Note (24) — CANTO THIRD.
Reading edition
Of all the forms of vegetable matter proper to this climate, the farinaceous grains are undoubtedly the most important; but in making them into bread, the following rules from Tryon should be well observed;—and his advice will be found to have lost none of its value by coming from a writer in the reign of William and Mary.
“If you set any value on health, and have a mind to preserve nature, you must not separate the finest from the coarsest flour, because that which is fine is naturally of an obstructive quality; but, on the contrary, the other, which is coarse, is of a cleansing and opening nature; therefore, that bread is best which is made of both together. In the inward bean and skin of the wheat is contained an oily quality, of a sweet nature, by reason whereof, bread made of fine and coarse together will not only be sweeter, and keep longer moist, but is also more wholesome; easier of concoction. It must be confessed, that the nutritive quality is contained in the fine flour, yet, in the branny part is contained the opening and digestive quality and there is as great a necessity for the one as for the other, for the support of health. By what has been said, we may gather that the eating of fine bread is inimical to health, and contrary both to nature and reason; and was at first invented to gratify luxurious persons, who are ignorant both of themselves and of the true virtue and efficacy of natural things.” (Tryon’s Way to Health, pp. 147, 148.)
The same author, pp. 286, 287, relates the following anecdote of Henry VIII. “There is a pleasant story of king Henry VIII., in the first part of his reign, riding a hunting; and being hungry, he strayed from his attendants, and came alone to a monastery about dinner time. The fat, lazy abbot, welcomed him very kindly, for hearing that the king was in that country, he concluded this was one of his guards. At dinner they had great varieties, and the king fed like a farmer on a piece of roast beef. But the abbot, who daily crammed himself with delicacies, could scarce relish a bit of any thing before him; and pleasantly said to the king:—‘Honest friend, I would give five hundred pounds if I could pick so heartily as you do on a piece of roast beef.’ The king returned him some small compliment, and after dinner took his leave. About a fortnight after, the king sent a messenger for the old fulsome abbot, and ordered him to be carried to the tower, there to be close prisoner, and allowed a given quantity of small beer and bread every day, but no other food. The abbot could not imagine what he had done to occasion such an imprisonment; and being thus dieted, he soon came to have a good stomach. After about a month, the king ordered the keeper to carry him in a good piece of hot roast beef, on which the abbot fell with such violence as if he would have eaten it at a mouthful. The king, who was stationed in a room where he could see how he laid about, at last stepped in and demanded his five hundred pounds. ‘For,’ said he, ‘you said you would give it; and I have performed the cure, and got you a better stomach than all the doctors in England would have done:’—and so upon payment of the five hundred pounds, discharged him.”
“No flocks that range the valley free, To slaughter I condemn, Taught by the Power that pities me, I learn to pity them. “But from the mountain’s grassy side, A guiltless feast I bring; A scrip with herbs and fruits supplied, And water from the spring.”
Goldsmith’s Hermit.
“To mix the food by vicious rules of art, To kill the stomach, and to sink the heart, To make mankind in social virtue sour, Cram o’er each dish, and be what they devour; For this the kitchen muse first framed her book, Commanding sweat to stream form every cook: Children no more their antic gambols tried, And friends to physic wondered why they died.”
Barlow’s Hasty Pudding, Canto II.
“In China, a single acre of land sown with rice, produces sufficient for the consumption of five persons for a year, allowing two pounds and a half a day to each.” (Breton’s China, Vol. IX. p. 29.)
“The peculiar property of the corn plant, is that of being produced, in some shape or other, in every part of the world, from the rice of the Ganges to the barley of Finland. It is, however remarkable, that it no where grows spontaneously, like other plants, so that providence appears to have devolved altogether on our species the charge of maintaining and extending its cultivation. Bread is, of all vegetable nourishment, the most substantial and durable.” (St. Pierre’s Studies of Nature, Vol. I. p. 22.)
“The living herbs spring up prefusely wild, O’er all the deep green earth, beyond the power Of botanist to number up their tribes: But who their virtues can declare? who pierce With vision pure, into the secret stores Of health, and life, and joy! The food of man, While yet he lived in innocence, and told A length of golden years unfleshed in blood, A stranger to the savage arts of life, Death, rapine, carnage, surfeit, and disease, The lord, and not the tyrant of the world.”
Thomson.
“Milk is in part vegetable food; and as such is used by all pastoral nations, and serves in a measure as a substitute for it.” (Dr. Lambe’s Reports on Regimen, p. 167.)
“To prevent indigestion, milk ought not to be eat together with flesh.” (Dr. Willet.)
“Eggs contain a larger proportion of pure nourishment than any other food. They are a most valuable article, not only when consumed by themselves, but when mixed with other things. Raw, poached, soft boiled, or in any ways lightly cooked, they are gently laxative, and sit easy on most stomachs.” (Sir John Sinclair’s Code of Health, Vol. I. p. 414.)
“An entire diet of vegetable matter gives to the disposition a gentleness, softness, and mildness of feeling, directly the reverse of that ferocity of mind and fierceness of character which form the leading feature of all carnivorous animals, it has also a particular influence on the powers of the mind, producing liveliness of imagination and acuteness of judgment in an eminent degree. (Sir John Sinclair’s Code of Health, Vol. I. p. 423.)