A defence of the Graham system of living, or, Remarks on diet and regimen : dedicated to the rising generation.

Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A defence of the Graham system of living, or, Remarks on diet and regimen : dedicated to the rising generation. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    27/212
    ranee, which is fast overflooding the world; and still fewer have had the courage to contend with the bigotry, the prejudices, and the appetites of the populace; but now, when a simultaneous movement is making through- out the land to arrest the devastating course of intem- perance, a feeble individual may raise his voice, and exert his influence, and do much to promote the general good. Man is not a being so utterly devoid of reason, nor so blindly devoted to the gratification of artificial appetites, as to refuse an attentive audience to modest, benevolent advice. It is the duty of those who have observed, who have practiced, to set a rational example to their fellow-beings, and to convince them, by every argument they can use, that the present mode of life must be abandoned, ere man can become free, virtuous, and exempt from bodily suffering. Wherever our influence can be felt, it must be ju- diciously exerted. It must reach the young—who enter upon life with a blind deference for their seniors, and imbibe their habits long before they are able to weigh the tendencies which they exert. It must descend to the poor—who are ever ready to copy the manners and practices of those above them. It must spread round to the crowds of imitators, whose most anxious care is to live like other people, and who deem it a very import- ant study to find out what is customary, without even troubling themselves to ask whether it be right or wrong, Every man is a member of some little brotherhood, in which his influence will be felt, his actions imitated. It is here, that even the humblest may do much. Not by ill-timed and boisterous denunciations against all who may feel the importance of the subject less deeply than himself—but by a meek and unostentatious, yet firm and consistent rejection of those daily and nightly in- dulgences, which lead to the misery we deplore. He must remember that they whom he would gain over are not so wicked as they are weak; and that it is not in the severe capacity of a judge that his labors are re- quired, but in the more endearing character of a friend. His strongest persuasions must be those of practice.