If this be true, as I most firmly believe it is—it will be seen that practically all other foods are naturally barred out, by the very nature of the case. Certainly no one would care to eat his meat raw; and all vegetables, with very few exceptions, would also fall under the ban, for but few of them can well be eaten without cooking. Grains, also, are very unappetising, when eaten raw, and it is now well known that but a small amount of their starch is converted properly, in the body, unless the grains are well cooked; so that all these foods would be eliminated from the diet, and practically nothing left but fruits and nuts! Although this may seem appalling to the average reader, it is the logical outcome of the theory, and I am convinced the right interpretation of the facts. The fruitarian diet is the one best suited for man; and the one upon which he can live best and longest. I myself have lived upon this fruit and nut diet almost exclusively for several years, and I may perhaps say that I am always in excellent spirits and condition, and a source of constant surprise to my friends in that I seem to possess an untiring energy and ability for work. I say this, not to boast, but to show that a diet of this character is perfectly compatible with health and strength; and I believe that almost any person could double his energies, his health, and his self-respect by adopting a diet of this character. For it has a tremendous effect upon the mental and moral, no less than upon the physical life, as I shall presently endeavour to show. With the invention of fire, however, many articles of food became edible which had not been edible before. Finding that grains and roots, and certain weeds (vegetables) could be eaten, when cooked, although they were uneatable when raw, man took to cooking his food, and substituting this food for a portion of his original diet—which was probably scarce at the time. In this way, the cooking of food probably originated. It began in the far-off ages, and has been handed down to us—a legacy of barbarism, to which man rigidly clings, in the vain effort to preserve a distinction between himself and other animals—who do not cook their food—because of this fact! He prides himself that he is the only “cooking animal”! If man would only learn that it is owing to this very process of cooking that much of the suffering, and many of the ills from which mankind suffers, are due!