The Ethics of Diet: A Catena of Authorities Deprecatory of the Practice of Flesh EatingWilliams, Howard
Philosophy
The Ethics of Diet: A Catena of Authorities Deprecatory of the Practice of Flesh Eating
Williams, Howard
Diet; Vegetarianism
The last production of Dr. Cheyne was his “_Natural Method of Curing
the Diseases of the Body, and the Disorders of the Mind Depending
on the Body_. In three parts. Part I.--General Reflections on the
Economy of Nature in Animal Life. Part II.--The Means and Methods for
Preserving Life and Faculties; and also Concerning the Nature and Cure
of Acute, Contagious, and Cephalic Disorders. Part III.--Reflections
on the Nature and Cure of Particular Chronic Distempers. 8vo. Strahan,
London, 1742.” It is dedicated to the celebrated Lord Chesterfield, who
records his grateful recognition of the benefits he had experienced
from his methods. He writes: “I read with great pleasure your book,
which your bookseller sent me according to your direction. The physical
part is extremely good, and the metaphysical part _may be_ so too, for
what I know, and I believe it is, for as I look upon all metaphysics
to be guess work of imagination, I know no imagination likelier to hit
upon the right than yours, and I will take your guess against any other
metaphysician’s whatsoever. That part which is founded upon knowledge
and experience I look upon as a work of public utility, and for which
the present age and their posterity may be obliged to you, if they will
be pleased to follow it.” Lord Chesterfield, it will be seen below,
was one of those more refined minds whose better conscience revolted
from, even if they had not the courage or self-control to renounce, the
Slaughter House.
The _Natural Method_ its author considers as a kind of supplement
to his last book, containing “the practical inferences, and the
conclusions drawn from [its principles], in particular cases and
diseases, confirmed by forty years’ experience and observation.”
It is the most practical of all his works, and is full of valuable
observations. Very just and useful is his rebuke of that sort of
John-Bullism which affects to hold “good living” not only as harmless
but even as a sort of merit--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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