 1813 title page, printed for J. Callow by Smith & Davy, London. | |
| Author | Percy Bysshe Shelley |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Vegetarianism |
| Published | 1813 |
| Publication place | England |
| OCLC | 503858135 |
A Vindication of Natural Diet is an 1813 book by Percy Bysshe Shelley on vegetarianism and animal rights. It was first written as part of the notes to Queen Mab , which was privately printed in 1813. Later in the same year the essay was separately published as a pamphlet.
Shelley wrote four essays on the subject of vegetarianism, "A Vindication of Natural Diet" (1813), the note in Queen Mab , in a section of "A Refutation of Deism" (1814), and "On the Vegetable System of Diet", which was published posthumously in 1929. [1] [2] [3]
Shelley first experimented with a vegetarian diet while at the University of Oxford according to Thomas Jefferson Hogg. [4] Shelley began a vegetarian diet on 1 March 1812 along with his first wife Harriet Westbrook. Shelley began composing the essay in October–November 1812. Shelley met John Frank Newton during 1812-1813 and influenced his views on vegetarianism. [5] [6] [7] Historian Keith Thomas has noted that Newton's Return to Nature "provided much of the basis" for Shelley's A Vindication of Natural Diet. [8]
The work has been republished since 1813, beginning with an abridged version which was published in Boston by March, Capen, and Lyon in an American collection Vegetable Diet: As Sanctioned by Medical Men, and by Experience in All Ages, edited by William A. Alcott. [9]
The essay was reprinted in 1884 in a new edition in London by F. Pitman and by John Heywood and the Vegetarian Society in Manchester. The original title page was reproduced: A Vindication of Natural Diet. Being One in a Series of Notes to Queen Mab (A Philosophical Poem). London: Printed for J. Callow by Smith & Davy, 1813. The new edition featured a preface by Henry Stephens Salt and William Axon. A second edition appeared in 1886.
In 1904, the work was republished in London by C. W. Daniel as A Vindication of Natural Diet and Extracts from the Works of Dr. Lambe, edited and annotated by F. E. Worland.
Shelley wrote in A Vindication of Natural Diet: "It is only by softening and disguising dead flesh by culinary preparation that it is rendered susceptible of mastication or digestion, and that the sight of its bloody juices and raw horror does not excite intolerable loathing and disgust." [10]
Shelley used the imagery of slaughtering a lamb. In Queen Mab: A Philosophical Poem (1813) he wrote about the change to a vegetarian diet using the lamb imagery: "And man ... no longer now/ He slays the lamb that looks him in the face,/ And horribly devours his mangled flesh." [11]
In the novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818), written by Shelley's wife Mary, Frankenstein's monster is portrayed as a vegetarian. The lamb imagery is retained. The Monster explained his vegetarian diet to Victor Frankenstein: "My food is not that of man. I do not destroy the lamb and the kid to glut my appetite; acorns and berries afford me sufficient nourishment."
In "The Sensitive Plant" he argued that all life forms, including "all killing insects and gnawing worms,/ And things of obscene and unlovely forms", have a natural role to play in the ecosystem which requires understanding rather than destruction, because what they do "although they did ill, was innocent". [12]
In Laon and Cythna, republished as The Revolt of Islam (1817), Fifth Canto, the Festival of nations held after the Revolution is a banquet where no meat is served. The feast is vegetarian: "Never again may blood of bird or beast/ Stain with its venomous stream a human feast". This is "The banquet of the free" where the guests are described as "reclining as they ate, of Liberty,/ And Hope, and Justice". The festival was not polluted by gore, "But piled on high, an overflowing store/ Of pomegranates, and citrons, fairest fruit,/ Melons, and dates, and figs, and many a root". [13]
Shelley argued that eating meat was unnatural. He maintained that diseases and immorality arose from mankind's "unnatural habits of life". A meatless diet was the best regimen for maintaining a healthy and disease-free lifestyle. He wrote that human diseases could be decreased by a return to a natural vegetable diet. [14] Shelley argued that eating meat was a practice that polluted the body with syphilis and resulted in other ailments. In A Vindication of Natural Diet he wrote, "Should ever a physician be born with the genius of Locke, I am persuaded that he might trace all bodily and mental derangements to our unnatural habits," [15] these unnatural habits being the consumption of meat. He cited the allegory of Prometheus who stole fire from the gods which enabled mankind to cook meat, thereby screening the disgust and horror of dead flesh. Shelley also compared a meat diet to alcoholism, inquiring, "How many thousands have become murderers and robbers, bigots and domestic tyrants, dissolute and abandoned adventurers, from the use of fermented liquors?" [15] Shelley used comparative anatomy to show that the human digestive system resembles that of frugivorous or plant-eating animals. He concluded that a person with compassion and empathy for animals, "rising from a meal of roots", would be able to maintain a healthy and balanced diet and lifestyle. Shelley presented examples of how a vegetarian diet resulted in longevity and an increased lifespan. The only threat of death will be that of natural, old age. [10] The two rules he prescribes for a natural diet are to never eat anything that was alive and to drink only distilled water.
Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat. It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. A person who practices vegetarianism is known as a vegetarian.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1813.
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Percy Bysshe Shelley was an English writer who is considered as one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achievements in poetry grew steadily following his death, and he became an important influence on subsequent generations of poets, including Robert Browning, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Thomas Hardy, and W. B. Yeats. American literary critic Harold Bloom describes him as "a superb craftsman, a lyric poet without rival, and surely one of the most advanced sceptical intellects ever to write a poem."
William Edward Armytage Axon was an English librarian, antiquary and journalist for the Manchester Guardian. He contributed to the Dictionary of National Biography under his initials W. E. A. A. He was also a notable vegetarianism activist.
Vegetarianism in the Romantic Era refers to the rise of vegetarianism associated with the Romanticism movement in Western Europe from the eighteenth to the nineteenth century. Many of the late Romantics argued in favor of a more natural diet which excluded animal flesh for a plethora of reasons including the state of human and animal health, religious beliefs, economy and class division, animal rights, literary influence, as well as from new ideas about anthropology, consumerism, and evolution. The modern vegetarian and vegan movements borrow some of the same principles from the late Romantics to promote the adoption of diets free from animal products.
Timothy Bloxam Morton is a professor and Rita Shea Guffey Chair in English at Rice University. A member of the object-oriented philosophy movement, Morton's work explores the intersection of object-oriented thought and ecological studies. Morton's use of the term 'hyperobjects' was inspired by Björk's 1996 single 'Hyperballad', although the term 'Hyper-objects' has also been used in computer science since 1967. Morton uses the term to explain objects so massively distributed in time and space as to transcend localization, such as climate change and styrofoam.
Since the initial publication of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus in 1818, there has existed uncertainty about the extent to which Mary Shelley's husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, contributed to the text. Whilst the novel was conceived and mainly written by Mary, Percy is known to have provided input in editing and publishing the manuscript. Some critics have alleged that Percy had a greater role—even the majority role—in the creation of the novel, though mainstream scholars have generally dismissed these claims as exaggerated or unsubstantiated. Based on a transcription of the original manuscript, it is currently believed that Percy contributed between 4,000 and 5,000 words to the 72,000 word novel.
An Essay on Abstinence from Animal Food, as a Moral Duty is a book on ethical vegetarianism and animal rights written by Joseph Ritson, first published in 1802.
John Frank Newton was a British vegetarianism activist and Zoroastrian.
Charles Walter Forward was an English activist, writer, and editor, notable for his advocacy of animal rights and vegetarianism. Forward made significant contributions as a historian of the vegetarian movement, and is best known for his 1898 work, Fifty Years of Food Reform, which was the first book to document the history of the vegetarian movement.
Figs or Pigs? is an 1896 manual on vegetarianism and fruitarianism compiled by James Madison Allen, which contains observations from the author, as well as numerous quotations from eminent authors and authorities.
Shelley's Vegetarianism is a 1891 pamphlet on the vegetarianism of Percy Bysshe Shelley by William Axon, published by the Vegetarian Society. It is a printing of a lecture delivered by Axon before the Shelley Society, at University College in 1890.
What is Vegetarianism? is a 1886 pamphlet written by John E. B. Mayor on vegetarianism.
The Ethics of Diet: A Catena of Authorities Deprecatory of the Practice of Flesh-eating is an 1883 book by Howard Williams, on the history of vegetarianism. The book was influential on the development of the Victorian vegetarian movement.
