Self Culture and Perfection of Character (1843)

AUTHOR: Fowler, Orson Squire

The summary below is based on an 1856 stereotype edition (held by Hathi Trust).

Fowler explicitly advocates for Temperance and a vegan diet as the basis of both physical and mental well-being. Generally, “intemperance, gormandizing, tea, coffee, and tobacco, condiments, colds, flesh-eating, sedentary habits, and the perpetual violation, by nearly all mankind, of the laws of health, must of necessity deprave the feelings by deranging the physiology, and of course the mentality” (58). Thus, “[m]ankind must abandon flesh, condiments, narcotics, gluttony, and fermented liquors, and substitute farinaceous food, cold water, and a light diet – must learn bow to EAT AND LIVE before they can expect to attain the exalted destinies and powers of which human nature is capable” (59). Alcoholic drinks “excite the brain and nervous system” (51) and “intoxication often renders good men real demons incarnate” (54). Overall, “[w]e should, therefore, take the right kinds and quantities of food, and keep our bodies in the best possible condition for mental action” (104). Fowler also condemns the shooting of birds and the slaughtering of animals, particularly if children are allowed to witness the atrocities (277-278).