''A Vindication of Natural Diet'' is an 1813 book by
Percy Bysshe Shelley on
vegetarianism
Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter.
Vegetarianism m ...
and
animal rights
Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all sentient animals have moral worth that is independent of their utility for humans, and that their most basic interests—such as avoiding suffering—should be afforded the sam ...
. It was first written as part of the notes to ''
Queen Mab
Queen Mab is a fairy referred to in William Shakespeare's play ''Romeo and Juliet'', where "she is the fairies' midwife". Later, she appears in other poetry and literature, and in various guises in drama and cinema. In the play, her activity i ...
'', which was privately printed in 1813. Later in the same year the essay was separately published as a pamphlet.
Background
Shelley wrote four essays on the subject of vegetarianism, "A Vindication of Natural Diet" (1813), the note in ''
Queen Mab
Queen Mab is a fairy referred to in William Shakespeare's play ''Romeo and Juliet'', where "she is the fairies' midwife". Later, she appears in other poetry and literature, and in various guises in drama and cinema. In the play, her activity i ...
'', in a section of "A Refutation of Deism" (1814), and "On the Vegetable System of Diet", which was published posthumously in 1929.
Shelley first experimented with a vegetarian diet while at the
University of Oxford according to
Thomas Jefferson Hogg. 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. Historian
Keith Thomas has noted that Newton's ''Return to Nature'' "provided much of the basis" for Shelley's ''A Vindication of Natural Diet''.
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.
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
William Edward Armytage Axon (13 January 1846 – 27 December 1913) 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. H ...
. 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.
Vegetarianism
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."
[Shelley, Percy Bysshe, "A Vindication of Natural Diet;" London: Smith & Davy. 1813, pp. 1–36.]
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."
In the novel ''
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific expe ...
'' (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
Victor Frankenstein is a fictional character and the main protagonist and title character in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel, '' Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus''.. He is an Italian-Swiss scientist (born in Naples, Italy) who, after studying ...
: "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".
In ''Laon and Cythna'', republished as ''
The Revolt of Islam
''The Revolt of Islam'' (1818) is a poem in twelve cantos composed by Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1817. The poem was originally published under the title ''Laon and Cythna; or, The Revolution of the Golden City: A Vision of the Nineteenth Century'' b ...
'' (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".
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.
[Spencer, Colin, ''The Heretic's Feast: A History of Vegetarianism;'' Great Britain: Hartnolls Ltd, Bodmin. 1993, pp. 244–45.] 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,"
[Shelley, Percy Bysshe, "A Vindication of Natural Diet"; London: Smith & Davy. 1813, p. 16.] these unnatural habits being the consumption of meat. He cited the
allegory
As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory t ...
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?"
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.
The two rules he prescribes for a natural diet are to never eat anything that was alive and to drink only distilled water.
References
Sources
* Spencer, Colin. ''The Heretic's Feast: A History of Vegetarianism''. Great Britain: Hartnolls Ltd, Bodmin. 1993, pp 244–45.
* Morton, Timothy, "Joseph Ritson, Percy Shelley and the Making of Romantic Vegetarianism." ''Romanticism'', Vol. 12, Issue 1, 2006. pp. 52–61.
* Morton, Timothy. ''Shelley and the Revolution in Taste: The Body and the Natural World''. Cambridge University Press, 1994.
* Shelley, Percy Bysshe, "A Vindication of Natural Diet;" London: Smith & Davy. 1813, pp. 1–36.
* Preece, Rod. ''Sins of the Flesh: A History of Ethical Vegetarian Thought''. Vancouver, BC, Canada: University of British Columbia Press, 2008.
*Chapin, Lisbeth. "Science and Spirit: Shelley's Vegetarian Essays and the Body as Utopian State." ''A Brighter Morn: The Shelley Circle's Utopian Project.'' Edited by Darby Lewes. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2003.
External links
Online version.Audio recording by Amy Gramour on LibriVox.1884 reprint edition. archive.org.''Shelley's Vegetarianism'' by William E. A. Axon, 1891.Original 1813 title page. ''A Shelley Library''.Re-Imagining the Body: Shelley and the Languages of Diet by Tim Morton.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vindication of Natural Diet, A
1813 non-fiction books
1813 essays
Books about animal rights
Books about vegetarianism
English non-fiction books
Ethical theories
Philosophy books
Vegetarian-related mass media
Works by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Pamphlets