teristic of the period-grain being greatly in excess of the demand at one time, or in one place, and famine decimating the population at others.* Progress, nevertheless, has been madea pound of flour, made from either rye or wheat, furnishing a larger amount of nutritive matter than is contained in thrice as many pounds of beef or pork, even when free from bone. Wretched as is the agriculture, and trivial as is the yield, a single acre appropriated to the production of food that can be applied directly to man's support, furnishes more nutriment than had been obtained from half a dozen, appropriated to the production of commodities whose conversion into food for man, had required the previous services of the middleman ox.

More power is now obtained—each and every step of man's progress being but the preparation for a new and greater one. Richer soils being cultivated, the return to labor steadily increases -the six bushels to the acre, of the earlier period, being replaced by the thirty bushels of the later one. Improved machinery of conversion, too, economizes various portions of the product, that had at first been wasted. Cultivation becoming more and more productive, the pea, the bean, the cabbage, the turnip, and the potato, of which the earth yields by tons—all of which, too, may be applied directly to man's support- take the place of wheat, of which the yield is counted by bushels, and of grass that must be changed in form to fit it for human food; every step in that direction being attended by an increase in the number of persons who can draw support from any given surface, and by growth in the power of combination for obtaining the means of further progress. Each half acre thus cultivated yields more food

The price of corn in England, in 1499, was 4s. a quarter. In 1521, it was 20s. In 1557, it rose as high as 53s. 4d.—then falling, in 1558, to 8s. In 1562, it was 8s., and in 1574, 56s. In 1597, it was £5, and in 1601, 348. 10d. Very similar to these are the changes even now observed in Russia, America, and other countries that are still dependent upon foreign markets. In Spain, prices vary to the extent of 150 per cent., at a distance of only 300 miles.-See ante, vol. ii., p. 122.

that an

"If we admit what there seems little reason for doubting average of six pounds of animal food a day would be necessary for each individual, on an exclusively flesh-diet, then, since an acre of land employed in feeding cattle only produces eight or ten ounces of flesh per day, it would require ten or twelve acres to support each person for a year; whereas, one acre of wheat would supply three persons, and (according to Curwen) one acre of potatoes would serve at least nine persons with sufficient food for the

than can be obtained from a thousand acres, when roamed over by the poor and wretched savage of the prairies of the west.

Gradual improvement in the machinery instituted by the Creator for proportioning the supply of food to the demand of a constantly-growing population, here exhibits itself in the facts:

That the waste of human powers in the search for food, and the quantity of food required to supply that waste, are constantly decreasing quantities; that man is gradually substituting vegetable for animal food; that the quantity of food produced increases in the direct ratio of that substitution; that the various utilities of the things produced become more and more developed; that human effort is daily more economized; and that with every stage of progress, there is an increase of power for directing and controlling the forces of nature-manifesting itself in the clearing, drainage, and cultivation of soils, whose very wealth had rendered them inaccessible to the early cultivator.

§ 2. What, however, is the effect of this substitution of vegetable for animal food? The answer to this question is found in the fact, that rapacious animals the shark and the lion, the tiger and the bear-increase but slowly, even when at all; whereas, American Pampas afford conclusive proof of the rapidity with which the ox and the horse, consumers of vegetable food, may be increased. So, too, is it with man the rapacious savage, a prey to hunger on one day, and a glutton on the next, being little capable of reproduction, when compared with the civilized man, whose dependence on the vegetable kingdom is large, even where not exclusive.*

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same space of time; so that a diet of potatoes and fruit would support one hundred times the number of inhabitants that could be maintained on an exclusively flesh-diet. 'At London prices,' says Dr. Lyon Playfair, a man can lay a pound of flesh on his body with milk at three shillings and ninepence; with potatoes, carrots, and butcher's meat, free from bone and fat, at two shillings; with oatmeal, at one shilling and tenpence; with bread, flour, and barley-meal, at one shilling and twopence; and with beans and peas, at less than sixpence.'”—Fruits and Farinacea, pp. 288, 289.

"Fruits, roots, and the succulent parts of vegetables, appear to be the natural food of man: his hands afford him a facility in gathering them; and his short and comparatively weak jaws, his short canine teeth not passing beyond the common line of the others, and his tuberculous teeth, not permitting him either to feed on herbage or devour flesh, unless those aliments be previously prepared by the culinary processes."- CUVIER.

"It may indeed be doubted whether butcher's meat is anywhere a necessary of life. Grain, and other vegetables, with the help of milk, cheese, and

The more direct the action of man upon nature, the less is the necessity for animal food, and the less is the friction, but the greater is his power to please his appetite. The more he is enabled to subdue the richer soils to cultivation, the greater is the tendency towards placing sheep upon the poorer lands, and thus insuring a full supply of mutton. The larger the yield of turnips and potatoes, the greater is his ability to obtain efficient machinery for taking the cod, the shad, and the herring. The more perfect the power of association, the more is he enabled to cultivate the oyster, and to people the ponds and rivers with fish each and every stage of progress in that direction giving increase of regularity in the supply of food, while tending to develop the various individualities of the man who is thus engaged in placing himself in the position of master of nature, master of his passions, and master of himself.

§ 3. Is it, however, in relation to food alone, that we observe this tendency to the substitution of the vegetable for the animal world? It is not-the same tendency being everywhere observable, and constituting one of the strongest evidences of advancing civilization. Wool is superseded by the cotton plant, of which a single acre furnishes a greater number of pounds than could be obtained from a hundred employed in raising sheep. Flax and cotton tend to supersede the silk-worm, as furnisher of clothing, while vegetable oils gradually diminish the necessity for those obtained in return to labor employed in the pursuit of the whale, or in the cultivation of the hog. Gutta percha and bookbinders' muslin take the place of leather. Caoutchouc tends to lessen the demand for both hides and wool-paper, meanwhile, furnishing a cheap. substitute for parchment.

So, too, is it with the mineral kingdom-the steel pen superseding the goose's quill-mineral manures superseding animal excrement and the horse of iron rapidly taking the place of the one composed of muscle, bone, and sinew. Each and every increase of power for developing the mineral treasures of the earth tends, in turn, towards increase in the number of local centres of

butter, or oil (where butter is not to be had), it is known from experience can, without any butcher's meat, afford the most plentiful, the most wholesome, the most nourishing, and the most invigorating diet. -SMITH: Wealth of Nations.

action towards the growth of commerce-towards decline in the tax of trade and transportation - towards increase in the facility of obtaining improved machinery and towards increased rapidity in the societary circulation; with constant increase in the proportion of the powers of the society, that may be given to augmentation in the supplies of the raw materials of clothing and of food.*

This, however, is not all. The better his clothing, the less is the waste of his body, and the less his need for food. The more perfect the machinery of transportation, the less is his need for clothing-travelling in the railroad car involving less expenditure of animal heat than that performed on the horse's back. The nearer the place of consumption to that of production, the less is the demand for soldiers, sailors, and wagoners, always large consumers of stimulating food. The more perfect the power of association, the less is the necessity for going from home, and the less is the need for either food or clothing - the attractive

* See ante, vol. ii. p. 22.

"To economize the wasteful consumption of fuel in locomotive engines, which would occur from the rapid diminution of excitation if exposed naked to the cold blasts of wintry weather, the bodies of the boilers are carefully covered with non-conducting casings of wood. In like manner to economize the wasteful consumption of food in animals, which would occur from the rapid diminution of excitation if left exposed naked in the polar regions, they are naturally covered with the most perfect non-conducting coats of fur and down. And still further to economize the combustion of the limited provision of carbon and hydrogen treasured up in their bodies in the form of fat, to be burnt as fuel in their lungs. they are so constituted as to pass the long cold winters in a motionless torpid state, thus manifestly avoiding all waste of fuel necessary to sustain motion, for the purpose of reserving the whole effective power of it for sustaining the electro-dynamic excitation necessary to prevent the freezing of their bodies.

"And, finally, as if to carry out to perfection the practical application of electro-dynamic science, the dark colors of the external coverings of animal bodies in the polar regions become changed to a white color, which, it is well known, diminishes the radiation of heat.

"Motives of self-interest, as well as of humanity, thus dictate to farmers and others, who have charge of brute animals, designed either for labor or for the shambles, to provide for them comfortable shelters from inclement wintry storms, in order to save the unavailable waste of the portion of their food, which otherwise becomes necessarily burnt in their lungs to sustain the due temperature of their bodies. By careful attention to this subject, it is practicable to reorganize into the useful formations of fat and muscles of animals designed for the shambles, or availably to employ as a source of motive power, the greater part of the quickening harvests of vegetable organic formations of food, which are annually produced by the excitation of the sun on each acre of land.” — ALLEN: Philosophy of the Mechanics of Nature, p. 742.

and counter-attractive forces thus exhibiting themselves, here as everywhere, constantly increasing in their intensity, as the societary circulation becomes more rapid.* Look, therefore, where we may, we find, throughout nature, a constant tendency towards the perfect adaptation of the earth to the wants of a growing population-each and every increase in the power of association and combination being accompanied by diminution in the quantity of raw material required for the maintenance of human life, and increase in that which may be obtained in return to any given amount of labor. Man grows in value with every stage of progress in this direction, and with each, the value of commodities. as regularly declines. With each there is increase of competition for the purchase of the laborer's services-labor then acquiring power over capital, and man himself becoming more happy and more free.

§ 4. With increase in the numbers of mankind, the lower animals tend to diminish in their numbers, and gradually to disappear-vegetable products tending, as steadily, to increase in quantity. Were it otherwise, the earth would become less and less fitted for man's residence carbonic acid being more and more produced, and the air declining in its powers for the maintenance of human life. Increase of vegetable life tends, on the contrary, to promote the decomposition of that acid thereby increasing the supply of the oxygen required for maintenance of animal life, while diminution in the consumption of animal food is attended by decrease in the quantity of oxygen required for human purposes.t

To the equal balance of opposing forces is due, throughout nature, the maintenance of the perfect harmony that is every where else observed, and such is here the case. The extension of cultivation is indispensable to increase in the supply of food. That extension involves, of course, a gradual extirpation of animal races that now consume so largely of the products of the earth, and were they not to be replaced by men, the production of carbonic acid would speedily diminish, with corresponding diminution in the reproductive powers of the vegetable world. The more numerous the men and women, the greater is the store *See ante, vol. ii. p. 269. † See ante, vol. i., p. 78.