or able man. Animal faculties are the hunt- | in the United States. On the eastern slopes "With Epaminondas and Pelopidas, the glory of Thebes rose-and fell." In a mild or warm climate, where vegetable food is spontaneous, and more natural to man, the transition would be more easy. Manco Capac in Peru, and the ancestry of Montezuma, in Mexico, are cases in point; and from thence, probably, came what is found of civilization amongst the red men of the North, whose traditions tell that their ancestors came from the warm climates probably driven thence by the pressure of population against the means of subsistence. In these climates the race of men would vary. The vegetable food would induce a milder type of men. At this day, the races of men vary in the eastern and western portions of the American continent-in Chili and La Plata. In Chili the people are fed chiefly on dried beans, with a portion of bread. Their temperament is hilarious, their faces round, their figures plump, and of a Sancho Panza tendency. In La Plata, on the contrary, the everlasting food is animal-chiefly beef-and the men are savage-looking and lank-loined. Chili overflows with population; La Plata is scant. The stomach of the Chilian is distended, like that of a potatoeating Irishman. The stomach of the La Plata rider is like that of a hungry tiger. The general circumstances which surround a particular community are favorable to the growth and increase of a particular type of man, and less favorable to others. "Like follows like throughout this mortal span:" thus, the horse in Flanders becomes an unwieldy monster, and in Shetland a dwarf; and there is a tendency in animals to associate together from external resemblances, and to persecute those who are dissimilar or strange. In the Falkland Islands there are cattle of four different colors, forming separate herds in distant districts as exclusively as white men separate from negroes Where circumstances are favorable to a type, that type will increase, though in minority; but where the mass of the community is of one type, though surrounded by unfavorable circumstances, they will merely continue to degenerate till extinguished, without permitting a stronger race to grow up near them, unless laws and customs are favorable to the stronger race. Many of the ancient people of the earth have doubtless thus disappeared. Thus will the French population of Canada disappear; thus will the Celtic population of Ireland disappear, unless they mingle with the Saxon and English races. Dr. Knox argues that there is a tendency in mules and mulattoes to die out, in human beings as well as in the animal races. That is to say, there is a tendency in man to return to his original types, to his normal state of wild man. Very probably; but so also is there a tendency to improve all breeds by crossing. The farmer understands this in his cows, and sheep, and pigs, and also in his corn, and turnips, and potatoes. It is sometimes regarded as an institution of Providence, that different lands have been made to produce different commodities, in order to induce alliances between their inhabitants. Why may not man himself fall under the same category? The strong and hardy white races of the north cannot thrive in warm southern climates, neither can the inhabitant of the torrid zone thrive in the north; and the mixed race, apparently fitted for neither, may thrive but in the temperate climate. Gradation is the general law of nature. Violent changes produce hurricanes and earthquakes. Man is partly a creature and partly a creator of circumstances. In the H far north he is white, and his skin gradually | darkens as he goes southward, till at the equator he becomes black. In his highest civilized state he approaches the forms of classic beauty. In savage life his mouth becomes a muzzle, and he degenerates nearly to a monkey. It is all gradation, and we see no reason why the elements in the savage should not grow up into the sage or saint, or why the color of the negro should not change to that of the white, or vice versa—not in our time, but in the lapse of ages, taking advantage of favorable circumstances. It is within the bounds of possibility that Englishmen might once more become savages; but before that takes place, they must forget all the powers of nature they have pressed into their service to do man's drudgery, and return to their ancient state of ignorance. viz., the possibility of making grass produce large seeds, as wheat, barley, oats, or rye, a larger population may be provided for; but property in land must first be established, and human industry or human drudgery called into action. "In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread." But when thus far launched by nature on the ocean of progress, man is still but a savage clad in the skins of beasts. In his ever-teeming brain, that hive of the whole world's progress, and by the aid of that wonder-working sceptre, his hand, nature has provided for his everreturning wants; the spindle and distaff and loom spring forth; animal and vegetable yield their spoils, and lo! he is clad in purple and fine linen. He and his, but not they. Men have become the drudges of their fellow-men, who by the sweat of their brain have left the sweat of the brow to the mass, while they become a leisure class, removed from bodily drudgery. Metals have been scantily wrought, palaces of stone have been built, groves have been planted, and Greece has become possible with her heroes and poets, artists and philosophers. Yet all is based on a hollow dream. There are two orders in the nation, freemen and slaves; and though the time has not come for Christ to proclaim men's universal equality, amongst that crowd of slaves arise a fresh generation of heroes, poets, artists, and philosophers, and it gets to be perceived that it is an impossible thing for any class of men to be happy in luxury while other men are unhap Race, then, we believe to be the result of especial circumstances, acting for a long period of time on an especial body of people, unfavorably in certain types, and favorably in others, till they have all grown similar. Such a race may remain in the same circumstances unchanged forever; but if they change these circumstances, as for example, if they make a conquest of a new land where the circumstances are unfavorable, they will decline and disappear; and thus it is that a race of conquerors usually disappears from a conquered nation by process of time, unless the numbers be kept up by fresh importations to replace those dying off. Man differs not from the animals in these particulars. The same race of bees still flourishes in Hy-py mettus; neither lion, nor tiger, nor elephant has degenerated in their native regions, and they are never voluntary emigrants. Man alone, aided by his reason, tries new circumstances, and sometimes blunders in misfitting himself to his climate. Physical man, in a warm climate, requires food chiefly of a vegetable kind, with water for drink; in short, his wants are as simple as those of the lower animals. In such a climate there are commonly diseases enough to keep down the pressure of population; if not, wars take place, for the torrid zone is favorable to the development of vicious passions. In cool or cold climates, physical man requires food, fuel, clothing, and lodging; and some of it must be strong food, as animal food and flesh, to keep up heat and the waste of the body. If he be a hunter, his food, and the skins of beasts for clothing are easy to get, provided population be sparse. If he has, moreover, discovered the secret of nature provided for his first step in progress, in misery. Men must not "grind at the mill" forever, that other men may eat of white wheaten bread. In a very temperate climate, men may increase in number up to the supply of food; but in the cold hyberborean regions, other things are required besides food, clothing, and lodging. An abundant supply of fuel is also essential, not merely for individuals, but for the mass. A cold climate, therefore, with only timber for fuel, can never be very densely populated. Where timber is not, savage people use oil lamps to warm their dwellings, and their lives are shortened and their numbers lessened, by breathing mephitic air. Those who cannot do this, gradually burn up their timber and migrate. now man unfolds another page in his brain, and another of nature's secrets is laid open to him. On the surface, and below the surface of the earth, he finds a fuel stored up for him by nature before he was born, ready for his gradually developing faculties. would have been useless to him while in a It savage state, unacquainted with the use of tools, and therefore timber was provided. The timber consumed, and the tools ready, the coal is found; and now timber trees may be left to grow up in their beauty to gladden his eyes while they stand, or be cut down only to build his ships and dwellings. A mighty boon to the earth was this of coal, wondrously enhanced by the iron lying by its side, the Castor and Pollux of this our English Argo, freighted with the world's deliverance from thraldom, and manned by such a crew as the world never before beheld, whose memory shall never die while the firm earth shall endure, or the ocean tides reverberate. When coal, and iron, and lime, and artificial food in abundance, are thus combined together, surrounded by a vigor-giving healthy climate, then may the races of men thicken, and combine for progress. When, in addition, a watery highway is ready on all sides to waft them and their wealth there congregated, even to the furthermost parts of the earth, there must be ever a fountain-head of the world's power. Such is this our England-such has it ever been by its island form: such has not been the interior of Europe, and therefore has its progress been slower. But when the coal and iron were found side by side in England, still was the world far from their free use. The work of the world was done by the drudgery of the slave-like many, chiefly for the benefit of the lordly few. Food might be plentiful, surface coal might easily be had for them who lived near it; but alas! for those at a distance; and the skins of beasts were still the clothing of many, while houses and other things were scarce; "In clouted iron shoes and sheepskin breeches:" too powerful to submit to work for task-masters. The wealth and power of England are sustained by the powers of nature without cruelty inflicted on man, and therefore they may be permanent. But England has not been working for herself alone. She has been the workshop of the world, and all nations have profited by her labors. She has spun and woven cotton, and flax, and silk, and wool, to clothe them, and she has given them machines and taught them to do likewise. She has built them ships till her timber has been consumed, and she has opened yet again the inexhaustible book of man's brain, to build ships of iron, moved by iron rowers-incombustible, and like the axe of Elisha, unsinkable; ships that will carry increased cargoes with less cost for materials and labor, materials inexhaustible, and labor growing lighter, and capable of indefinite in crease. Sooty and begrimed nation-gnomes of the north, artisans and not artists—thus we are called by the races whose leisure we have earned, and that, too, is to have an end. Again has the human brain been searched that the sweat may be wiped from the brows of the cleansers of clothing and buildings, and those who walk in high places. It is still puzzling its way at smoke-consuming, forgetting that the true way is to abstain from making the smoke; that though nature made coal for man's uses, she did not make it all fit for perfect combustion. It is the work of the manufacturing chemist to do this. If we put ripe fruit into our stomachs we can digest it; but if we put therein raw potatoes or cabbage, we shall require some kind of chemical solvent, called physic. To obviate the necessity for this, we cook the vegetables before eating them. Now, the food of fire is coal. Cannel coal is analo so wrote Daniel Defoe, of the English labor-gous to ripe fruit; it will digest or burn withers of his day. Clothing by day and by night were rags and straw. But another leaf of man's brain was unfolded, and again was the sweat wiped from his brow. The wind and the wave were first set to grind his corn, and pump his water, and spin his thread ; and last came steam to proclaim the "beginning of the end" of human drudgery, that the time should indeed come when men might be equal in circumstances to their birthright. The wealth, and power, and philosophy, and artistic ease of Greece, came from her slaves; that of Rome, from conquered nations. They fell because the slaves grew out smoke: Newcastle, Leicester, or other coal, is analogous to the raw potatoes; it will not digest without smoke. Chemists well know that combustion is the exact mixing, in certain proportions, of certain gases. If the proportions be incorrect, the surplus portions produce smoke and vapor. Therefore, to get rid of smoke from coal fires, we must mix our coals artificially-thus manufacturing a fuel which will contain the several gases in due proportions. This accomplished, we may go on for some time in increased comfort; but with the "process of the suns" a new difficulty will arise. Wood is of limited extent, but it is T २ 6 HUMAN PROGRESS. reproducible. Coal is also of limited extent, | but it is not reproducible; therefore the exhaustion of coal, which must sooner or later take place, would have a tendency to diminish population. But it will be a gradual process; and as coal increases in cost, the chemist's brain will again discover that nature has provided a remedy for this stage in man's progress also; and the gases of combustion will be artificially abstracted from many natural substances, to support light and heat the electric light, imperfect as it is, but dimly shadowing forth the results that will obtain as the years roll on, changing the miracle of to-day into the daily occurrence of the morrow. The physical food of man in the savage The truth is, that vegetables, generally or the flesh of deer, is the most digestible of The practice of feeding on the flesh of an- Grass and plants are organized bodies, en dowed with life and feeding on earths and minerals, in short aggregating together various chemical ingredients. Some of these plants we eat directly, others we eat indirectly, by feeding animals on them, and then feeding on the animals. All this is simply an indirect course of gathering together chemical ingredients in our own bodies. The problem then to solve is, how shall we accomplish the task of gathering the chemical ingredients together, and applying them to our bodies, from inorganic and not organic matter? We shall doubtless be here met by the hackneyed remarks, that nature intended us to feed on the lower animals-created them for man's use, and what a surplus of animals there would be in the world if we did not eat them. We may meet this argument by the converse, and say that nature made man for the food of lions and tigers, who were intended to keep down man's too rapid increase. It is certain that lions and tigers have some purposes assigned them in creation, and that may be one of them. Hunters have assuredly a propensity to kill and eat, from the time of Esau, or before; and in Peter's dream he was bidden to "rise, kill, and eat." But the great majority of mankind abhor killing, save under the pressure of passion or hunger; while even the cannibal mothers of the Feejee Islands will exchange children, in order not to devour their own. But they who hunger for animal food in civilized life, rarely like to kill the creatures they eat; and when killed, none like to eat the flesh of pet animals they have themselves domesticated-as pigeons, fowls, rabbits, lambs, or kids. To get rid of the distasteful operation of killing, we employ butchers-helots of the modern world, whose very name we employ as a term of vituperation. This is not Christian to say the least of it. We have no right to degrade any human beings, or regard as inferiors those who prepare the materials that enter into the most intimate combination with our own persons. There is something humiliating in the idea of a delicate person who faints at the sight of blood or a butcher's shop, and then sits down to eat of the carcasses that have there been cut up. If the employment be in itself abhorrent to our sensations, it argues little for our humanity, that we have our poorer fellows to do what we consider degrading work. If the employment of a butcher be, of necessity, the work of preserving human life, the butcher is entitled to honor as well as the physician. But we believe that the still obtaining con sumption of animal food is simply a remnant of savage life, a custom doomed to vanish under the light of human reason. All the animal food artificially bred by farmers or others, is, with little exception, unwholesome. Consumption, measles, dropsy, liver complaint, and other diseases abound in the animals we eat, and have a tendency to produce those diseases in our own bodies. The poison we take in by the lungs in the gaseous form, is not the only poison we imbibe. We make an outcry about cleansing the sewers of our cities, and yet make sewers of our bodies. We cleanse our outer skin and pollute our inner skin. If the pressure of population is to continue, rendering it essential to devour unwholesome meat, our chemists and sanitary officers should at least take order to divest it of its poison, and convert it into another form, just as putrid game is made sweet by carbon, or acid fermented liquors are rectified by alkali. All human food consists only of certain gases and chemical ingredients, present in the atmosphere and in the earth; the vegetables are assimilated inorganic matter-the animals are assimilated vegetables" all flesh is grass.' "Give us corn and grass, and what shall we want for food?" In the infancy of our race it was needful that nature should assimilate our food for us, just as the infant needs its mother's milk. The reason of man has now outgrown his earlier necessity, and he may change his earlier food. He must prepare his food without the use of animals. In examining the qualities of vegetables, we find that some are oily, some sugary, some glutinous—as the olive, the sugar-cane, and many plants and trees yielding gum. There is yet another variety, seeming to constitute the midway mixture of the animal and vegetable-the mushroom. These vegetables seem to point out to us our course. Could we produce a new vegetable, or cross some old vegetable, so as to unite the three qualities of wheat, olives, and sugar-cane, we should have attained a species of vegetable flesh, no doubt of highly nutritious quality. Charcoal and diamond are chemical identities; so are attar of roses and naphtha. The bulk of the food we eat is soluble into gases, which gases we can procure in abundance-which we can separate from our food-but which we cannot combine to form food. Our analysis is nearly perfect, but our synthesis is yet in embryo. There are several remarkable circumstances connected with the assimiliation of |
