more anon. 
 
 
 Part II. 
 
 “ Where is hope and promise—where, in all these things, 
 
 Shocks of strength with strength, and jar of hustling kings ? 
 
 Who, of all men, who will show us any good ? 
 
 Shall these lightnings of blind battles give men light ? 
 
 Where is freedom ? Who will bring us in her sight, 
 
 That have hardly seen her footprint where she stood ? ” 
 
 — Swinburne, 
 
 There is a great attraction for many in the Ideals of the So¬ 
 cialist ; it is only upon the methods of their attainment that dis¬ 
 agreement is apt to arise. There can be no denying that “ the 
 
 1 
 
258 
 
 INDIVIDUALISM AND SOCIALISM. 
 
 world is out of joint ”—and it is easy to perorate upon the terrible 
 inequalities of our social system. It is an admitted evil, that 
 Capital tends to concentrate ; and the most constitutional Con¬ 
 servative desires a larger diffusion of wealth. Who can wonder 
 that revolutionary doctrines find favour with the new-crowned 
 Democracy, when in the metropolis alone we contrast the splendour 
 of the West with the squalor of the East ? There is a gleam of 
 imagination in the most commonplace conventionalist, and Utopia 
 has been in all ages the dreamer’s paradise. “ The profit of the 
 land is for all ” ; so said the Scriptures long ago, and even in this 
 decade of agricultural depression there are few who will not make 
 that maxim their own. 
 
 It is from this fertile soil of secret sympathy that the purple 
 dowers of Socialistic prophecy have sprung. Henry George’s 
 scheme for the nationalisation of the land is an instance in point. 
 It is delightful, if innocent, to imagine that all the hideous com¬ 
 plexities, all the horrible diseases, all the grievous inequalities, of 
 our nineteenth-century civilisation can be swept away by a single 
 Act of Parliament, declaring the land to be the property of 
 no one in particular, but of every one in general. There is so 
 little question as to the desirability of his purpose, that it seems 
 almost uncharitable to criticise his plans. Again, the more pon¬ 
 derous philosophy of the German Socialists finds its disciples, 
 already half-converted ; and those who have wrestled with the 
 involved voluminosity of the “ Ivapital ” of Karl Marx, or the 
 more revolutionary radicalism of the “ Arbeiter Programm ” of 
 Lassalle, know well that their theories of social regeneration are as 
 fascinating, as their means of realisation are impracticable. Who 
 can differ (theoretically) from the declaration of the Social-Demo¬ 
 cratic Federation, who are never weary of demanding “ the esta¬ 
 blishment of a free condition of society, based upon the principle of 
 political equality, with equal social rights for all and the complete 
 emancipation of labour ” ? The parting of the ways comes later, 
 when the various methods of transforming the abstract into the 
 concrete begin to be discussed. 
 
INDIVIDUALISM AND SOCIALISM, 
 
 259 
 
 Here is the weak point of modern Socialism. It is as though 
 Pandora had just lifted the lid, to discover the final manifesto of 
 the Federation : “(1) All officers or administrators to be elected by 
 equal direct adult suffrage, and to be paid by the community ; (2) 
 Legislation by the people, in such wise that no project of law shall 
 become legally binding till accepted by the majority of the people; 
 (3) The abolition of a standing army, and the establishment of a 
 national citizen force ; the people to decide on peace and war; (4) 
 All education, higher no less than elementary, to be free, compulsory , 
 secular , and industrial, for all alike ; (5) The administration of 
 justice to be free and gratuitous for all members of Society ; (6) 
 The land, with the mines, railways, and other means of transit, to 
 be declared and treated as collective or common property ; (7) 
 Ireland and other parts of the empire to have legislative indepen¬ 
 dence ; (8) The production of wealth to be regulated by Society in 
 the common interest of all its members ; (9) The means of produc¬ 
 tion, distribution, and exchange, to be declared and treated as col¬ 
 lective and common property.” 
 
 At once the air is thick with contention and dispute. Those 
 propositions that are most abstract command the greatest sympathy ; 
 those that are most practical involve immediate resistance. This 
 curious sensation of sympathetic repulsion is intensified as we read 
 further. The more immediate ends to be attained, or, as this docu¬ 
 ment puts it, “ the stepping-stones to a happier period, are the com¬ 
 pulsory construction of healthy artisans’ and agricultural labourers’ 
 dwellings in proportion to the population, such dwellings to be let 
 at rents to cover the cost of construction and maintenance alone. 
 Free compulsory education for all classes, together with the pro¬ 
 vision of at least one wholesome meal a day in each school. Eight 
 hours or less to be the normal working day in all trades. Cumu¬ 
 lative taxation upon all incomes above a fixed minimum not exceed¬ 
 ing ^300 a year. State appropriation of railways. The establish¬ 
 ment of national banks, which shall absorb all private institutions 
 that derive a profit from operations in money or credit. Rapid ex¬ 
 tinction of the National Debt Nationalisation of the land and 
 
2 6o 
 
 INDIVIDUALISM AND SOCIALISM 
 
 organisation of agricultural and industrial armies under State con¬ 
 trol on co-operative principles.” The means for the attainment of 
 these Socialistic Ideals are enumerated as follows : “ Adult suf¬ 
 frage ; annual Parliaments ; proportional representation ; payment 
 of members and official expenses of elections out of the rates ; 
 abolition of the House of Lords and all hereditary authorities; dis¬ 
 establishment and disendowment of all State Churches.” 
 
 How strange the structure seems, and how still more strange the 
 machinery for its erection ! In the ante-chamber of the abstract, 
 Individualist and Socialist are Hail-fellow-well-met! In the 
 arena of application, we hear but the echo of the dismal dirge : 
 Art fiiterator, morituri te salutant . 
 
 
 Part III. 
 
 “ Light, light, and light!—to break and melt in sunder 
 All clouds and chains that in one bondage bind 
 Eyes, hands, and spirits, forged by fear and wonder, 
 
 And sleek, fierce Fraud, with hidden knife behind ! 
 
 There goes no fire from heaven before their thunder, 
 
 Nor are the links not malleable that wind 
 Round the snared limbs and souls that ache thereunder. 
 
 The hands are mighty, were the head not blind. 
 
 Priest is the staff of king, 
 
 And chains and clouds one thing, 
 
 And fettered flesh, with devastated mind. 
 
 Open thy soul to see, 
 
 Slave, and thy feet are free. 
 
 Thy bonds and thy beliefs are one in kind, 
 
 And of thy fears thine irons wrought 
 
 Hang weights upon thee, fashioned out of thine own thought.” 
 
 — Szvinburne. 
 
 We have seen, as we read the manifesto of the Social Democratic 
 Federation, that the Ideals of modern Socialism are mainly political. 
 The House of Commons is the final court of appeal to which its 
 orators make reference. It may be well, therefore, briefly to con¬ 
 sider the true function of Politics as expressed in Parliaments, that 
 we may the better understand the limits of legislation. At the 
 
INDIVIDUALISM AND SOCIALISM. 261 
 
 outset, Politics may be defined as the Science of Statecraft, the 
 Art of Government—the wisdom that works for the common weal 
 —the power that promotes the greatest happiness of the greatest 
 number. In all these definitions, it can be seen that the Social rather 
 than the Individual Ideal is emphasised. It is the prosperity of the 
 many, rather than that of the few, which is made the touchstone of 
 political truth ; it is the well-being of the community, rather than 
 that of its rulers, which is made the be-all and end-all of good 
 government. Such a theory of politics, if it be true—as indeed it is 
 generally recognised to be—is the direct negation of scientific 
 cynicism. The egotism of evolution is exchanged for the com¬ 
 munism of Christ ; the “ survival of the fittest ” finds a new and 
 truer interpretation in the education of that which is unfit, the 
 elevation of that which is cast down. Here, then, is the perfect 
 politic—the extension to all of that which is best, the elimination for 
 all of that which is worst. But, even as we proclaim the splendid 
 possibilities of political persistence, we are conscious of the limitations 
 by which it is conditioned ; we stand face to face with that perfect 
 law of liberty, wherein the Individual is seen to be the ultimate 
 atom of the State, and wherein freedom confronts itself with 
 force. 
 
 There may be no blinking their eternal antagonism, for it lies at 
 the root of all Social development. So long as the radical reformer 
 makes haste to take the kingdom of heaven by violence, to compel 
 the Millennium to come in, so long are the wheels of Progress 
 hindered, and the triumph of the Truth is delayed. And so we 
 are brought back to the very elements of political wisdom, the very 
 A B C of Statecraft, and learn that the limit of legislation is in¬ 
 dividual liberty, and that government was made for the nation, and 
 not the nation for government. There is a sense somewhat of 
 anti-climax, as we realise this poverty of statutory salvation ; we 
 have been so long accustomed to the frothy declamation of the 
 Socialistic spouter, that we have almost learned to believe that 
 the Golden Age can be ushered in by Act of Parliament, and that 
 all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness can be swept and gar- 
 
262 
 
 INDIVIDUALISM AND SOCIALISM. 
 
 nished by the besom of perpetual prohibition. Alas for the nation 
 that is so deluded. “ The prophets prophesy falsely in my name, 
 and the people love to have it so, and what shall it be in the end 
 thereof? ” But when once we have comprehended the divine energy 
 cf the Ego—the eternal sanctity of the Individual—when once “wc 
 have looked into the perfect law of liberty and continued therein, 
 being not forgetful hearers but doers of the work, we also shall be 
 blessed in our deed.” 
 
 The motive, then, of all politics, is mutual improvement; the 
 limit, mutual respect. The art of government is the development 
 of the individual, the breaking off of all fetters which restrain the 
 spontaneity of social growth. The duty of the politician, no less 
 than the policeman, is to make the world “ move on,” and to see 
 that the liberty of one interferes not with the freedom of another. 
 In this sense, politics become the proper study of every intelli¬ 
 gent citizen—the rational occupation of all who love their 
 fellow-men. In this spirit, the Social Democrat and the Indi¬ 
 vidualist are united—the Reformer and the Revolutionary are one. 
 How far divorced from this Ideal are the party polemics, the separa¬ 
 tist-shibboleths of to-day, must be the subject of another paper. 
 Enough to point the moral of the position we have taken, and to 
 learn that Social Progress is built up from the substance of Indi¬ 
 vidual Goodness—not, as is too often supposed, from the shadow of 
 legislative forms. 
 
 The order of good government, now and ever, is the order of 
 Nature, and the order of God, responsive in the heart of Man. 
 This is one of the essential truths the development of which 
 belongs especially to the age in which we live, and these stirring 
 times that reach right down into our souls, and force us to bring 
 out of the treasury within things, new and old, that form the very 
 best that is in us, that every man of us, in his own intense Indivi¬ 
 duality, may minister to that new and splendid Socialism, which is 
 of our Father God, which now struggles in the womb of our 
 Mother Nature for birth, and which we may all of us do so much 
 to make straight paths for in the world. 
 
Part IV. 
 
 “ Make yourselves wings, O tarrying feet of fate. 
 
 And hidden hour that hast our hope to bear, 
 
 A child-god, through the morning-coloured gate 
 That lets love in upon the golden air, 
 
 Dead on whose threshold lies heart-broken hate, 
 
 Dead discord, dead injustice, dead despair ; 
 
 O love long looked-for, wherefore wilt thou wait, 
 
 And show net yet the dawn on thy bright hair— 
 
 Not yet thine hand released, 
 
 Refreshing the faint East, 
 
 Thine hand reconquering heaven to seat man there ? 
 
 Come forth, be born and live, 
 
 Thou that hast help to give, 
 
 And light to make man’s day of manhood fair, 
 
 With flight outflying the sphered sun 
 
 Hasten thine hour, and halt not till thy work be done.” 
 
 — Sivinburnt. 
 
 “The Politics of To-day!” What are they? I had almost 
 written, the apotheosis of Party, the abnegation of Truth. And 
 yet such anathemas of the pessimist come home to roost ; it is the 
 little mind that is quick to curse, the petty soul that cares but to con¬ 
 demn. There is an old legend which tells how the Christ walked 
 down the sultry streets of Jerusalem, and came upon a little crowd 
 of boys, who lingered scoffing round the carcase of a dead dog 
 i See the wretched skeleton ! ” sneered one. “ Look at his filthy 
 coat ! ” scoffed another. “ He’s not worth burying ! ” laughed a 
 third. And, even as they jested over the decay of death, there 
 sounded a voice whose music struck their ribald mocking dumb: 
 “ Ah, what beautiful teeth he has ! ” And the Saviour of the world 
 rebuked with love the unlovely spirit of those who could but sec 
 the bad. Who shall estimate the force for good of the charity 
 that thinketh no evil, which believeth all things, which endureth 
 all things—which is the very Spirit of God ! 
 
 And so, as we estimate the possibilities for evil of party-politics 
 let us not forget that they breathe but the spirit of the age, 
 they are but the expression of ourselves. To the philosopher of th e 
 cave, whose meditations are for the most part of the abstract, and 
 to whom the theoretical is more necessary than the practical, there 
 comes at times an intense longing for the good old times “ When 
 
INDIVIDUALISM AND SOCIALISM. 
 
 264 
 
 none were lor a party, and all were for the State ” ; and in the sun¬ 
 shine of such a “ New Republic ” all the diplomatic finessing of “la 
 haute politique ,” all the jerry-mandering of the political machine, all 
 the bossing of Caucus or of Qommittee, is seen in its'naked hideous¬ 
 ness, as a delusion and a snare. But for the party-politician, who has 
 bolted like a boa-constrictor the full paraphernalia of authorised and 
 non-authorised Programmes, who clamours with crudest inconsis¬ 
 tency for “ Measures,” not “ Men,” who declaims with unctuous 
 arrogance that every Member bears with him the mandate of 
 his constituency, and insists that delegation, not representation, 
 is the essence of Parliamentary privilege—for such an one 
 Politics become little more than a faction fight, and find their 
 raison detre in what have been euphemistically termed the “ spoils 
 of war.” 
 
 There is no protest too strong to be raised against a conception so 
 false, an ideal so mean. And, even as we glance across the page of 
 latter-day politics, w'e can rejoice to know that, in England at all 
 events, this noisome weed has taken no root. One of the grandest 
 results of the much-abused Irish question has been the proof that 
 our politicians are of no party, and that the tenacity of John Bull 
 individualism is still unbroken. There is no question of Parties 
 here, for,whether we make appeal to the Tories or the Liberals or the 
 Radicals, the answer is the same—“ Honours easy.” Mr. Gladstone’s 
 so-called inconsistency is matched by Lord Hartington’s immove- 
 ability, while Lord Salisbury’s “twenty years of strong government ’* 
 find their pendant in Mr. Chamberlain’s “ Ransom from those who 
 toil not neither do they spin.” Never before has there been seen 
 such a “ General Post ” of party-partialities, and one would think 
 that Mr. Schnadhorst must almost, like Othello, have found his 
 “ occupation gone.” 
 
 And, confusing as at times has been the kaleidoscope of political 
 conversion, bitter as has invariably been the recrimination of anta¬ 
 gonistic opinion—yet the sum-total of the convulsion has been 
 eminently refreshing, like a breeze from the briny, or a breath from 
 the snows. For, leaving the decision of right and wrong altogether 
 
INDIVIDUALISM AND SOCIALISM. 265 
 
 on one side, it cannot be denied that the Irish question has itself 
 answered the problem of political parties, and has pointed the 
 moral of unstable equilibrium. There almost seemed a danger of 
 that last and worst political decadence, when the party has taken 
 the place of the politician, and the Programme has become the 
 sum and substance of parliamentary purpose ; but the Irish ques¬ 
 tion has done away with that danger for ever, and once more the 
 political atmosphere has been cleared from cant. And of all cant 
 perhaps the most contemptible is the charge of inconsistency, as if 
 conventional consistency were the beginning and end of political 
 perfection. There is a good story told of a great contractor, who 
 was once engaging a foreman for the execution of some works > 
 and one, amongst the many candidates for the berth, said with 
 some affectation of earnestness, “ I can assure you, sir, that I have 
 never made a mistake.” “ Never made a mistake! ” echoed the 
 man of long experience, “ then you will never do for me. Why, 
 fancy, if you did make a mistake, you would never know how to get 
 out of it.” And so in politics there is no claim so stupid, no recom¬ 
 mendation so rotten, as that mulish, ill-conditioned consistency 
 which is for the most part made up of an indolence which forgets 
 and an insolence which cannot forgive. The most consistent poli¬ 
 tician may be sought for in that fossilised Tory who exists only in 
 the fertile imagination of the rhetorical Radical ; the least consis¬ 
 tent politician of modern times is that Grand Old Man who, for 
 conscience’ sake, sanctioned the surrender of the Transvaal in 
 the face of an indignant nation ; who, for the sake of Irish freedom, 
 broke up his party and the majority of the polls ; and who still 
 may learn to know the real strength of open confession, the utter 
 weakness of casuistical circumlocution. 
 
 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. There is no magic 
 in politics to change evil into good, no charm in legislation to make 
 sinners into saints. The final truth we have all to learn is this, that 
 politics are made for men, and not men for politics—that the Statute- 
 book does but represent the high-water mark of public opinion, and 
 that character is the underlying yet dominant condition of all pro- 
 
206 
 
 INDIVIDUALISM AND SOCIALISM 
 
 gress. The New Republic of Plato, and of every political philoso¬ 
 pher, is still a dream—for, like Topsy, it is not made, but “ grows.’’ 
 Only as the individual learns the secret of that righteousness which 
 exalteth a nation, will the Utopian vision begin to make itself an 
 habitation and a name. Political parties are the deformities bred 
 of political impurity ; and when once the lives of the people are 
 levelled-up to recognise their ugly worthlessness, they will pass into 
 the limbo of shams, and cease to be. Political spite, political ran¬ 
 cour, political jealousy, political division—what are all these but 
 the bitter fruits springing from an evil root? The ghosts and 
 spectres of unlovely lives still haunt the chambers of St. Stephen’s. 
 The uncharitable taunts, the petty personalities, the vulgar recrimina¬ 
 tions, which have made the cloture a blessing rather than a curse— 
 all these are doomed to die. The true Ideal of the perfect Politic 
 will spring full-armed from the head of that bold leader of men 
 who is not afraid to do what he believes to be right, though all the 
 world be set against him—who is not ashamed to own himself 
 wrong, though all his past be thus condemned—who will not 
 suffer the existence of Parties, but is strong to bind to himself the 
 allegiance of all who love the Truth—who bases the structure of 
 his policy upon morals, and upon morals alone—who follows, with 
 literal and unflinching devotion, the commands of Christ—who 
 grasps the high privilege of work with God, and who thus makes 
 himself the pillar of a people’s hope, and the centre of a world’s 
 desire. 
 
 In a word, he must be an Individualist, of the strongest, noblest 
 type, who would usher in a Socialism that shall bless and uplift the 
 world—a government based in the hearts of men, and presenting a 
 superstructure unquestionable in its merits, the marvellous beauty 
 and sufficiency and power of which shall find justification in every 
 eye that gazes upon it, in every mind that grasps it, and every soul 
 that pours its treasure into it. And it is just because the w'orld is 
 ripe for such men, and for such work, that men and things are making 
 for this splendid end, in a silent and peaceful revolution the results 
 of which will be sure as the eternal hills. 
 
Part V. 
 
 \ 
 
 “ O soul, O God, O glory of liberty, 
 
 To night and day their lightning and their light; 
 
 With heat of heart thou kindlest the quick sea, 
 
 And the dead earth takes spirit from thy sight. 
 
 Tlie natural body of things is waim with thee, 
 
 And the world’s weakness parcel of thy might. 
 
 ' Thou seest us feeble and forceless, fit to be 
 
 Slaves of the years that drive us left and right. 
 
 Drowned under hours like waves 
 Wherethrough we row like slaves. 
 
 But if thy finger touch us, these take flight. 
 
 If but one sovereign word 
 Of thy live lips be heard, 
 
 What man shall stop us, and what god shall smite ? 
 
 Do thou but look in our dead eyes, 
 
 They are stars that light each other, till thy sundawn rise.” 
 
 — Swinburne. 
 
 Must it not be clear to all, that the foolish immorality of party- 
 politics is doomed to die when once the day-star of a nobler Ideal 
 has arisen across their stormy night? The banal epigram, that the 
 duty of an “Opposition is to oppose,” is only worth recalling to 
 point the moral of obstructive imbecility. What possible advantage 
 can there be in opposition, when the political atmosphere is purified, 
 and the best minds are united in patriotic purpose and in national 
 service ? No, ten thousand times, no ! The common misconception 
 that Politics are synonymous with Party-strife, and that political 
 parties, like the poor, must be for ever with us, is one of those 
 degrading delusions which spring from the hot-bed of the 
 social dung-heap. But when once the true ideal of Politics, as 
 common work for the common weal, has blossomed in the people’s 
 heart, the vulgar weeds of petty personal aims will find no room 
 for growth. In the sunshine of a loftier patriotism, they will 
 either away, and the place of the professional politician will know 
 him no more. We have seen the true function of politics 
 the just limits of legislation. There may be no stereotype of statu¬ 
 tory prohibition, no Prccrustean-bed of parliamentary perfec¬ 
 tion. 
 
 What, then, will be the programme of a reformed St. Stephen’s 
 —what principles will dominate the Queen’s Speech of the future? 
 
268 
 
 INDIVIDUALISM AND SOCIALISM. 
 
 In the first place, it is necessary for us to take firm grip of the per¬ 
 fect law of liberty. We have to mould our measures in the matrix of 
 the Ideal. We may never deceive ourselves by claiming the sanc¬ 
 tion of the practical for the inconsistencies of our political pessimism. 
 Common-place may not be vaunted as common-sense ; nor may 
 we consent to do a little wrong that a greater good may be secured. 
 The history of all such moral instability is rich in warning for the 
 political philosopher. The Sunday Closing Acts, the Vaccination 
 laws, and all other like efforts to do good by force, can in due course 
 of time but bring the blush which finds them infamy. The Practical 
 can never be divorced from the Ideal, for they are one and the 
 same thing, and that Statecraft is most persistently practical 
 which makes principle the standard of all political perspective 
 What a wondrous revelation is this perfect law of liberty, when- 
 once it has been received! The old things have passed away, 
 and all things are become new. There is no longer thought 
 of expediency, falsely so-called, no pandering to popular pre¬ 
 judice, no trimming for popular suffrage. Truth is become the 
 pole-star for the steersman of the State, and the “ ignes-fatui” of 
 phosphorescent foam are quenched in the mild radiance of the 
 steadfast stars. 
 
 We have yet to learn the real meaning of Freedom. In science 
 it is beginning to be understood that the organism is largely “ dif¬ 
 ferentiated by its environment,” and that therefore, for full develop¬ 
 ment, there must be abundant room. If we are to grow, we must 
 not be too much squeezed. Tight shoes, tight lacing, and tight 
 gloves, must be put in the same category as tight prohibitions, tight 
 regulations, and tight laws. Across them all must be written the 
 same condemnation. They may hinder, but they can never help. 
 No civilisation can be wholesome which is only exotic. Rather 
 must it be perennial, bedewed with the rains of Heaven, not 
 besprinkled from the waterpot of Fashion—inbreathed with the 
 spirit of the Divine, not blown about with every wind of popular 
 clamour—warmed by the sunshine of God, not forced by the stove- 
 heat of political pressure. The horizon of freedom has to be cn- 
 
INDIVIDUALISM AND SOCIALISM. 
 
 269 
 
 larged. There can be no perfect law of liberty where the weak are 
 • pitted against the strong in unequal conflict; and so we see that 
 the time-honoured Tory fetish of “ freedom of contract ” may well 
 become a Juggernaut beneath whose advancing chariot-wheels are 
 crushed the victims of its worship. True freedom of contract im¬ 
 plies equality of social pressures, and may well be made the Magna 
 Charta of our national liberties. But there is no freedom of con¬ 
 tract at all where one of the consenting parties is driven on to his 
 own misdoing by the sharp spur of necessity, which is too often the 
 mother of legal invention. 
 
 Take one illustration among many. The sweating system 
 stands condemned by the voice of public conscience to-day ; 
 and yet the Contractor, as the sweater has been euphemistically 
 called, no doubt magnified his office, as the middle term 
 between Capital and Labour. In the eye of the law, there is full 
 freedom of contract when some miserable sempstress sells hei 
 life for a shilling a day, or when some more miserable matchmaker 
 bargains away her strength for a paltry penny an hour. It may 
 —nay, it is often said that such contracts are made with open 
 eyes, and that therefore the responsibility rests upon those who 
 make them—such is the selfish cant of a greedy commercialism 
 —but the perfect law of liberty extends its protection to the 
 weak against the strong, and maintains that there is a better 
 solution of social problems than the choice between the devil 
 and the deep sea. 
 
 And so this instance might be multiplied an hundredfold, for it 
 expresses the principle which underlies all social legislation. The 
 conditions of life have to be made fair all round, and the proper 
 methods for doing this have yet to be developed. In another paper 
 we must consider some of the burning political questions of the 
 day, and see, if possible, how far such legislation as enfranchise¬ 
 ment of leaseholds, taxation of ground-rents, liability of employers, 
 
 % 
 
 artisans’ buildings, extension of allotments, etc., come within 
 measurable distance of practical, that is to say, of righteous 
 politics. 
 
Fart VI. 
 
 “ J hear the midnight on the mountains cry, 
 
 With many tongues of thunders, and I hear 
 Sound and resound the hollow shield of sky 
 
 With trumpet-throated winds that charge and cheer, 
 
 And, through the roar of the hours that fighting fly 
 Through flight and fight, and all the fluctuant fear, 
 
 A sound sublimer than the heavens are high, 
 
 A voice more instant than the winds are clear, 
 vSay to my spirit: Take 
 Thy trumpet too, and make 
 A rallying music in the void night’s ear. 
 
 Till the storm loose its track, 
 
 And all the night go back, 
 
 Till, as through sleep false life knows true life near, 
 
 Thou know the morning through the night, 
 
 And through the thunder silence, and through darkness light.” 
 
 — Swinburne. 
 
 The inevitable evil of political party is political animosity. All 
 the more generous instincts of true hero-worship are dimmed and 
 dwarfed in the ignoble self-seeking of political competition. Only 
 recently a political leader, speaking to a select company of political 
 followers, gave deliberate expression to these detestable sentiments : 
 “ The Tory party, we are told, are as capable as we are of under¬ 
 taking the solution of the problems of social reform. With all my 
 heart I wish they would undertake the solution of these problems, 
 because they have special -advantages for dealing with them. But 
 I am well persuaded that they cannot , and that they will not. . .” 
 
 In this brief quotation is contained the final condemnation of 
 partisan prejudice, writ large for all to read. There is an old proverb 
 which says, “ Self-praise is no recommendation,” and the would-be 
 Statesman who seeks to trade upon the depreciation of his 
 opponents is likely to find that even political curses come home 
 to roost. 
 
 Surely it is sufficiently obvious, to every intelligent and unpreju¬ 
 diced observer, that all the beneficial political changes of the cen¬ 
 tury have been the fruit of judicious compromise—of the united 
 action of all parties. Take, for instance, the political record of the 
 last two governments. The extension of the franchise, with the 
 redistribution of scats—involving, as they did, the most far-reach- 
 
INDIVIDUALISM AND SOCIALISM. 
 
 271 
 
 ing changes—was the work of the Liberal and Conservative leaders 
 in sympathetic consultation. The conversion of the National Debt, 
 and the reconstitution of Local Government, with its momentous 
 remodelling of Metropolitan administration, were alike the work of 
 the Radicals, the Liberal Unionists, and the Conservatives. The 
 truth has still to be learned by partisan fanatics, that political 
 unanimity is the measure of political success; and that any 
 obnoxious measure, forced through the House of Commons by the 
 sheer weight of a manipulated majority, is delivered to the world 
 still-born. For, indeed, political growth is not to be measured by 
 the tiny span of Majorities at all. All statutes are but the indices 
 of national development ; and only as that growth is solid and sub¬ 
 stantial, is the superstructure likely to be permanent. Away, then, 
 with this hideous delusion, that progress is only possible through 
 party machinations—that the Tory or the Radical camp is like 
 Nazareth of old, whence no good thing can come ; and let the per¬ 
 fect example of the rejected Nazarene point its moral to the politi¬ 
 cians of to-day, “ that no root of bitterness can ever bear the 
 beauteous bloom of love.” The great need of the House of Com¬ 
 mons is not more brilliant speakers, for already the “ dreary drip of 
 dilatory declamation ” frets the ears of all who love deeds better 
 than words ; but rather is it the cry for independent politicians, who 
 shall break up this miserable machinery of party warfare, and shall 
 restore to the great Palaver of the nation the confidence which 
 finds in unity its strength. 
 
 But even as our hearts glow before the Ideal of a noble national 
 association, we must be conscious that “ the end is not now.” The 
 forms and fallacies of party-puerility are but symptoms of political 
 disease. The feverish haste of progressist impetuosity, the chilly 
 rigors of reactionary despair, spring alike from morbid conditions 
 of the body politic. The bodies of men are sick—what wonder 
 that their hearts are sick also! And therefore the Ideal waits 
 afar, like some fair maiden lingering for her lord. But when the 
 inspiration of the diviner love has burned into the national life— 
 when once the laws of men are made harmonious with the laws of 
 
INDIVIDUALISM AND SOCIALISM 
 
 God—then the New Jerusalem, perfect in its political purity, lovely 
 in its social strength, will descend as a bride adorned for her hus¬ 
 band. There will be no bitterness of political division then—not 
 one for Paul and another for Apollos—not one for Lord Salisbury 
 and another for Mr. Gladstone—not one for Conservative and 
 another for Radical—but all for Country, and all for the Right. 
 This is the lost chord of Christian Civilisation. It begins with the 
 [ ndividual, and ends with the Common Weal. Only as the Indi- 
 v idual is exalted—only as he is at liberty to work out his own 
 ^ alvation in fear and trembling, is the triumph of true Socialism 
 possible. All else is but love’s labour lost. The most elaborate 
 system of check and counter-check, the most cunningly contrived 
 constitution, if it be not written upon the fleshy tablets of the 
 people’s heart, but upon the musty parchments of some party pro¬ 
 gramme, is fit only for the fire. It is inorganic, and therefore it 
 cannot grow—it is machinery without the spring—it is theatrical fire 
 without heat—it is a whited sepulchre, full of dead men’s bones. 
 
 Who, then, shall be sufficient for these things? Vegetarianism 
 answers, “ He who is vital, vigorous, wholesome, and healthy ! ” It 
 matters not whether he be a follower of the Grand Old Man on the 
 Liberal Benches, or the Moral Old Man on the Conservative side. 
 It matters not whether he be a Home Ruler or an Imperial Federa- 
 tionist, whether he be an Individualist or a Socialist, provided 
 only that he be an honest lover of the Truth, who fears no evil save 
 the sacrifice of his integrity, who loves principles better than statis¬ 
 tics, and who, having proved all things, holds fast that which is good. 
 This is one of the great duties of Vegetarianism—to provide whole¬ 
 some men and women, to become, in the fulness of time, “ nursing 
 fathers and mothers ” of a reformed House of Commons. But, 
 more important than St. Stephen’s, are the constituencies that lie 
 behind. There the work of political reformation will begin ; there 
 the levelling-up of social inequalities must take its start. Let each 
 valiant Vegetarian, then, be up and doing, to hasten the coming of 
 the golden day. The Millennium waits but for the kind compul¬ 
 sion of a Majority, which does not vote, but works ! 
 
Part VI I* 
 
 “ I set the trumpet to my lips and blow—• 
 
 The height of night is shaken, the skies break, 
 
 The winds and stars and waters come and go 
 By fits of breath and light and sound, that wake 
 As out of sleep, and perish as the show 
 
 Built up of sleep, when all her strengths forsake 
 The sense-compelling spirit ; the depths glow, 
 
 The heights flash, and the roots and summits shake 
 Of earth in all her mountains, 
 
 And the inner foamless fountains 
 And well-springs ol her fast-bound forces quake ; 
 
 Yea, the whole of our life 
 Is set on fire of strife, 
 
 Till change unmake things made, and love remake : 
 
 Reason and love, whose names are one, 
 
 Seeing reason is the sunlight shed from love the sun.” 
 
 — Swinburne. 
 
 In the determination of the right relations of Individualism and 
 Socialism, there is perhaps no solution more difficult to make, 
 and yet none of more importance for the welfare of the State, 
 than the harmonious adjustment of the claims of Capital with those 
 of Labour. It is a problem which calls aloud for settlement. The 
 air is thick with the noise of a new warfare, wherein the combatants 
 are no longer imperious despots and outraged subjects, but militant 
 masters and menacing men. Strikes and rumours of Strikes are 
 the order of the day, while the good-feeling between employers and 
 employed grows ever more strained. 
 
 And yet it is obvious, to the unprejudiced observer, that these 
 interests are identical; or else that all community of purpose— 
 that Socialism itself—is a delusion and a snare. There is no room 
 in any well-ordered civilisation for this internecine strife—this 
 miserable wrangling of dogs over the carrion of filthy lucre—this 
 fighting, as of Kilkenny-cats, over the very corpus of commercial 
 existence. “ There was nothing left of them but their tails ”—so 
 runs the ancient fable—and surely those fighting yet fragmentary 
 tails still point their moral to all who have eyes to read the signs 
 of the times, and intelligence to discern their meaning. We 
 hear of the far-famed Thames-trade slipping away to find some 
 safer resting-place in the rivers of the North—we learn that mer- 
 
274 
 
 INDIVIDUALISM AND SOCIALISM. 
 
 chants and shippers alike are losing their confidence in London 
 as a port of call—and we know, by the bitter experience of the 
 past three months, that Scotch goods may be sent backwards and 
 forwards, not once nor twice, but thrice, because their unshipment 
 is impossible while the lightermen and the dockers are out on strike. 
 
 Let us not, however, misconceive the meaning of this portent— 
 let us not misread the riddle of Strikes. There comes a time, in the 
 history of antagonism, when a Strike is the last resource of des¬ 
 perate men ; when the Gordian-knot has to be cut by the sharp edge 
 of civil combination. It may well be, when the smoke and tumult 
 of the battle has cleared away, that we shall see new vistas of well¬ 
 being opening up for the future of the toiling multitudes, because 
 of the struggle and the suffering of these East-end Strikes. There 
 can be little doubt, even now, that a new spirit of hope and courage 
 has been inbreathed into the hearts of those who have begun to 
 sound the lost chord of social triumph—to find the strength which 
 Unity alone can give. The Sweater, and the Grinder-of-the-faces- 
 of-the-poor, are already trembling over their ill-gotten gains, be¬ 
 cause the handwriting stares upon them from the wall of resolute 
 resistance. “ Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin !—Ye are tried in the 
 balances, and are found v anting.” 
 
 But, even as we begin to count up the gains of this great social 
 earthquake—as we estimate the issues, more fruitful than the 
 dockers’ tanner, more hopeful than the Lafone-compromise, 
 more intelligible than the Brassey-arbitration—we have to realise 
 that the whole machinery of Strikes is absurdly antiquated, 
 unnecessarily complicated, and exorbitantly expensive. The 
 wheels are rusty with the friction of ages—they are clogged 
 with the rubbish of misunderstanding—they are thick with the dust 
 of hate. What wonder that the whole performance is like the dis¬ 
 charge of a sixteenth-century blunderbus, whose noise frightens 
 children into fits, and whose recoil knocks the presumptuous gunner 
 down. Go into the homes of the East-end to-day, and see the 
 terrible recoil, which has made the Pawnbroker the sponsor of the 
 Strike, and the Union the symbol of its success. Well may we 
 
INDIVIDUALISM AND SOCIALISM. 
 
 275 
 
 recall old Casper’s naYve refrain, M It was a famous victory”; but 
 the verdict of the Future will be one with his confession, “ But 
 what they fought each other for, I never could make out.” There 
 is no power in conflict to bring down the kingdom of God. Force 
 may seem to be a temporary remedy for grievances ; but alas, 
 dragons’-teeth are the sowing of Hate, whose garnering is War, 
 whose winnowing is Death. 
 
 There were doubtless faults on both sides. The Dock Directors 
 were not incarnate fiends, nor were the Dockers angels who had 
 shed their wings. No protest too strong can be uttered against 
 the attitude of the Strikers towards those whom they termed “ Black¬ 
 legs.” The first condition of Free Fight is Fair Play all round. 
 If Strikes are to be enforced by public acclamation, as the best 
 substitute for Ordeal by Fire, or any other rough and ready 
 approximation after justice, then must there also be the sternest 
 insistence upon “ uncogged dice." The masters may not be sent 
 into the arena with their hands tied behind their backs, any more 
 than their opponents may be shadowed by the police. If the men 
 are entitled to combine for the protection of their interests, and to 
 refuse to work under given conditions or at a given rate of wage, 
 so also are the masters entitled to claim full freedom of employ¬ 
 ment. No one can object to any man refusing to work except on 
 his own terms ; but all may execrate the interference of those who 
 will not work with those who will. This is not Socialism—this is 
 not legitimate Striking—it is anarchy. 
 
 But, after all, what nonsense this prating of Fair Play is, when 
 once we admit the devil’s arbitrament of social and commercial 
 war. If w T e are ready to find concrete expression for the abstraction 
 of Evolution, and “ the survival of the fittest ” is to be made the 
 motto of our commercial supremacy, then must we also bid a long 
 farewell to the fallacy of Christianity. There must be no maunder¬ 
 ing about the rights of the weak, and the responsibilities of the strong. 
 All the world’s a fight, and black-legs when beaten must go to the 
 wall. Vcz- Victis becomes the watchword of Satan’s Armageddon. 
 
 But we have not so learned Christ. There is, for masters as for 
 
INDIVIDUALISM AND SOCIALISM. 
 
 men, a more excellent way. There is the Charity which beareth 
 all things, which endureth all things, which hopeth all things, which 
 believeth all things. There is no power like Love to harmonise 
 discordant claims. COMBINATION IS GOOD, BUT CO¬ 
 OPERATION IS BETTER ; and only as this truth is slowly 
 learned, will the long struggle between Capital and Labour die. 
 And whence will this inspiration of Mutual Interest come? Not 
 from Acts of Parliament—still less from the stress and strain 
 of Strikes—no, once more we return from the circumference of 
 results to the centre of Principle, and see that the motive force 
 in all social reform is the spirit of the reformer which is in 
 him. Only as masters and men alike are humanised, moralised, 
 energised, will they pluck, not grudgingly, nor of necessity, 
 but joyfully, the fair fruit of triumphant industry. To-day 
 they are beginning to combine, but then they will also co-operate. 
 
 Part VIII. 
 
 “ I take the trumpet from my lips and sing, 
 
 O life immeasurable and imminent love, 
 
 And fear like winter leading hope like spring, 
 
 Whose flower-bright brows the day-star sits above, 
 
 Whose hand unweariatle and untiring wing 
 
 Strike music from a world that wailed and strove—- 
 Each bright soul born and every glorious thing, 
 
 From very freedom to man’s joy thereof. 
 
 O time, O change and death, 
 
 Whose now not hateful breath 
 But gives the music swifter feet to move 
 Through sharp remeasuring tones 
 Of refluent antiphones, 
 
 More tender timed than heart or throat of dove. 
 
 Soul into soul, song into song, 
 
 Life changing into life by laws that work not wrong.” 
 
 — Swinburne. 
 
 We have seen something of the possible solution of Strikes 
 But, though the Ideal of co-operation is pleasant to the eye and 
 sveet to the taste, yet the history of Trade disputes goes far to. 
 prove that its adoption is difficult, and sometimes dangerous. 
 
INDIVIDUALISM AND SOCIALISM. 277 
 
 Within the fair garden of Hesperides hang the golden apples 
 of industrial triumph ; but, coiled round the trunk, lurks the loathly 
 dragon of Ill-will, and woe be to that reckless adventurer who seeks 
 to pluck the precious fruit without first drugging the monster with 
 the sweet opiate of love ! The papers of the week give abundant 
 illustration of the point. We have seen one of the most powerful 
 industrial corporations of the day offering to its workmen terms 
 which make them practical partners in the business; which have, in 
 the managing directors’ own words, increased the company’s wage- 
 sheet by thirty per cent, within the last six months ; and which have 
 been heralded through the public press as the presage of the new 
 social gospel of profit-sharing industry. And, at the same time, 
 we have seen these apparently liberal offers cast back in the teeth 
 of those who made them. The “ nest-egg ” of thrifty providence 
 has been addled, and the notices of the Gas-Stokers have been 
 sent in. 
 
 As we write, there is every prospect of a long and disastrous 
 Strike. The heather is ablaze again, and the signal-fires of a new 
 conflict between Capital and Labour are burning ruddy through the 
 winter snows. And yet, to those who can distinguish between 
 Profit and Principle, it is clear that the Union is right, and that the 
 Gas Company is wrong. For what, after all, is the bone of con¬ 
 tention ? It is not because a share in profits has been promised 
 that the Stokers are out on Strike—they are not all born fools ; and, 
 in the vulgar phrase, the British working-man knows pretty well 
 on which side his bread is best buttered—but because the promised 
 bonus has been coupled with an inequitable demand—the year’s 
 bond. The twelve-month’s notice is the shibboleth which makes 
 it impossible for the Stokers to spell satisfaction. No body of 
 men may sell their birthright of liberty, like Esau, for a mess of 
 profits ; and it is a most healthy sign of the times that this seem¬ 
 ingly splendid offer, made in all good-faith, has been rejected 
 because it has been accompanied by terms which imply, if they do 
 not involve, a moral servitude unworthy of free Englishmen. 
 
 Let no one listen to the miserable calumny, that this Strike has 
 
27 $ 
 
 INDIVIDUALISM AND SOCIALISM. 
 
 been forced to the front by the professional agitators of the Union, 
 who fear, like Othello, to find their occupation gone if once masters 
 and men should join hands of fellowship. No!—ten thousand 
 times—no ! That were but cutting off the nose of notoriety to 
 spite the face of power. That is not the way that the leaders oi 
 modern labour have been trained. Through long years of heavy 
 work and ceaseless discipline, they have been taught to understand 
 the meaning of freedom, and to reckon with the logic of facts ; 
 and therefore the very resolution of resistance which has been 
 taken, in the darkest, coldest hour of the year, goes far to prove 
 that a mistake has been made—but not by the men. There is a 
 great object-lesson here, writ large for all masters to read. There 
 can be no co-operation without the fullest sympathy ; and this 
 inspiration comes, not from below, but from above. This is the 
 critical feature of the relations between Capital and Labour to-day. 
 The conflict which began wfith the great Dockers’ Strike, and which, 
 by its success, has infected with a new spirit of hope and resolution 
 all the toilers who have been worst paid and most oppressed, can 
 never be stayed until the masters learn that the key of the situa¬ 
 tion is in their own hands. The responsibility rests with those 
 who have the power. The men may force certain concessions, by 
 mere stress and strain of combination ; but this is but the turning of 
 the tap, the letting loose of the waters of strife. The moral effect 
 is evil all round. The masters are first indignant, then rampant, 
 and lastly ruined. The goose that lays the golden eggs sickens, 
 and dies of organic atrophy. The fountains of Trade are blocked 
 with the dirt and dust of constant conflict ; while the men are 
 driven into the hungry darkness of despair. 
 
 And why ? Because the outcome of conflict is for ever conflict; 
 and the end of hate, is hate ! Only in love, in mutual considera¬ 
 tion, in common interests, can the long-lost harmony between 
 Capital and Labour be found. And, in this race of goodwill, 
 the masters must be first, because they have the most to 
 give. They can welcome their men, if they will, into the bonds 
 of co-operative labour ; and the Gas Company’s proposal for 
 
INDIVIDUALISM AND SOCIALISM. 
 
 279 
 
 profit-sharing is in itself wholly good. But profits are not 
 all—what does it profit a man, if he have the whole world, and 
 lose his own soul ? The first condition of the true life is per¬ 
 fect liberty ; and the worn-out fallacy of notices and agreements 
 must be torn up and cast into the fire. For what is an agree¬ 
 ment worth, if it be not voluntary? it is then but the chain which 
 compels the slave. No, the world has yet to learn that the first 
 essence of all virtue, moral, social, or political, is liberty; and that 
 without liberty all the divinity of manhood is dead and gone. 
 Therefore, let those who give learn the moral of this latest labour- 
 strike, and give not grudgingly, nor of necessity—above all, not 
 asking anything again. And the fruit of such glorious giving is 
 for ever certain—sure as the goodness of God, certain as the con¬ 
 fidence of Christ: “ Give, and it shall be given unto you ; good 
 measure, pressed down and shaken together and running over 
 shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that 
 ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.” 
 
Tlje Fqqcfioq 
 
 of Legislqfioq. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 “Of law there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom of God, 
 her voice the harmony of the world ; all things do her homage, the very least as feeling 
 her care, and the greatest as not exempted from her power.”— Hooker. 
 
 - 
 
 HE Irish Land Question is just now 
 uppermost in political circles, and 
 every one is discussing how near or 
 how remote an approximation to an 
 ideal solution is to be found in Mr. 
 Balfour’s Bill. Before, however, 
 arguing as to the specific applica¬ 
 tion of statutory power to Ireland, 
 or indeed to any part of the United Kingdom, 
 it may be well briefly to consider the principles 
 which must underlie all true legislation, and 
 which must therefore condition the final solu¬ 
 tion of the Irish question. 
 
 Now, the first thing to be observed is, that all 
 legislation by Act of Parliament is absolutely 
 arbitrary ; it represents the deliberate determi¬ 
 nation of the State, the matured mind of the 
 people. Legislation, therefore, can but lay 
 down authoritatively the rules under which the 
 game of citizenship is to be played out; and 
 laws but express the commonsense of those 
 who have the power to make them. But if this be true, then it is 
 impossible to make a case for permissive legislation. The State 
 
THE FUNCTION OF LEGISLATION. 
 
 281 
 
 can, of course, in its corporate capacity 7 , come forward to assist any 
 particular development of national life—for instance, Parliament, 
 as representing the people, can resolve to make grants in aid to 
 national education, or national recreation. All such action may be 
 briefly^ summed up in the phrase State Socialism, which, within 
 certain limits is possessed of possibilities for good which only the 
 future can determine. But, apart from this voluntary aspect of 
 State effort, legislation, in its true function of fixing the conditions 
 under which all social forces must find free play, is compelled to 
 speak with no uncertain voice of permission, but to say “ Yea, y'ea,” 
 or “ Nay', nay.” There has been a good deal of permissive legislation 
 during the last fifty years, and it has invariably 7 proved a failure— 
 for this simple reason, that where the sanction of the law has been 
 optional it has been accepted by the good, who love the spirit 
 rather than the letter, but has been neglected by the bad, for whose 
 guidance it has been specially made. 
 
 If the state of Society at any time makes it necessary to alter 
 one of the existing rules, then that change must be made absolute 
 for all whom it may concern. But, in fixing these rules of the 
 game, two sets of principles, which may be termed the Individual 
 list and the Social, must be borne in mind. The first connotes that 
 perfect law of liberty which maintains that every 7 one is free to mark 
 out his own line of life and course of action, so long as he does 
 not thereby interfere with the same right which belongs to his 
 brothers. The second marks the advantage to be gained by com¬ 
 bined social effort, so that no citizen lives for himself alone, but for 
 the State of which he is the son. It is in this harmony of indivi 
 dual liberty with social effort that ideal legislation is to be found , 
 and when the golden age begins to dawn, when the national life 
 draws near to the perfect laws of God, then the bitterly opposed 
 armies of Individualists and Socialists, who now rend the heavens 
 with their crres of defiance, will be found to be occupying, not hos¬ 
 tile, but friendly camps. There can be no true Socialist who is not 
 an Individualist ; there can be no ideal Individualist who is not, 
 in his heart of hearts, a Socialist, who loves his fellow-men. For, 
 indeed, this is the master-truth, which is for ever disregarded by 7 
 
28 2 
 
 THE FUNCTION OF LEGISLATION. 
 
 theoretical statesmanship, that ideal legislation is only fitted for 
 ideal people, and that, just as the diseased dyspeptic cannot appre¬ 
 ciate the joys of vital food, so cannot a degraded nation assimilate 
 the teaching of ideal law. 
 
 Let us apply these general principles to the determination of the 
 Irish question. It is obvious at once that no solution will be satis¬ 
 factory which is not in harmony with the Ideal. No false compro¬ 
 mise, no fraudulent sham, will do more than intensify the original 
 evils. Thus, then, the settlement of 1881 —when Mr. Gladstone 
 coolly relegated the laws of Political Economy to Saturn and 
 Jupiter—the compromise of dual ownership — stands self-con¬ 
 demned. In the same way, the Ashbourne Act, with its permis¬ 
 sive clauses, sins against that finality of law which we have seen 
 to be its essential characteristic. The present Purchase Bill is but 
 an elaborate extension of the Ashbourne Act It proposes to es¬ 
 tablish a number of small proprietors, in the place of the larger 
 landlords ; and so far its action is wise, for there is no power like 
 the magic of property to change the unrest of national discontent 
 into the peace of the commonweal. Here is the sanction of In¬ 
 dividualism, which resolutely opposes the rights of private property 
 —the windy insubstantialities of the Nihilist nationalisation of the 
 land. And, again, the claims of Socialism are met by the purchase 
 proposals, which make the national credit the means of advancing 
 the welfare of one portion of the State. 
 
 So far the Ashbourne Act and Mr. Balfour’s Bill call for approval, 
 not condemnation ; but the same fatal defect makes itself visible in 
 both—the operation of each is voluntary. No landlord need sell un¬ 
 less he wishes to ; no tenant need purchase unless he has a mind. “Of 
 course, that is the beauty of the whole thing ! ” shouts the indignant 
 Individualist. “ Where are the rights of private property, if any 
 one is obliged to sell against his will?” Not quite so fast, my 
 friend. The result of this false conception of legislation—that it 
 may become a compromise to bridge over specific differences, to 
 heal over specific sores—is illogical injustice. As has already 
 been pointed out, with these permissive clauses in operation, it is 
 possible for a tenant, by agreement with his landlord, to obtain an 
 
THE FUNCTION OF LEGISLA I ION. 
 
 •»5 
 
 immediate reduction of 20 per cent, upon his existing rent, with the 
 prospect of becoming the possessor of the freehold at the end of forty- 
 nine years ; while his next-door neighbour, on the same estate, may 
 still have to pay his existing rent, without hope of relief, until 
 “ the crack of doom,” That this result should be not only possible, 
 but probable, is the final condemnation of Mr. Balfour’s Bill. 
 
 Apart altogether from other considerations, which have nothing 
 to do with the principles involved, and of which therefore I take no 
 notice— eg, the hostile attitude of the Irish people, as expressed 
 by their representatives; the peculiar positions of Members of 
 Parliament who have pledged themselves up to the hilt that they 
 will not sanction the involvement of English credit; the objections 
 which may be made to State landlordism—apart from all these, 
 the logical absurdity of legislation which is unequal in its indivi¬ 
 dual operation warns us that we must look elsewhere for an ideal 
 solution of this burning question. And such a solution, to my mind, 
 must be universally applicable; it must bear to the political tin¬ 
 kering of the last fifty years the same relation that Vegetarianism 
 bears to the medical quackery of the same period. Instead of dos¬ 
 ing and drugging the debilitated system, instead of wilfully destroy¬ 
 ing symptoms which are Nature’s danger-signals, let us go back to 
 the “natural cure,” and so doing we shall find that health is the 
 natural condition of existence, and that its bloom is happiness. But 
 the natural cure is universal ; it takes no heed of persons, it needs 
 no specific treatment ; it gives its blessings to the old no less than 
 to the young ; it is so simple, that the merest babe can under¬ 
 stand it; it is so easy, that the most coward slave can practise it. 
 And so, in the world of legislation, there is a “ natural cure,” which 
 applies not only to the ancient cancer of Irish discontent, but to 
 the multiplied miseries of England, Scotland, and Wales. It is not 
 for one little country, but for the world ; it applies not only to 
 land, but to house property, to shops—in a word, to all relations of 
 the business life. It crowns the liberty of the Individualist with 
 the sanction of the Socialist—it holds the balance even, and thus 
 fulfils the function of the State. What it is, and how it is to be 
 applied, we must consider in our next part. 
 
I*ART U. 
 
 “ Aias, how many causes that can plead well for themselves in the Courts of West¬ 
 minster ur.d yet, in the general court of the universe and free soul of man, have no 
 word to utter.”— Carlyle. 
 
 O hold the balance even ! In this phrase is 
 summed up the whole Function of Legisla¬ 
 tion, and in it also is indicated the method 
 by which it is to be fulfilled. We have 
 seen that the first test of sound legislation 
 is that it should be absolute—that it should 
 1 iave no loop-hole for those evilly-minded 
 persons who are willing to disregard its 
 spirit, and to destroy its letter. The second 
 test of wholesome legislation is that it 
 should be fair all round, and universal in its application. Specific 
 legislation is like specific drugging—a delusion and a fraud. It is 
 impossible to legislate on opportunist principles, for laws that are 
 framed to meet an emergency, or to tide over a political crisis, are 
 not worth the paper that they are written upon. Laws should 
 represent the universal principles of justice, not the partisan pre¬ 
 scriptions of political quackery. 
 
 Let us, then, consider the question of land legislation as a whole 
 —not from the narrow standpoint of Hibernian anomalies, but 
 from the larger platform of agricultural tenure. The difficulty 
 that has to be solved is not private to Ireland alone; it exists 
 wherever landlord and tenant are divided by conflicting interests. 
 The landlord’s interest—I speak not of the ideal, but of the actual 
 —is to get the highest rent that he possibly can for his land ; the 
 tenant’s interest is to pay as little as possible for his farm, and to 
 
THE FUNCTION OF LEGISLATION. 
 
 285 
 
 protect any improvements that he may make against the rapacity 
 of the owner ; and, under the ordinary system of open contract, 
 there can be little hope of harmony. Fortunately the condition 
 of Society is more determined by the spirit of each separate 
 citizen, than by the rules which the State has enacted for their 
 governance ; and therefore the relations of landlord and tenant in 
 England and Scotland are, for the most part, more friendly than 
 their legal position might have given ground to expect. This is 
 but one proof more, amongst many, that national well-being is 
 more dependant upon national character than upon Acts of 
 Parliament. But, putting this particular aspect of the land ques¬ 
 tion on one side, we may naturally ask, “ What is the interest of 
 the State, as compared with that of landlord and tenant? And 
 the answer is, “ Benificial Occupancy.” It matters very little to 
 the State who occupies the land ; but it is of the first importance 
 that every tendency should be in the direction of its profitable 
 occupancy. Everyone has heard of Mill’s famous phrase, “ The 
 magic of property which turns sand into gold.” The statesman 
 who neglects the potency of private property for the improvement 
 of the soil deserves the pity which is given to the hapless blind. 
 Here is the sanction for all schemes for extending proprietorial 
 rights to the many ; here is the doom of their monopolisation by 
 the few. But how is this sanction to be made automatic—how 
 are all proprietorial rights, whether small or great, to be defended 
 against the confiscation which their very extension may seem 
 to suggest ? There is only one method—it is that of the balance. 
 Conflicting interests must be regarded as divergent forces, for 
 which a common resultant must be found. Take a practical illus¬ 
 tration. A landlord is possessed of an estate, a part of which is 
 sub-let to his tenants. How is the State to secure that both land¬ 
 lord’s and tenants’ interests shall be automatically equalised ? 
 Simply by giving to every tenant the right of purchase upon an 
 equitable valuation, and by securing to every landlord the right of 
 refusing to sell upon the condition of reducing his rent. Thus the 
 principle of the balance is established, and the safety of the State 
 is secured. 
 
286 
 
 THE FUNCTION OF LEGISLATION. 
 
 The first necessity of such a system as this is an accurate and 
 authoritative valuation of all land which may come into dispute; 
 and, for this purpose, Land Courts become a part and parcel of 
 local government. Such courts of Equity are invaluable as repre¬ 
 senting the human element, which, when all is said and done, must 
 supervise the working of State machinery. However elaborate 
 may be the mechanical development of any trade, whether of 
 weaving or printing or what not, it is impossible to dispense with 
 the controlling judgment of man ; and so, in all practical legisla¬ 
 tion, there must for ever remain the necessity of human interven- 
 tion, lest life become stereotyped into death. And this is pre¬ 
 eminently the case with land legislation, because of the fluctuations 
 of agricultural prosperity. The whole mystery of unearned 
 increment has to be borne in mind. A town may be planted upon 
 a waste, and within twenty years prairie values are transmuted 
 into suburban ground rents. Coal is found in Kent, and deserted 
 farms are changed into El Dorados of the speculator. And for 
 all these variations of value there can be no common formula, no 
 complete equation; and therefore the basis of all Ideal 
 legislation must still be found in those Courts of Equity which 
 our Saxon forefathers loved, and whose most practical expres¬ 
 sion is the “twelve men honest and true”—the jury of to-day. 
 
 But when once these conditions are granted, then all else is 
 simple. The rights of Individualism are regarded No landlord 
 is compelled to sell the smallest portion of his property against his 
 will. If he chooses, he can occupy it all himself; but his occu¬ 
 pancy must be beneficial. If he prefers to sub-let his farms, as is 
 usually the case, then he must be prepared to meet the demands 
 of his tenants to purchase, by a reduction of rent. Let us assume 
 that an estate has been valued, and that twenty years’ rent repre¬ 
 sents the purchasing value. The tenant is willing to purchase, but 
 the landlord is unwilling to sell. Then the State, through the 
 medium of legislation, steps in and says to the landlord, “You 
 may increase the purchase value of this property, but for every ten 
 per cent, that you add to the amount, you must take off ten per 
 cent, from the rent which you receive.” Here may be seen the 
 
THE FUNCTION OF LEGISLATION. 
 
 *87 
 
 ▼irtue of the balance. The landlord, for special reasons, desires to 
 reta.n the proprietorial privileges ; perhaps he wishes for county 
 fame, he loves to be an unlimited landholder—very good, but he 
 cannot also be an unlimited rent-receiver—he cannot eat his cake 
 and keep it—he cannot have the advantages of possession both 
 ways. His rights may not interfere with those of his poorer and 
 weaker brother; therefore, in proportion as he persists in remain¬ 
 ing a proprietor, will his rent-roll be diminished ; and at the same 
 time, in proportion as his tenants are debarred from the joys of 
 ownership, will their pockets be lightened from the payment of 
 rent. It is obvious that, when once this principle is established, 
 the conflict of interests disappears. Each party gets something 
 he wants, and therefore each party is, or ought to be, satisfied. 
 
 We must now consider the Socialist aspect of such legislation 
 Where abnormal conditions exist, as in Ireland, there can be no 
 reason why the State should not interfere, with its credit, to help to 
 put things right—only the proper limit of such interference must 
 be observed. Individualism and Socialism maybe regarded as the 
 two scales of a balance, and the equilibrium of both is the Ideal 
 at which legislation should aim. But if this be so, then State 
 advances for the impurchasing of tenants must always be limited 
 to 50 per cent, of the value involved, and all wholesale advances 
 of the Balfour and Ashburne type would be recognised as being 
 as illogical as they are inexpedient. 
 
 Here then, is a Vegetarian solution of the great land problem ; 
 but it is not limited to land. It provides an answer for the long¬ 
 standing house difficulty, and includes in its operation the two 
 great proposals of taxation of ground-rents and enfranchisement 
 of leaseholds. It is universally applicable, and holds its healing 
 for all portions of the United Kingdom, for all members of the 
 body politic. It only needs discussion to bring into strong relief 
 its weakness or its strength. To all impartial criticism I commend 
 it—not as my own, but as given to me by a friend. 
 
part in. 
 
 Hold the balance even, neither up nor down j 
 bnelter with your justice, country folk and town ; 
 
 ne the weak protection, give the strong fair play, 
 VLake the State a stronghold looking every way/’ 
 
 HAT a grand thing it would be if, say for 
 one year, party politics could be altogether 
 forgotten, and legislation was to be con¬ 
 sidered on the ground of principle alone 1 
 Hitherto the balance has been largely in 
 favour of the possessing classes, and every 
 concession in the shape of democratic legislation has for the most 
 part been wrung by main force from reluctant obstruction. Now 
 the whole aspect of things is changing, and the voice of the people 
 is being heard in a way that it has never been heard before. The 
 change is not in all respects an unmixed advantage. Parliament • 
 finds its chief place of privilege upon the popular platform, and 
 the art of government runs some risk of being confounded with 
 the science of electoral manipulation. It is therefore well, in all 
 vexed political questions, to establish, if possible, some general 
 principle which shall be independent of partisan polemics, 
 and which shall form the foundation for all legislative super¬ 
 structure. 
 
 I cannot conceive any foundation more essential than those first 
 principles which condition all ideal law-making, and which require 
 that every proclamation of the Statute-book should be at once 
 impartial and absolute. We have already seen that the secret of 
 such absolute impartiality is to be found only in the balance, which 
 
THE FUNCTION OF LEGISLATION 
 
 2S9 
 
 gives something to either side. The righteous demands of 
 Individualists and Socialists are alike satisfied by a principle which, 
 leaves unfettered the liberty of possession, and at the same time 
 defends the rights of beneficial occupancy. The beauty of this 
 system of the balance is, that it is universally applicable. It 
 claims no special consideration for one corner of Her Majesty’s 
 realms, or for one section of the English-speaking people. It 
 confines itself to no narrow purview of agricultural holdings, but 
 extends the horizon of its conciliation to all classes of property. 
 It recognises at once the rights and the responsibilities which 
 spring from wealth ; it breaks down the middle wall of division 
 which separates those who have from those who have not. Thus 
 Legislation, properly conceived and righteously interpreted, 
 becomes the mediator between man and man ; it sets its sanction 
 upon individual success, it covers with its wings the infirmity of 
 failure. Such well-balanced legislation becomes the half-way 
 house between coercion and licence—it is the messenger which 
 prepares the way for the Ideal; it is the school-master which leads 
 to Christ. 
 
 There is perhaps no more burning question in the world of 
 politics to-day than that of leasehold enfranchisement. Every 
 householder is interested in the establishment of just relations 
 between landlord and tenant. As things are now, the world of 
 house-tenancies is out of joint—every one is dissatisfied, the well¬ 
 being of the State is undermined, and that summurn bonum of 
 right social relations, “the greatest happiness of the greatest 
 number,” is altogether lost from view. Ex uno disce omnes. Take 
 the case of the Metropolis. The great majority of houses to be 
 let, whether in the northern, eastern, southern or western districts, 
 are built upon private estates. Large landlords, such as the Duke 
 of Westminster, the Duke of Portland, the Duke of Devonshire 
 and others, hold in their hand the vast bulk of the residential 
 property of London. Grazing partures have, in the course of a 
 short century, become gold-fields before which the Californian 
 diggings hide their diminished heads. Every pamphlet upon 
 political economy, from the “ Wealth of Nations ” downwards, has 
 
 K 
 
290 
 
 THE FUNCTION OF LEGISLATION 
 
 denounced the gross inequalities which are the necessary fruit of 
 the unchecked development of unearned increment There is 
 no advantage—rather is there great danger to the State—in this 
 super-centralised sj r stem of unlimited landlordism. All the 
 wholesome tendencies of proprietorial privileges are dwarfed 
 and stunted, and the natural impulse of development is let and 
 hindered, because a false theory of legislation has cast its influence 
 into the scale of the possessor, and made the occupier kick the 
 beam. 
 
 Once more we must repeat that, in a rightly-ordered Society, 
 beneficial occupancy is the one desideratum of parliamentary 
 interference. The more owners of household property the better. 
 Every owner becomes a living centre of vigorous improvement. 
 But, under the present lopsided system of leasehold tenure, every 
 occupier is fearful of the voice of the charmer, lest improvement 
 become the signal for increase of rent. What a change would 
 come over the spirit of their dream were it once established by 
 Act of Parliament that every occupier should have the right of 
 demanding the purchase of his house, upon a certain statutory 
 scale of purchase, to be based upon an authoritative valuation of 
 the property, to be made by a Court of Equity established for this 
 purpose ? 
 
 At the same time the right should be extended to the landlord 
 of enlarging this purpose value, by consenting to a proportional 
 reduction of the annual rent. Take a practical illustration. A 
 home is valued at ^ioo rent per annum, The purchase scale for 
 house property is, let us assume, twenty years. Then the occupier 
 is empowered to demand the purchase of his house for £2,000. 
 Perhaps the landlord is unwilling, for private reasons to sell ; he 
 may then increase the purchase value of the property by any per¬ 
 centage that he chooses (say 50 per cent.), but at the same time he 
 must be content proportionally to reduce the amount he is receiving 
 in the shape of annual rent. Thus the equilibrium of the legisla¬ 
 tive balance is readjusted, and the rights of property are, in the 
 best sense, assured. 
 
•I \ 
 
 T1\g Fevfect LqV of Ixihebjy. 
 
 Part I.—LIBERTY. 
 
 By A. F. Hills. 
 
 “ But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being 
 not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”— 
 St. James i. 25. 
 
 dE perfect Law of Liberty is the com¬ 
 plement of the perfect reign of Law. 
 There is the positive liberty—the desire 
 to do right —which betokens the break¬ 
 ing of the bondage of sin, or the desire 
 to do wrong. There is the negative 
 liberty, which is allowed to fulfil its own 
 destiny, to follow its own line, and which 
 in turn allows the same right to others. 
 Such a perfect law of liberty is the sign 
 and seal of the divine manhood, which 
 is in harmony with the will of God. 
 It is the expression of the true AT-ONE-MENT, the complete 
 salvation, the voluntary obedience, the loving reception of the law 
 of God. Virtue (“ vir ”) is for ever the willing service of the 
 illuminated, the inspired, the idealised man. It springs not from 
 compulsion, not from coercion, not from necessity; but from the 
 spontaneous outflowing, the divine energy of the man made free. 
 Sin is a disease of the spirit, of the soul. It touches the roots of 
 desire. It is not so much the breaking of God’s laws, which may 
 or may not. be ignorantly, unconsciously broken ; but the wilful 
 
292 
 
 THE PERFECT LAW OF LIBERTY. 
 
 erring from a higher standard of moral possibility, the wilful 
 refusal of a nobler Ideal. It is the will which is at fault. In the 
 innermost sanctuary of the spirit, there the final battle must be 
 fought. As long as Man is separated from God by his own will, 
 so long is the true terror of damnation his—not the melodramatic 
 brimstone and fire, but a far more terrible, self-destroying damna¬ 
 tion —posna damni —the one absolute loss —the separation from the 
 Love of God. 
 
 Perfect liberty—complete freedom of choice, to do the good and 
 to refuse the evil—is the essential condition of the divinity of 
 man. It is the interpretation of many of the dark oracles of old— 
 it is the clue to the unravelling of the dark mystery of the world’s 
 failure. It is the Hope which believes in, and believing makes 
 possible, the redemption of the world. The reign of the perfect 
 law of liberty is co-extensive with the dominion of man. It enters 
 into all spheres of his operation ; it conditions all his activities by 
 the law of Love. For that, in other words, is the teaching of this 
 truth Perfect consideration for the interests, the aspirations, the 
 efforts of others. Absolute truism—utter unselfishness—these 
 are the watchwords of the perfect law of liberty. It is at once 
 subjective and objective: it will not suffer wrong ; its ideal is not 
 of this world, but harmony with God’s will; it will not inflict 
 wrong, even for the seeming promotion of good, for it teaches that 
 the kingdom of God cometh not only by violence, but is as the still 
 small voice, breathing unbidden in the individual heart. 
 
 In the sphere of politics the perfect Law of Liberty condemns 
 coercion, and declares that peace and order are the fair fruit of 
 righteous conditions of society, and that they cannot be purchased 
 by buck-shot and bayonets. It proclaims that all government by 
 force is essentially ephemeral—which, like a drastic potion, may 
 reduce specific symptoms, but cannot revitalise the system, or 
 eliminate the secret sources of mischief—that such government is 
 foredoomed to failure, for it does but 
 
 “ Skin and film the ulcerous wound 
 That mines and festers all unseen beneath.” 
 
 The perfect Law of Liberty declares perpetual war against that 
 
THE PERFECT LAW OF LIBERTY. 
 
 293 
 
 vicious system of party-politics which merges the individual in the 
 partizan, which builds up high walls of division, and formulates 
 sharp shibboleths of separation ; which sows to the wind of Caucus 
 concentration, and reaps the whirlwind of machine-made legisla¬ 
 tion. It breathes the more wholesome atmosphere of a patriotism 
 which is intensely individual ; it pre-heralds the advent of a 
 happier time, 
 
 “ When none are for a party, tut all are for the state.” 
 
 It points to the true “ Aristocracy”—the rule of the best, for the 
 best—when the first thinkers, the best men of all parties, unite, not 
 for the carrying out of a particular programme, but for the further¬ 
 ance of that on which they are of one mind. The points of union 
 —that wherein Conservatives, Liberals, and Radicals alike agree— 
 these are the authorised programme of the Perfect Law of Liberty. 
 All else, be it good or bad, must wait for the ripening of the public 
 conscience. The Closure, the reform of Parliamentary procedure, 
 and all other “ euphemisms,” which imply the whittling away of 
 the power of the minority—the cast-iron rule of a domineering 
 majority—these innovations of impatience find no sanction in the 
 Perfect Law of Liberty. They are signs of the decadence of 
 politics, of the degradation of discussion, of the increasing impo¬ 
 tence of legislation. The politician “in a hurry” is the politician 
 in error. Obstruction is better than the organised over-riding of 
 opinion, and the tyranny of the few less hateful than the despotism 
 of the many. 
 
 The perfect Law of Liberty maintains, with its moral sanction, 
 many of the political victories of the past—free trade, free speech, 
 free voting, free press, free minority, free federation, free religion, 
 free slaves, and free men ! It utters a solemn warning to the 
 enthusiastic social reformer, and declares that no seeming moral 
 gain may be bought at the expense of individual liberty ; that the 
 only true local option is that of the individual ; and that national 
 virtue cannot be created by Act of Parliament. It substitutes 
 moral suasion for State conviction, and banishes “ the blessed 
 principle of compulsion ” to the Hades of fallen and unregenerate 
 political ideas. Compulsory legislation, whether in the land, or 
 
294 
 
 THE PERFECT LAW OF LIBERTY. 
 
 allotments, or vaccination, or the drink traffic, or insurance, or in 
 any other direction, it unhesitatingly condemns. It re-emphasizes 
 the famous maxim that" force is no remedy/’ and, looking out into 
 the history of the world with larger eyes, answers the question of 
 the pessimist philosopher by showing that the existence of evil 
 brings no accusation against the goodness of an all-powerful God ; 
 but rather, in the light of the law of liberty, against the goodness 
 of all-powerful man. 
 
Part II.—LICENSE. 
 
 “Let every soal be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of 
 God ; the powers that be are ordained of God. . . . For rulers are not a terror to 
 good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that 
 which is good, and thou {-halt have praise of the same. . . . Wherefore ye must 
 
 needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.”— Roman xii., 
 
 G 3 » S' 
 
 IE perfect law of liberty has nothing but the 
 sternest reprobation for unbridled license— 
 nothing but severest censure for those who hound 
 on an ignorant populace against an incensed 
 police. Law and order are the first conditions 
 of civilised Society, and should be respected by 
 all capable citizens. It is time that men should 
 think less of their rights and more of their duties—less of what is 
 due to them, than what is due from them. 
 
 The free expression of public opinion is a splendid privilege, 
 the right of public meeting is a national inheritance. “ Fair play 
 and no favour” is the Englishman’s favourite maxim; and yet 
 there are greater needs than public speaking to-day. Hearken to 
 the prophecy of the coming Christ—“ He shall not strive, nor cry, 
 neither shall his voice be heard in the streets ; a bruised reed shall 
 he not break, the smoking flax shall he not quench ; but he shall 
 bring forth judgment unto victory The same power belongs to 
 his disciples still. The silent testimony of the perfect life is more 
 eloquent than polished periods or revolutionary rhetoric; it is 
 mighty for the pulling down of error, omnipotent for the establish¬ 
 ing of the Truth ! 
 
 There is too much public speaking, too little private doing, in 
 
296 
 
 THE PERFECT LAW OF LIBERTY. 
 
 this nineteenth century. The floodgates of frothy fluency are 
 open, the “ gift of the gab ” is abroad—“ the dreary drip of 
 dilatory declamation ” is never still. And what is the result ? 
 Parliament is surfeited with its own excess, and legislation lingers 
 in the limbo of convenient oblivion. In the churches and chapels 
 there is plenty of preaching, and yet God’s will is not done on 
 earth as it is in heaven. “ Laborare est orare ”—and the great 
 men of all time have been chary of words, fruitful of works. 
 
 There is a mine of meaning in the monition, M To obey is better 
 than sacrifice, to hearken than the fat of rams.” Obedience is the 
 first condition of the Perfect Law of Liberty—obedience to the Law 
 of God, submission to the law of man. But what if the Law be 
 bad ! Then there are legitimate methods by which such a law 
 may be abrogated. There is a righteous agitation and an 
 unrighteous agitation. Agitation by outrage is intolerable. Murder, 
 boycotting, the maiming and mutilation of inoffensive cattle— 
 these, and all other sins against God’s law of love, do not help 
 but hinder the progress of any righteous cause. There can be 
 no communion with crime, no condonation of cruelty—it is 
 altogether abomin'able, wholly detestable; the remedy is worse 
 than the disease. There is another and more excellent way. 
 What Parliament has written it can unwrite ; the laws that men • 
 have made can by men be unmade. Parliamentary enactments, 
 when rightly considered, are more truly indications, memorials, 
 high-water marks of public opinion, than the expression of 
 absolute law. But, as long as they are maintained, they should be 
 obeyed. 
 
 Take the case of Compulsory Vaccination—an iniquitous enact¬ 
 ment. Until this law is blotted out from the Statute-book, there 
 are two means of meeting its requirements—submission to the 
 infliction of a filthy disease, or the payment cf a fine. Point-blank 
 refusal to do either is, to the indignant individual, a great tempta¬ 
 tion ; it makes a false appeal to his pride, to his love of right, to 
 his knowledge of a higher law. The temptation is subtle, but it 
 must be resisted. The condition of all society is obedience to its 
 laws, and he who, in the name of higher laws, breaks down the 
 
THE PERFECT LAW OF LIBERTY. 
 
 2 97 
 
 sanctity of law, is guilty of an outrage which will inevitably recoil 
 upon his own head. 
 
 And yet, in this conflict between Authority and its victims, the 
 greater moral responsibility rests upon the strong. Their duty is 
 to bear the burthens of the weak, not to increase their weight. 
 Wherever the framework of Society is out of joint, wherever there 
 is set up a friction between the people and the law, there the 
 Government in power are to blame. For the great teaching of 
 the Perfect Law of Liberty is this—that licence is the bitter fruit 
 of forgotten Liberty; that evil passions, enmities, confusion, grow 
 out of false conditions ; that the tree must for ever be judged by 
 its fruit, and that a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit. 
 
P(eqltL 
 
 PART I. 
 
 ** ’Tis life whereof our nerves are scant; 
 ’Tis life, not death, for which we pant 
 More life and fuller that we want.” 
 
 LTH salvus) is the being “ whole ” ; 
 
 health is the harmony of man’s complex 
 unity—the wholeness of body, mind, soul, 
 and spirit, in accordance with the will of 
 God. Health is the function of true religion, 
 for it is that complete binding together 
 ( religare ) of all truth, which is at once Know¬ 
 ledge, Obedience, and Love. Let us hear 
 the conclusion of the whole matter: " Fear God and keep His 
 commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” Health is the 
 first condition of Happiness ; it is that full chord of heaven-born 
 music whereof pain, sickness, and death are but discords jarring 
 out of tune. Health is the true conservation of energy, the accu¬ 
 mulation of vital force, the overflowing of the fountains of life. 
 
 Perfect health is perfect power, the birthright of every child of 
 God. Omniscience and Omnipotence are the divine inheritance 
 of the heirs of eternal life ; they are the expression of God’s love ; 
 
HEALTH. 
 
 299 
 
 they are the summing up of His nature. They are the Alpha and 
 Omega of all true Faith ; they are the essence of that Hope which 
 grows by experience into Love. Complete perfection, the fruit of 
 perfect obedience to God’s will, is the Ideal of Health. “ Be ye 
 therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is also perfect.” 
 
 And this progress on to Perfection is subject to God’s universal 
 reign of Law. Failure is not the necessary fate of man ; sin is 
 not the inwoven, self-conditioned texture of his being ; disease is 
 not the chastisement of a capricious chance ; death is not the des¬ 
 tined goal of human life. 
 
 “ And Enoch walked with God ; and he was not, for God took 
 him ” (Gen. v. 24). 
 
 “ By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death ; 
 and was not found, because God had translated him ; for before 
 his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God” (He¬ 
 brews xl 5). 
 
 “ O death, where is thy sting ; O grave, where is thy victory ? 
 For the sting of Death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law ; 
 but thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our 
 Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. xv. 55-57). 
 
 The birthright of Man is glory and power ; made in the image 
 of God, inbreathed with the Spirit of God, his splendid inheritance 
 is dominion over God’s universe. “ And God blessed them, and 
 God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the 
 earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, 
 and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth 
 upon the earth ” (Gen. i. 28). 
 
 In the first Paradise, disease was impossible, because the physical 
 tabernacle was built in accordance with God’s laws. Disease is the 
 condition of death ; the laws of health have been violated—the 
 power of physical life has been dissipated ; death has begun to as¬ 
 sert its sway. At first the change is scarcely perceptible ; the 
 functions of life work with less freedom, the machinery of the body 
 seems clogged by a new friction—but slowly and surely, as the 
 potency of life is lessened, the dominion of death is enlarged—till 
 at length the doom, long signalled by aches and pains, is at hand, 
 
300 
 
 HEALTH. 
 
 and Nature, in one fierce, desperate effort, casts out the matter of 
 decay, or Life is swallowed up in Death. At last, the clear, cold 
 light of Science begins to shine upon the conditions of disease ; 
 the germ theory,with its “specific nidus,” is the nineteenth century 
 echo of the Apostle’s teaching : “ He that soweth to the flesh, shall 
 of the flesh reap corruption.” All disease must be sown, and for 
 its development must have material on which it can thrive. The ' 
 germ of disease can only flourish on that which is diseased—“ A 
 good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree 
 bring forth good fruit” (Matt. vii. 18). The true function of dis¬ 
 ease is the elimination of that which is already dead. Every dis¬ 
 ease-germ induces a process of fermentation, which helps to destroy 
 and remove the decay of the diseased system. To the enlightened 
 eye, disease is the messenger of God, disguised but yet discerning, 
 which warns by pain, which cures by sickness, which strives to 
 make all things new. But in the healthy system the soil is steri¬ 
 lised against all infection, for the man “who has said of the Lord^ 
 He is my refuge and my fortess ; my God, in Him will I trust ”— 
 for him the proud paean of the Psalmist is also true : “ Surely he 
 shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the 
 noisome pestilence; He shall cover thee with His feathers, and 
 under His wings shalt thou trust; His truth shall be thy shield and 
 buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror b}/ night, nor for 
 the arrow that flieth by day ; nor for the pestilence that walketh 
 in darkness, nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A 
 thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, 
 but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou be-' 
 hold and see the reward of the wicked. Because thou hast made 
 the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation, 
 there shall no evil befall thee neither shall any plague come nigh thy 
 dwelling. For He shall give His angels charge over thee to keep 
 thee in all thy ways. . . . Because he hath set his love upon me y 
 
 therefore will I deliver him ; I will set him on high, because he 
 hath known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer 
 him ; I will be with him in trouble ; I will deliver him and honour 
 him ; with long life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation.” 
 
HEALTH. 
 
 3 QI 
 
 The whole secret of Health lies in the knowledge of, and obedi¬ 
 ence to God’s laws. There is that which is best, and the best for 
 one is the best for all. But there is also in Man a power which is 
 not subject to the Law of God ; a power of free-will, of free choice, 
 which is the essence of his Divine Nature. Man can refuse the 
 Law of God, can trample it under his feet, and then sin is born 
 into^the world. For sin is the wilful violation of God’s law. “ Video 
 meliora , proboqiLe , deteriora sequor .” There is an ignorant, an un¬ 
 conscious violation of God’s laws, which is daily inducing its 
 Nemesis of punishment; for the self-contained, the necessary result 
 of breaking God’s laws is failure from the Ideal, and discord from 
 the harmonies of perfection ; but when once the spiritual part of 
 man has been taken captive by the Truth, when once the mists of 
 ignorance and prejudice have been dispersed by the Sun of 
 Righteousness, then from that moment a moral responsibility has 
 been incurred, which changes the failure of ignorance into the con¬ 
 demnation of sin. 
 
 The purpose of these papers will be to discover, so far as God 
 may help us, the true foundations of Health, the real meaning of 
 the Reign of Law. Truth, and Truth only, shall be the object of 
 our search ; and the Truth, as we find it, shall make us free. 
 
PART II. 
 
 “ Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the Law of 
 God, neither indeed can it be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” 
 —Rom. viii. 7, 8. 
 
 UBJECT to the Law of God ”—that is the con¬ 
 dition of Health. The great triumph of modern 
 science is the demonstration of the reign of 
 Law, UNIVERSAL, IMMUTABLE, IN¬ 
 VARIABLE-ETERNAL. And further, the 
 fulfilment of Law tends to PERFECTION, 
 makes for Righteousness !—for Law is the ex¬ 
 pression of the perfect will of God. 
 
 The reign of Law is UNIVERSAL: ruling the whole of crea¬ 
 tion, guiding the stars in their courses, and controlling the crystal¬ 
 lization of the smallest grain of sand. Take the telescope, and 
 look out into the deepest distances of planetary space—and there, 
 millions upon millions of miles away, beyond the span of our men¬ 
 tal grasp, beyond the reach of our imagination, reigns eternal Law. 
 The mind is overwhelmed with the infinite magnitude of God’s 
 creation. “ When I consider the heavens, the work of Thy fingers, 
 the moon and the stars which Thou has ordained—what is man 
 that Thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that Thou so 
 regardest him ! ” Yet behind this mystery of infinity the mind 
 
HEAL! IT. 
 
 303 
 
 and the spirit are alike conscious of the changeless reign of Law. 
 “ The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth 
 His handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto 
 night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where 
 their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the 
 earth, and their words unto the end of the w r orld.” The as¬ 
 tronomer has learned implicit faith in the reign of Law ; he makes 
 his calculations upon the assumption of the immutability of Law, 
 and it fails him not. Centuries may pass before the period of a 
 certain star—and yet, unseen by the eye of man, its changeless 
 course is marked, it is subject to the Law of God. 
 
 Take the microscope, and gaze into the minutest perfection 
 of detail—there too reigns eternal Law. On the point of a pin 
 may be placed a whole classification of “ diatomaceae,” each 
 separate shell invisible to the naked eye, and yet, when magnified, 
 each seen to be perfect in its marvellous making. Fairy involutes, 
 spirals, cones, and pyramids, marked with every variety of elabo¬ 
 rate embroidery and arabesque, inlaid with tenderest tones of 
 delicate hue—each different, each perfect, each form invariably re¬ 
 curring—each a sign and symbol of the reign of Law. 
 
 Look out with the geologist into the infinity of time, and a; a'n 
 the mind is baffled by the majestic march of natural law. Millions 
 upon millions of years, wherein the life of man seems but as a 
 drop in an unknown ocean of eternity. In the rocks, in the lakes, 
 in the strata of the earth-crust, may be read the history of the 
 reign of Law, carved in characters which time cannot efface. A 
 lump of old red sandstone, to the understanding eye, speaks of 
 the great Architect who in unknown time, out of unknown space, 
 built the marvels of creation, subject to the processes of his pre¬ 
 ordained decrees. 
 
 Once again, enlarge the natural powers, and shatter with a prism 
 some complex ray of light. All the secrets of molecular structure 
 wait their revelation, to declare their subjection to the reign of 
 Law. There is no change in the vibratory value of force. Sound, 
 heat, magnetism, electricity, light, vital, mental, psychical, and 
 spiritual force, are under all conditions for ever the same—no 
 
3°4 
 
 HEALTH. 
 
 power on earth can transmute the rays of heat into rays of light, 
 until the mechanical period of their vibration is also varied—heat 
 is heat, and light is light, for ever subject to the law of God. 
 What is matter, in its infinite variety, but the crystallization of 
 force? And what is force, in its infinite manifestation, but the 
 perfect will of God ? 
 
 The reign of Law is IMMUTABLE — INVARIABLE ; in 
 other words, like causes produce like effects. Recognition of the 
 reign of Law means the knelling of the doom of chance, it is the 
 final death-blow to that vicious philosophy which fabled a for¬ 
 tuitous concourse of atoms “ruining through the illimitable inane,” 
 out of which were supposed to have sprung the marvels of the uni¬ 
 verse. It is the victory of evolution over haphazard creation—of 
 development over spontaneous generation. It is the rock on which 
 all Faith is firmly planted ; the bulwark of all intelligent belief. 
 When once the mind has been saturated with the sense of the 
 immutability of Law, it is prepared for the search after absolute 
 Truth. The demonstration of this invariable sequence of Law is 
 abundantly to hand. The sower, as he goes forth sowing, knows 
 full well that his harvesting shall be according to his seed—that it 
 is impossible for him to sow wheat and to garner tares, and within 
 this measure he is convinced of the reign of Law. The doctor 
 knows that from a given infection but one type of disease can be 
 begotten ; that typhoid cannot come out of cholera, or small-pox 
 out of scarlet fever ; each form has its specific virus, and reproduces 
 itself—like from like —“ovum ex ovo” is the summing-up of his 
 belief in the reign of Law. Nay, further, he knows that every dis¬ 
 ease, every infirmity of the flesh, has not only its specific symp¬ 
 toms, but also its specific cause. Rheumatoid arthritis may create 
 swelling of the joints ; gout may find its centre of inflammation in 
 the extremities ; but each is differentiated from the other, not only 
 by its symptoms, but by its cause, and the true science of the 
 physician is in every case to diagnose, to determine the cause, so 
 that the system may be conformed to the reign of Law. Again, 
 the engineer, when he calculates the strains and stresses of some 
 particular structure, refers in his reasoning, to a recognised reign of 
 
HEALTH. 
 
 305 
 
 Law. The members in tension and compression—the strengths of 
 various materials—the form best adapted for particular work ; 
 these and a thousand other determinations are based on an invari¬ 
 able standard. The metallurgist, as he prepares his furnaces for 
 the purification of iron, the manufacture of steel, the alloying of 
 bronzes, must also look to those lessons of experience which are 
 the final proofs of the reign of Law. The red-shortness, or cold¬ 
 shortness of iron—the homogeneity and ductility of steel—these 
 are not accidents, the sports of chance, but the certain sequence 
 of known causes. The electrician, as he proportions the ratio of 
 armature and field in a dynamo, as he arranges the length and area 
 of copper wire, and the mass and form of iron, is not groping in 
 the dark. He stands sure upon the foundations of Law, and he 
 knows that, when a definite result has been once obtained, it can 
 be indefinitely repeated. The failures in electricity spring, not 
 from the variation, but the violation of law. The chymist, as he 
 tests with re-agents, as he explores by analysis, knows that certain 
 solutions will invariably produce in combination definite reactions ; * 
 that acids will be for ever different to alkalies ; that some sub¬ 
 stances are soluble in spirits of wine, and some in water ; and that 
 these properties of matter never alter. What is this but one other 
 proof of the eternal reign of Law. And so the proof may be mul¬ 
 tiplied a thousandfold. Whenever man’s knowledge is in any 
 direction specially complete, there he finds fresh confirmation of the 
 reign of law. 
 
FART III. 
 
 HE Reign of Law is not only immutable, in¬ 
 variable, but it tends in its fulfilment to PER¬ 
 FECTION ; it points to the existence of a per¬ 
 fect Ideal. Once more, within limits, this 
 truth is generally accepted. It is accepted by 
 the stock-breeder, who finds that, by fulfilling 
 certain conditions, by carefully selecting his 
 strains, by providing suitable and sufficient food and shelter, he 
 can gradually but surely improve any given breed of animals to an 
 almost indefinite extent. His wisdom lies in obedience to Nature’s 
 laws. He feels no uncertainty as to conception, he dreads no abor¬ 
 tion ; all he has to do is to secure satisfactory conditions, and 
 Nature works out the rest of the problem. The rose-grower is 
 strong in the same security. He has learned by happy experience 
 that his flowers need certain food—certain conditions of moisture, 
 sun and air. He begins to see a law governing the mystery of 
 cross-fertilisation, and as a result every year the market is flooded 
 with more perfect flowers. The marvellous development of the 
 orchid, the chrysanthemum, the carnation, and many another 
 variety, is due to the recognition of, and obedience to, the reign of 
 Law. 
 
 There is a splendid inspiration in this thought of perfection 
 
HEALTH. 
 
 3°7 
 
 springing from the fulfilment of God’s laws—there is eternal hope 
 for the future, born of this doctrine of obedience. For what is all 
 disease but the inevitable Nemesis of violated law—unnecessary, 
 unnatural, unholy ; born of man’s folly, perpetuated by man’s sin¬ 
 fulness, and destined to come to an end when man determines to 
 forsake the evil and choose the good? “When the wicked man 
 doeth that which is lawful and right he shall save his soul alive—- 
 the soul that sinneth, it shall die—he that soweth to the flesh, shall 
 of the flesh reap corruption—be not deceived, God is not mocked, 
 for what a man soweth that shall he also reap.” 
 
 The world is waiting wearily for this conception of the reign of 
 Law ; specialists, in their several departments, are forced to accept 
 the truth—but few practically believe in the universal reign of 
 Law. There is too much sickness, too much failure, for it to be 
 possible that the mass of ignorant, prejudiced, and degraded man¬ 
 kind should believe in the reign of Law. To many minds this 
 truth is a stone of stumbling, a rock of offence ; they have been 
 taught to believe that a man is inherently vile—capable of nothing 
 good, and that sorrow and sickness are arbitrary chastisements 
 whereby he is to be coerced into righteousness. From this point 
 of view disease is not an effect, but a cause ; not an automatic 
 punishment, but a direct dispensation. 
 
 Again, in many minds a certain misty vagueness seems the only 
 medium through which they may discern the bright shining of 
 truth. Such men say, " It’s all nonsense, this talk about absolute 
 law ; there is no such thing as an Ideal in food or drink ; what is 
 good for one is bad for another ; what is one man’s meat is another 
 man’s poison ; it is impossible, it is worse than folly, to lay down 
 any general rule for varying constitutions, to proclaim any panacea 
 for human ills.” What is all this but the denial of the reign of 
 Law ? For, indeed, if there be a possible perfection, the fruit of 
 obedience to Law, then also there must be an Ideal in all matters 
 that relate to health : an ideal in food, an ideal in drink, an ideal in 
 conduct of life ; that which is best ; that which is God’s pre¬ 
 ordained will for man ; and the law is not good for one particular 
 class of men, one special variety of physical constitution, but for 
 
HEALTH. 
 
 308 
 
 all, without exception. In one word, there is a perfect law of God, 
 which promises, to all who obey, perfect health, perfect power, per¬ 
 fect happiness. 
 
 “ The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul ; the testi¬ 
 mony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple ; the statutes of 
 the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the 
 Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes ; the fear of the Lord is clean, 
 enduring for ever ; the judgments of the Lord are true and righ¬ 
 teous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold ; yea, 
 than much fine gold ; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. 
 Moreover, by them is thy servant warned, and in keeping of them 
 there is great reward.” 
 
 Too long has the impotence of despair benumbed the energies 
 of mankind. “ A wonderful and horrible thing has happened to 
 the land ; the prophets prophesy falsely, and the people love to 
 have it so; and what shall it be in the end thereof?” Sin has 
 been denounced continually as the inherent vice, the dreadful doom 
 of fallen humanity—not as the wilful violation of God’s perfect 
 law. What wonder that such teaching has brought forth bitter 
 fruit, and that a world convinced of inborn, ingrained, inherent 
 sinfulness has scarcely cared to bestir itself to work righteousness ! 
 The cruel necessity of a demoniac nature, the more cruel doctrine 
 of arbitrary election, has turned men’s hearts from their loving 
 Father, has driven them to a despair which has become the mother 
 of disbelief. 
 
 The keynote of the Scriptures, the inspiration of the Law and 
 the Prophets—the teaching of Christ and his disciples — is far 
 other: “ Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and 
 with all thy might, and thy neighbour as thyself; on these two com¬ 
 mandments hang all the law and the prophets.’ “Thou shalt love 
 the Lord thy God ! ” His laws are perfect, and His nature is love ; 
 but to love Him aright thou must first learn the meaning of His 
 laws. The degradation of a fallen world has forgotten God’s laws ; 
 His thoughts are not as our thoughts, nor His ways our ways : the 
 path of degradation has to be retrodden, the life has to be recon¬ 
 secrated. All things are subject to the perfect will of God, and 
 
HEALTH. 
 
 309 
 
 the works of a good life become the justification of faith. There 
 can be no conversion without faith ; for faith is the grasping of the 
 Ideal by the Spirit, the motive power for the change of life. But 
 there can be no faith without works. “ What doth it profit, my 
 brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works ; 
 can faith save him ? . . . even so faith, if it hath not works, is 
 
 dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, I have 
 works ; show me thy faith without thy works ; I will show thee 
 my faith by my works.” Faith is the living root, and works the 
 fruit that springs from it. And faith in a perfect God, as a Father of 
 Love, is the beginning of Hope — a hope which maketh not 
 ashamed. This inspiration of faith in a reign of law, the warning 
 of a new belief in possible Perfection is, “ Work out your own 
 salvation in fear and trembling.” 
 
 The strenuous doctrine of Perfection admits no coward fears, no 
 craven delays. Its command stirs like the call of a clarion—“ Be 
 up and doing ; thy fate is thine own, thy future is within thine own 
 power ; thy fortune awaits thine own decision—“ for man is man, 
 and master of his fate.” Wait not for thy burthens to be borne 
 by another; cease to do evil, learn to do well ; fear God and keep 
 his commandments. Thyself, thyself—not another, but thyself— 
 arise, and go to thy Father, and say unto him, “ I have sinned 
 against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be 
 called thy son.” There is no other redemption, no other conver¬ 
 sion than this—the willing acceptance of God’s will by man. But 
 with that willing acceptance comes the New Jerusalem from heaven, 
 adorned like a bride for her husband : with that willing doing of 
 God’s will, returns the golden age. The scales fall off the blinded 
 eyes, the ears of the deaf are unstopped ; and mingled with the 
 angel chorus is heard a great voice from heaven, saying, “ Behold, 
 the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, 
 and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them 
 and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their 
 eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, 
 neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are 
 passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make 
 
S l ° 
 
 HEALTH. 
 
 all things new; I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the 
 end—1 will give unto him that is athirst of the waters of life freely. 
 He that overcometh shall inherit all things—and I shall be his 
 God, and he shall be my son.” 
 
PART IV. 
 
 E have already seen that Health, in its primary sig¬ 
 nificance, is the being whole in harmony with the 
 will of God—subject to the law of God, whose 
 PHi!/IPII! rei *S n i s co-extensive with the Universe, and makes 
 
 in its fulfilment for perfection. If these premises be 
 granted, and they are capable of overwhelming 
 proof, of infinite demonstration, then, as a logical 
 necessity, the conclusion must be accepted that 
 Disease exists only by the permission of man, that 
 it is an unknown quantity in the plan of creation, 
 that it is the just Nemesis of violated law, that it may be 
 destroyed and brought to a perpetual end. And this 
 conclusion holds good not only of passing attacks of ill¬ 
 ness; but of chronic organic disease, of inherited and constitutional 
 weakness, of all those ills to which human flesh is heir. ‘ f The 
 Fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth have been 
 set on edge.” Such is the solemn warning of the Law of Heredity, 
 confirmed and emphasised by the sad teachings of experience— 
 and yet this inheritance of degeneration may be renewed, revita¬ 
 lised ; the tainted fountains of life may be re-sweetened, re-purified, 
 by obedience to the Laws of God. 
 
 This is the one path of salvation, physical or spiritual—“ straight 
 
3 T2 
 
 HEALTH. 
 
 is the gate and narrow is the way, and few there be that find it,” 
 but it leads by steep and thorny ways to that sweet Paradise 
 where 
 
 “ He that, ever following Love’s commands, 
 
 On with toil of heart and knees and hands 
 Thro’ the long gorge to the fair light has won 
 His path upward and prevailed, 
 
 Shall find the toppling crags of duty scaled 
 Are close upon the shining table-lands 
 To which our God himself is moon and sun.” 
 
 Disease is, in the first instance, the angel of God, the messenger 
 of punishment, the instrument of divine wrath; but it also comes 
 to bless. It comes to set free the prisoner, fast bound in the fet¬ 
 ters of physical misdoing, to cast out the dead and decaying mate¬ 
 rial of a devitalised system, to eliminate the “morbific matter” of 
 degenerated tissue. It comes with healing in its wings to all— 
 through pain and suffering to purify, to cleanse. It partakes of the 
 eternal duality of Nature. It may be positive, as in zymotic dis¬ 
 ease, cholera, plague, typhoid, small-pox, etc., raging with feverish 
 fury, battling with the forces of Life in their most central citadel, 
 casting out in incessant eruption the dead, the decaying—in a word, 
 all that offends against the law of Life. It may also be negative 
 in its operation, as in gout, rheumatoid-arthritis, cancer, etc., where 
 the obstruction of deposited salts— e.g., lithates and urates of soda 
 or the death of worn-out tissue, makes difficult and painful the 
 struggle for existence. Pain is Nature’s danger-signal of difficul¬ 
 ties ahead ; the warning writ large for the sufferer to read, that 
 the line is blocked, and that the vital express cannot get through, 
 on its appointed way. 
 
 The process of all positive disease is that of low fermentation. 
 This process may with advantage be more closely considered. It 
 is a purely natural organic process, which has been recognised 
 since recorded time. Philology bears evidence to this. In almost 
 all languages the process is literally pictured. P'ermentation ( fer- 
 mentum, fervesceo) tells of the frothing or foaming (effervescence) 
 which is the result of the generation of carbonic acid gas. The 
 P>ench lem A Lre, English leaven, Latin levare , again speak of the 
 bearing-up, the lifting, which is the visible result of effervescence- 
 The Germans express the same idea in the old word gdhren , with 
 
HEALTH. 
 
 3 r 3 
 
 its substantive gheist, English yeast; or, again, in the word hefe> 
 derived from the verb heben , meaning to lift up, to “ heave.” ‘And, 
 lastly, there is the word “ barm,” commonly used in country dis¬ 
 tricts, connected with the idea of bearing-up y and finding its popu¬ 
 lar title in beer. 
 
 Thus language, in its varying record, indirectly testifies to the 
 ordinary result of all fermentation, in the effervescence of the fer¬ 
 mented fluid. The experiment can be easily made. Take any 
 sweet solution of grape-juice and water, of apple-juice and water, 
 or even of sugar and water, and place it in an open vessel in the 
 sun and air. In a short time there will be noticed a peculiar 
 change. However clear at starting, in the course of a few hours 
 the solution will become turbid, and will, along with bubbles of gas, 
 throw up a dirty-yellowish scum, and at the same time precipitate 
 a muddy sediment, which is technically known as “ lees.” 
 
 As has been already said, this process is coeval with nature ; 
 but it is within comparatively recent years that the phenomenon 
 has been scientifically investigated, and its real teaching brought 
 to light. The first to seriously inquire into the matter was a won¬ 
 derful old Dutchman, of Leeuwenhoek, who had also invented the 
 use of the higher powers of the microscope. He applied his inven¬ 
 tion to the sediment of ordinary fermentation, and found that it 
 consisted of an infinite number of minute separate grains of matter^ 
 varying from one to one of an inch in diameter. Through 
 his microscopic eye he saw that this seeming mud was a liquor in 
 w hich floated these infinitesimal particles ; and here for a century 
 the discovery remained dormant. The next to tread this path of 
 inquiry was the French philosopher, Cagniard de la Tour, who 
 found that these minute particles were not dead, but living, repro¬ 
 ducing themselves with extraordinary rapidity, and by a process of 
 gemmation, or budding, continually multiplying, some thirty, some 
 forty, some a hundredfold. He considered the matter, and pro¬ 
 pounded the theory which has since been generally accepted, that 
 this self-multiplying-mud must be a species of plant,"feeding and 
 reproducing upon the nutriment of the sugary fluid. He named 
 this infant of his brain and microscope “Torifla Cerevisiae.” The 
 
3M 
 
 HEALTH. 
 
 next question to determine was the relation of the Torula to other 
 plants ; and to sum up the whole matter in brief, it may be said to 
 be a fungus or mould, a true parasitic plant, an analogue of the 
 lichen and mushroom, which feeds upon organic matter, already 
 transmuted for its use. 
 
 But there is another method of investigation, more delicate, more 
 searching than the lens of the microscope, and that is the analysis 
 of the Chymist. Exposed to his tests and reagents, the little 
 Torula revealed itself as a tiny sac filled with mucous fluid. The 
 sac in its composition resembled cellulose, being built up of car¬ 
 bon, oxygen, and nitrogen ; and the mucous fluid proved to con¬ 
 sist of the four principal elements of Nature’s building, nitrogen 
 oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon; and, like other “ proteids,” albu¬ 
 men, gluten, caseine, the white of egg, etc., was possessed of the 
 same properties as what are termed “ animal products.” This 
 special organic product has since received the name of “ Proto¬ 
 plasm,” and is considered by some physiologists to be the original 
 material out of which the organic-universe is moulded. 
 
PART V. 
 
 HUS fermentation is determined to be the product of 
 the vital action of a living organism, which in its growth 
 and reproduction breaks up the molecular structure of 
 the solution in which it finds its “ specific nidus,” and 
 at the same time resolves it into other forms. 
 
 The products of the fermentation of yeast are for the 
 most part two-fold, CARBONIC ACID and ALCOHOL, the 
 former producing the bubbles of effervescence which form the froth 
 of sparkling champagne, bottled beer, etc., and which in the manu¬ 
 facture of bread, by its expansion raises, or renders light, the 
 dough of baking. Carbonic acid gas was first scientifically investi¬ 
 gated by a clever old Dutch alchemist, Van Helmont, who gave it 
 the name of “Gas Silvestre,” because it was generally to be found 
 in marshy woodland places, where the decay of organic matter was 
 most perceptible. He proved it to be a poisonous gas, pernicious 
 to life, and incapable of beneficial respiration. In course of time 
 it came to be known as “ fixed air,” and in these days of analysis 
 it has received the name derived from its component-elements of 
 carbonic acid gas, or, in the new chemical terminology, carbonic- 
 dioxide. The proof of its poisonous character is not far to seek 
 The brewers’ vats, with their deadly atmosphere of suffocation ; 
 the caves of Terni, where dogs are put to deathful sleep, to please 
 
3 l6 
 
 HEALTH 
 
 the cruel curiosity of visitors ; the “ black-hole” of Calcutta, where 
 the demons of “fixed air” asphyxiated their helpless victims. 
 
 “ Ah, God, what tongue can tell 
 
 The fiery torture of those hours of hell, 
 
 Crammed in one stifling hole—no air, no light, 
 
 Through the dark watches of that awful night ! 
 
 What means that moan—that gurgling gasp for breath ? 
 
 Mush, ’tis the presence of the angel Death ! ” 
 
 Every over-crowded, ill-ventilated assembly-room, music-hall, or 
 other place of entertainment (eg., St. James’s Hall during the 
 musical season); every stuffy window-closed bedroom, with their 
 long tale of chest-complaints, lung-affections, catarrhs, rheums, etc. 
 —these, one and all, in trumpet tones proclaim carbonic acid to be 
 a poisonous gas, unfit for respiration, and directly deleterious to 
 life. It is in truth, as its picturesque name of “ fixed air” implies, 
 satisfied oxygen. The affinity of oxygen for carbon is immense, 
 and when once they are mated, they are, for all purposes of animal 
 digestion, worse than useless. 
 
 The conclusion of this inquiry into the constitution of carbonic 
 acid is that it is injurious to the physical power of life, and that 
 therefore all effervescing drinks, within the measure of their satura¬ 
 tion with carbonic acid, are bad for the system, are banned from 
 the perfect physical ideal—and, further, that carbonic acid dis¬ 
 solved in bread is no more valuable than combined with water, and 
 that therefore all artificially raised bread, all yeast, all baking-pow¬ 
 ders, etc., are to be rigorously avoided by those who desire the 
 best. The proof goes hand in hand with the proscription. An 
 infinite variety of so-called temperance drinks have been imposed 
 upon an ignorant public as a splendid substitute for intoxicating 
 liquors. But bitter experience has taught the lesson that fizzy, 
 gassy drinks are for the most part unpalatable, and in the end in¬ 
 variably lowering to the tone of the system. The only substitute 
 for alcoholic drinks is fresh fruit, which is at once food and drink 
 of the purest vitalising delicacy, and which will by degrees finally 
 eliminate that physical weakness which is the first cause of the 
 craving for stimulants. In bread, the evidence is the same. In 
 proportion as the grain is emasculated, as the valuable salts are 
 thrown away with the gluten and bran, does the process of raising 
 
HEAL l H. 
 
 317 
 
 become easy—“ from him that hath not shall be taken away even 
 that which he seemeth to have”—and the degraded white bread 
 assumes with ease the poisonous element, which its stronger, 
 hardier brother defies. One reason why whole wheat-meal bread 
 makes such slow progress in popular favour is that it is generally 
 heavy, and disagreeably flavoured from its unwilling absorption of 
 carbonic acid. The best bread is made of the whole-meal of wheat, 
 v\ ithout any process of fermentation. A thin dough of freshly- 
 ground wheat-meal and water, WELL KNEADED TO INTRO¬ 
 DUCE AS MUCH AIR AS POSSIBLE—and in this lies the 
 v hole secret of success—and baked in a slow oven, makes a per¬ 
 fect bread, fit for the table of the Queen or her lowliest subject. 
 Carbonic acid represents a satisfied affinity, and its proper sphere 
 is the open-air, where it can be reabsorbed by vegetable growth 
 and, thus fulfilling the cycle of nature’s eternal activity, return 
 again as decarbonised oxygen, ready for animal assimilation. 
 
 The other product of fermentation is alcohol. This curious 
 n ime is originally of Arabian derivation—A 1 Kohol: The Kohol. 
 Kohol was the name of a very fine powder of antimony, with 
 which the Arabian ladies darkened their eyebrows ; but in course 
 of time it came to mean anything very fine, and was ultimately 
 applied to any very fine or subtle spirit, such as spirits of wine or 
 alcohol. Like carbonic acid, alcohol is a deadly poison, and 
 directly injurious to life. Its presence in a fermented solution is 
 detected by distillation. From the heated solution it will evapo¬ 
 rate, and, passing through a condensing coil, will distil into a clear 
 acrid liquor, like water to the eye, but deathful to the vital power 
 of life. The bed-rock upon which the Temperance reformation 
 is built up, is the essentially poisonous nature of alcohol. 
 
 Here, then, are three distinct facts. In every fermented solution 
 are found, (1) a rapidly reproducing plant life, (2) carbonic acid gas, 
 (3) alcohol. What is their relation ? The great French chemist, 
 Lavoisier, revolving the matter in a mind capacious of such things, 
 possessed by the inspiration of the “ conservation of matter,” sug¬ 
 gested that the whole weight of the sugary solution destroyed was 
 to be found again in the volumes of alcohol and carbonic acid gas, 
 
3 l8 
 
 HEALTH. 
 
 and that this splitting up of the sugar was the result of the vital 
 action of the “ Torula,” which seized upon the sugar as food, and 
 thus created the new combinations, as an animal inhales atmos¬ 
 pheric air and breathes out carbonic acid. The refinements of 
 later chemistry have proved this pregnant suggestion to be not 
 wholly accurate. Ninety-five per cent, of the sugar can be 
 accounted for in the alcohol and carbonic acid produced ; another 
 four per cent, of succinic acid and glycerine is also to be found ; 
 and one per cent, of the original sugar still remains unaccounted 
 for—a problem for chemists to elucidate, unless, as is most pro¬ 
 bably the case, this last one per cent, is absorbed directly by the 
 Torula, and deposited as food. 
 
 The proof of these chemical changes being the result of the vital 
 action of the Torula was conclusively demonstrated by a famous 
 experiment of the German chemist Helmholtz. “ He had two 
 vessels, one of them full of yeast, but over the bottom of it was 
 tied a thin film of bladder ; consequently through that thin film 
 of bladder all the liquid parts of the yeast would go, but the solid 
 parts would be stopped. The Torula would be stopped, the liquid 
 parts of the yeast would go. And then he took another vessel 
 containing a fermentible solution of sugar, and he put one inside 
 the other, and in this way the fluid parts of the yeast were able to 
 pass through with the utmost ease into the sugar, but the solid 
 parts could not get through at all. And he judged thus : If the 
 solid parts are those which excite fermentation, then, inasmuch as 
 these are stopped, the sugar will not ferment. And the sugar did 
 not ferment . showing quite clearly that an immediate contact with 
 the solid living Torula was absolutely necessary to excite this pro¬ 
 cess of splitting up the sugar. This experiment was conclusive as 
 to this particular point, and has borne fruit since in other direc¬ 
 tions. 0 
 
PART VI. 
 
 E have now reached the last stage of onr 
 
 investigation 
 
 a 
 
 We have seen that 
 sugary solution, when exposed to sun 
 and air, will shortly undergo a process of 
 fermentation, resulting in the production 
 of carbonic acid and alcohol. We have 
 also seen that these chemical changes are due to the vital activity 
 of a living organism, the Torula Cerevisice. Whence, then, does 
 the Torula come ? At first thought, it might be seen that it was 
 spontaneously generated in the sugary solution ; and for many 
 years the camp of Science w r as divided upon this particular ques¬ 
 tion : Is spontaneous generation possible ? And the verdict of 
 Science and of experiment to-day is, “ Without question it is im¬ 
 possible.’' Life cometh from life —ovum ex ovo —but the conclusion 
 of the great law of Evolution is this—that Life is continuous— 
 not self-created, but proceeding. Chemists and physiologists have 
 alike struggled to break down the barrier which separates the vital 
 from the unvital. They have synthetically imitated almost every 
 known organic product, from butter to the white corpuscles of the 
 blood ; but there has always been this great difference, that the one 
 is chemically created, the other vitally produced. They are never 
 the same—the one will live , and the other will not. 
 
 If, then, there be no such thing as “spontaneous generation," 
 
HEALTH, 
 
 3 2 ° 
 
 whence does the Torula come? And the answer of Science is, 
 from the air—from that vast home of germ-life, where the smallest 
 motes are vital with an individual vis vivida. We are all for ever 
 encompassed by a great cloud of infinitesimal life, which waits only 
 for proper conditions to manifest its activity. In the words of Pro¬ 
 fessor Huxley, “ Whatever may be true, or not be true about this 
 spontaneous generation, as it is called, in regard to all other kinds of 
 living things, it is perfectly certain, as regards yeast, that it always 
 owes its origin to this process of transportation or inoculation from 
 some other living organism, and , so far as yeast is concerned, the 
 doctrine of spontaneous generation is absolutely out of court; and not 
 only so, but the yeast must be alive in order to exert these peculiar 
 properties. If it be crushed, if it be heated so far that its life is 
 destroyed, that peculiar power of fermentation is not excited.” 
 
 The scientific investigation of the process of fermentation has 
 indirectly led to other interesting conclusions. We have already 
 seen that the mucous fluid contained in the little sac of the Torula 
 was analogous to the “ proteids,” and was possessed of the same 
 properties as “ animal products.” But, after the structure of the 
 yeast plant had been thus investigated, it was subsequently ob¬ 
 served that the structure of all plant life was on similar lines ; that 
 they were built up separate “ cells,” containing a mucous fluid in 
 the sheathing of cellulose. And so this remarkable result was 
 arrived at, “ that, however much a plant may differ from an animal, 
 yet that the essential constitution of the contents of these various 
 cells, of which the plant is made up, the nitrogenous protein matter, 
 is the same in the animal as in the plant.” And not only was this 
 gradually discovered, but it was found that these semi-fluid con¬ 
 tents of the plant all had, in many cases, a remarkable power of 
 contractility, quite like that of the substance of animals. 
 
 It seems, then, “ that the differences between animals and plants 
 are not so much in the fundamental substances which compose 
 them—not in the protoplasm—but in the manner in which the cells 
 of which their structures are built up have become modified.” And 
 at once we are face to face with the great question, “ What is the 
 difference between the animal and vegetable world—is there any 
 
HEALTH. 
 
 3 21 
 
 ultimate difference at all ? ” It is a question which, in its develop¬ 
 ments, lies at the fountain of Vegetarian doctrine; for, if there be 
 no difference between the animal and the vegetable world, then the 
 teaching which forbids the use of animal flesh for food is founded 
 on a fallacy. 
 
 The failure of synthetic chemistry to reproduce vital conditions 
 contains the solution of the problem. The ULTIMATE DIF¬ 
 FERENCE BETWEEN VITAL AND UNVITAL CONDI¬ 
 TIONS IS NOT MATTER, BUT FORCE. Vital force is for 
 ever differentiated from chemical “actinic,” or electrical force. 
 This difference may consist in the value of its vibration—that is as 
 yet unknown—but it is different by the pre-ordained decree of the 
 Creator, and within the measure of its difference produces dif¬ 
 ferent results. IN THE SAME WAY, THE ULTIMATE 
 DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE MINERAL, VEGE¬ 
 TABLE, AND ANIMAL WORLDS IS ONE NOT OF 
 MATTER, BUT OF FORCE. The first will evolve inorganic* 
 matter, and ultimately develope the mineral world ; the second 
 will evolve vegetable matter, and will ultimately develope the 
 vegetable world ; and the third will evolve animal matter, and will 
 ultimately develope the animal world. 
 
 And so we are brought back, by the pathway of Science, to the 
 regions of Faith. We have to assume, to believe in, an original, 
 creative, divine differentiating force which overrules the material 
 universe ; and, as we accept the intuitions of the soul, and confirm 
 them by the verdict of the intellect, so do we find that all Nature 
 is a harmony, not a discord, built upon a perfect plan, and reveal¬ 
 ing to the wise the perfect will of God. Science can never demon¬ 
 strate the existence of God, and, by the mouths of its most dis¬ 
 tinguished prophets, confesses its impotence. That is not its 
 sphere. Science lives on the intellectual plane, and can demonstrate 
 the truths of God by the evidences of creation. It has the domi¬ 
 nion of the material, but it is subject to the spiritual. “ God is a 
 Spirit, and they that would know Him, must worship Him in spirit 
 and in truth.” 
 
 The differentiating power of Force is an almost unexplored 
 
 L 
 
322 
 
 HEALTH. 
 
 mystery ; but it holds within its grasp the key which will unlock 
 the innermost secrets of Nature. All the building up of the 
 material universe, all the mysteries of molecular structure, are con¬ 
 ditioned by the differentiation of Force. The original differentia¬ 
 tion is infinitesimal, imperceptible. The ultimate distinction be¬ 
 tween protoplasm of vegetable and animal matters cannot be 
 detected by the microscope : and yet it exists, and as it developes, 
 its differentiating power increases. Leave behind the “ amoeba ” 
 and the “diatome,” and reach on to the great gulf fixed between 
 the mushroom and the mollusc; go on further, and see the wider 
 gulf yawning between the fruit and the fish ; and, last along the 
 path of progression, see the infinite difference that separates the 
 wheat from the whale, the bean from the bull, and the lentil from 
 the lamb. Each world has, in its course, been, evolved from and by 
 its own originating force, and yet with what diversity of results ! 
 
 Thus, then, the doctrine of Vegetarianism is abundantly justi¬ 
 fied, for it proclaims that the penalty of sin is in proportion to the 
 violation of law—that, therefore cannibalism (the logical conclu¬ 
 sion of flesh-eating), the violation of the highest differentiation of 
 animal life, is the grossest violation of God’s laws for food ; that 
 ordinary meat eating is more injurious than the use of game, and 
 game than fish, and fish than oysters or snails ; that, as you draw 
 nearer to the line of ultimate demarcation, you also draw nearer 
 to the neutral zone, where direct injury is replaced by indirect in¬ 
 efficiency ; but the lower the grade of food the less harmful it is, 
 and the less useful ; and it points to an ideal in Food, which leaves 
 behind it altogether the path of animal development, and mounts 
 to its highest altitude, the slope of vegetable evolution. There, in 
 the wise use of vital food, in the enjoyment of fruit, and grain, and 
 nuts, uncooked, unspoiled, it reaches back to the simple, perfect in¬ 
 nocence of the first Paradise—it reaches forward to the enraptured 
 joy of a new Heaven and a new Earth. 
 
 There is yet another distinction which may be made between the 
 animal and the vegetable worlds. 
 
 The great function of the vegetable world is to transmute the in¬ 
 organic into the organic—to prepare the mineral world to become 
 
HEALTH. 
 
 3 2 3 
 
 food for the service of man. The vegetable world has a further 
 power, of breaking up worn-out, obsolete organic matter, and con¬ 
 verting it again into material ready for plant absorption-and assimi¬ 
 lation. These two opposite processes represent the two poles of 
 manurial activity ; they lie at the roots of all successful agriculture. 
 The mineral food, or negative manure, finds its proper use in sup- 
 plying the necessities of positive vegetation. This term must be 
 explained more closely. In all plants that supply food there are 
 two distinct parts, which may be considered. There is the plant 
 itself, in its roots, stem, leaves, etc., and there is its seed, or fruit. 
 This reproductive seed may be termed the positive element of the 
 plant ; and, for the proper development of this positive element, 
 special inorganic food, or negative manure, is requisite. This 
 simple principle leads to large issues. The backbone of English 
 agriculture is the production of wheat, barley, oats, peas, beans and 
 other grain foods ; but, for their satisfactory development, it is 
 necessary that the soil should contain certain mineral elements, 
 without which it cannot prosper. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE, EITHER 
 IN THE ANIMAL OR VEGETABLE WORLDS, THAT 
 PROPER AND COMPLETE GROWTH CAN TAKE 
 PLACE WITHOUT THE PRESENCE OF THE NECES¬ 
 SARY CONSTITUENT ELEMENTS ON WHICH IT 
 DEPENDS. 
 
 This subject, which is full of interest, must be deferred to a later 
 period ; but for the moment it is sufficient to draw the distinction 
 between negative and positive manure, the results of two different 
 processes of vegetable change—both necessary for the proper 
 development of the plant growth, but for different purposes—the 
 development of the plant, and the development of its seed : and 
 to give the general warning, that mineral manures (lime, nitrate ol 
 potash, superphosphate, sulphate of ammonia, kainit, magnesia, 
 etc.), are not alone sufficient to ensure agricultural prosperity, much 
 less in their separate application ; they must be coupled with their 
 organic congeners, and with good seed, proper conditions of tilth 
 and season in sowing, and the presence of all necessary elements 
 (organic and inorganic) in the soil. It is impossible bjit that 
 
324 
 
 HEALTH. 
 
 splendid crops should be the result; just as, in the animal-world 
 under lawful conditions, it is impossible but that animals (superior 
 
 and inferior) shoidd reach a perfect development. 
 
 % 
 
 The function, then, of the vegetable world, is to transmute the 
 inorganic into the organic, and to break down worn-out organic 
 matter. The function of the animal world is different ; it cannot 
 so transmute inorganic matter, it cannot assimilate it; its function 
 is to use the material made ready by the vegetable world. Thus 
 the cycle of Nature’s activity is completed. The vegetable world 
 transmutes the mineral into food ; the animal world uses it, exhausts 
 it, casts its over ; and, again, the vegetable world receives it into 
 its capacious bosom, and prepares it for animal use again. But, if 
 this distinction between the animal and vegetable world be true, 
 then it must be carried to its logical and legitimate conclusion. 
 The animal world cannot assimilate the inorganic, therefore the in¬ 
 organic is unfit for food. What is the result? Salt is banished 
 from the table of the Ideal. Mineral medicines, mercury, antimony, 
 arsenic, and many another allopathic and homoepathic exhibition, 
 are condemned as poisons—as producing, and not preventing 
 diseases.