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Taylor, Bayard, 1825-1878

"Beauty and the Beast, and Tales of Home"

`See here!'
pointing to his temple, where the second pimple--either from the
change of air, or because, in the excitement of the last few days,
he had forgotten it--was actually healed. `My blood is at last
pure. The struggle between the natural and the unnatural is over,
and I am beyond the depraved influences of my former taste. My
instincts are now, therefore, entirely pure also. What is good for
man to eat, that I shall have a natural desire to eat: what is bad
will be naturally repelled. How does the cow distinguish between
the wholesome and the poisonous herbs of the meadow? And is man
less than a cow, that he cannot cultivate his instincts to an equal
point? Let me walk through the woods and I can tell you every
berry and root which God designed for food, though I know not its
name, and have never seen it before. I shall make use of my time,
during our sojourn here, to test, by my purified instinct, every
substance, animal, mineral, and vegetable, upon which the
human race subsists, and to create a catalogue of the True Food of
Man!'
"Abel was eloquent on this theme, and he silenced not only Eunice,
but the rest of us.


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