Temperance in All Things (1839)
AUTHOR: Alcott, William Andrus
---. Forty Years in the Wilderness of Pills and Powders
---. “The Graham System”
---. “Half-Century Notes”
---. “He's None the Worse for That”
---. The Home-book of Life and Health
---. The Laws of Health
---. The Mother in Her Family
---. Vegetable Diet
---. The Young Mother
---. The Young Woman's Book of Health
Allen, James Madison. Essays: Philosophical and Practical
---. Figs or Pigs? Fruit or Brute?
Benezet, Anthony. The Mighty Destroyer Displayed
Clubb, Henry Stephen. History of the Philadelphia Bible-Christian Church for the First Century of Its Existence
Cooper, James Fenimore. The American Democrat
Dodds, Susanna Way. Health in the Household
---. Race Culture
Evans, Joshua. A Journal of the Life, Travels, Religious Exercises, and Labours in the Work of the Ministry of Joshua Evans
Fowler, Orson Squire. Education and Self-improvement
---. Fowler's Practical Phrenology
---. Human Science, or, Phrenology
---. Life
---. Physiology, Animal and Mental
---. Religion; Natural and Revealed
---. Self Culture and Perfection of Character
Graham, Sylvester. Lectures on the Science of Human Life
---. The Philosophy of Sacred History
Greeley, Horace. Recollections of a Busy Life
Jackson, James Caleb. The Debilities of Our Boys and the Early Decay of Our Young Men
---. The Gluttony Plague
---. How to Cure Drunkards
---. The Training of Children
Kellogg, Ella Ervilla. Studies in Character Building
Kellogg, John Harvey. The Living Temple
---. Man, the Masterpiece
---. The Natural Diet of Man
---. The Physical, Moral and Social Effects of Alcoholic Poison
---. Practical Manual of Health and Temperance
---. Shall We Slay to Eat?
---. The Stomach
Lane, Charles and A. Bronson Alcott. “The Consociate Family Life”
Lay, Benjamin. All Slave-Keepers that Keep the Innocent in Bondage
Lovell, Mary Frances. “Address on Humane Education”
Metcalfe, William. Bible Testimony, on Abstinence from the Flesh of Animals as Food
Moore, J. Howard. The New Ethics
Mussey, Reuben Dimond. Health: Its Friends and Its Foes
Nichols, Mary Sargeant Gove. Lectures to Women on Anatomy and Physiology
Nichols, Thomas Low. “Dietetics”
Sinclair, Upton. The Autobiography of Upton Sinclair
Smith, Ellen Goodell. The Fat of the Land and How to Live On It
Stevens, Lilian M. N. Address of the President
Stow, Marietta. “Grand Triennial Conclave”
Tryon, Thomas. The Country-man's Companion
---. Friendly Advice to the Gentlemen-Planters of the East and West Indies
---. Healths Grand Preservative
---. Tryon's Letters
---. Tryon's Letters upon several occasions
White, Ellen Gould Harmon. Counsels on Diet and Foods
---. Counsels on Health and Instruction to Medical Missionary Workers
---. The Ministry of Healing
---. Spiritual Gifts
---. Testimonies for the Church
---. Testimony Studies on Diet and Foods
SUMMARY (Ridvan Askin, edited Deborah Madsen):
In this article, Alcott defends his view of “ultra-temperance” as expressed in his book Vegetable Diet (1838). He denounces what he considers to be a misconception, namely that he is a Grahamite. Alcott explains that vegetarianism is not the same as Grahamism. Pythagoras can hardly be called a Grahamite, and the same is true of the international “hard-working classes,” who are often “vegetable eaters” out of necessity. He also denies that he ever “denounce[d] flesh entirely, and in all circumstances.” He simply believes that vegetarianism is “'a more excellent way'” of life (268); that is, a more ethical way of living. Indeed, his general advocacy of Temperance is based in his desire “to aid in carrying out the great object of Christianity – TO MAKE MANKIND BETTER.” Physical health is a central, but often neglected, aspect of religion and thus is also a moral issue.
Much effort is spent on the “correction” of bad physical health and as a physician Alcott understands himself as engaged in “prevention.” Hence his activism against “quackery,” “neglect of education,” “mis-education,” and on behalf of “natural law” and “correct physical education.” In his view, “the various forms of intemperance” simply amount to “violations of natural law” (270). “[S]elf denial” and “reform,” dietetic and otherwise, are central to “the lover of just medical science as well as of intelligence, virtue, and sound piety.” They are, Alcott says, cornerstones of “the application of Christianity, pure and undefiled, to the physical condition and physical and moral redemption and renovation of man” (270).