Man's best diet, and twenty year's trial of it / by W. Couchman.

  • Couchman, W. (William)
Date:
[1873?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Man's best diet, and twenty year's trial of it / by W. Couchman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    MANS BEST DIET, AND TWENTY YEARS’ TRIAL OF IT. BY W. COUCHMAN. (Reprinted from the Dietetic Reformer, May and June, 187S.) For ten years previous to becoming a Vegetarian I scarcely knew what it was to enjoy a day’s good health ; for nearly twenty years since I have had comparatively no illness—such is my experience of the Vegetarian system. A curious circumstance led me to adopt it. For some years I had read Swedenborg’s “ Arcana Celestia,” wherein he states that man had gradually declined from what he calls the Golden Age (of goodness and truth), down to the age of iron and clay (or love of self and the world). Swedenborg states (Arcana, 1002) that to eat the flesh of animals, considered in itself, is profane, for the people of the most ancient times (the Golden Age) never, on any account, ate the flesh of any beast or fowl, but fed solely on grain (especially on bread made from wheat), on fruit, herbs, milk of various kinds, and the like productions. To kill animals and eat their flesh was to them unlawful, and was regarded by them as bestial ; and they were content with the uses and services which they yielded (Genesis i. 26.). But in course of time, when men became cruel as the wild beasts—yea, much more cruel—they began to slay animals and eat their flesh ; and man having acquired such a nature, the killing of animals was permitted^ and continues so to the present day. Having been struck with this teaching of Swedenborg, I was already predisposed, when Mr Smith came to lecture in Newcastle, to accept the Vegetarian doctrine, which I then embraced, and have ever since kept faithfully. [Pnc© One H:?.lfpg33.3i7, or per Jfundr'^dJ