Tryon's Letters (1700)
AUTHOR: Tryon, Thomas
https://archive.org/details/tryonslettersdo00tryogoog/page/n22/mode/2up
Tryon's Letters upon several occasions ... London: Printed for Geo. Conyers and Eliz. Harris, 1700.
http://name.umdl.umich.edu/A63798.0001.001
Trall, Russel Thacher. The New Hydropathic Cook-Book
---. William Horsell, Hydropathy for the People
Tryon, Thomas. The Country-man's Companion
---. Friendly advcie [sic] to the gentlemen-planters of the East and West Indies
SUMMARY (Deborah Madsen):
These letters on diverse subjects are addressed to the public, though traces of private correspondence remain. Each letter engages a specific topic that is announced in the title. The topics range from the bodily senses, such as sight and hearing, to a number of letters that are relevant to issues of diet and animal welfare. Tryon frames his account of health and carnism in relation to Christianity and the theory of bodily humours. He recommends a plant-based diet and condemns the exploitation of animals for meat as being a consequence of human corruption after the biblical Fall.
"Letter IX. Of Dropsies and the Nature of them, with some Account of what Diet and Exercises such should use, as also how to Retrench Expences by a Frugal Method of Living"
Tryon offers practical advice to the sufferer of "a Dropsie" who has been declared incurable by medical doctors. Tryon promises not only a cure but an improvement of the family's economic situation if they will change their diet to the vegan diet that he prescribes: "on this you must be contented to live one Year, and not eat any thing besides what is above mentioned, neither Flesh, Fish, Butter, Eggs, Cheese, Milk, &c." (60).
"LETTER XIV. Of GOD's Permission for the Eating of Flesh"
Tryon claims that humans have misinterpreted the scriptural passage where God seems to have "permitted Beasts to be Killed and Eaten" (70) because this permission was granted after the Fall: the eating from the Tree of Knowledge or
the Tree of Good and Evil, whereby he had separated and estranged himself from the Unity of God's Light and Love, so that the Spirit of his Understanding became Blind, and he grew an utter Stranger to himself, and his own Composition, which is called a Degeneracy or Fall, which subjected him to the influence of the divided Powers or Forms, and became totally Ignorant of the Primitive and Original state of Unity wherein he was Created, by which means Wrath and Violence gained the Ascendant over Man's Will and Affections, according to the Dignification and Power of each, calling Good Evil, and Evil Good, subduing all the Desires and Faculties of the Soul (70).
This is the origin of all violence that humans use against each other and other-than-human animals. The apparent command to kill and eat "beasts," as Tryon calls them, comes not from God but is a consequence of this separation from God. Those who turn to God and listen to the inner "Voice of Wisdom, that crys in the Gates of Man's Microcosmical City, against all Violence to Man and Beast, and is the Reconciler of Man's Soul to God" (70) will neither commit acts of aggression against non-human animals nor eat them. Awareness of the equality of all beings "is the true and natural Effect of God's Love, and whoever has attained to this Blessed State, will esteem the Killing of an Ox, as the Slaying of a Man" (70).
"LETTER XVIII. Of CLEANNESS"
In this letter, Tryon describes the benefits of hygiene in relation to the cleanliness and uncleanliness of various foods. He underlines the importance of food which constitutes the body, "the very Being, Substance, and as it were, the Original of the Microcosm Man, and in them are contained all the true Properties of him" (85). Everything comes from "the Spirituous Virtues of our Food" (85); however, as in all of the creation, foods "are endued with an Influential Vertue or Vice, according as each Form stands nearest to Unity or Discord" and upon digestion "then every particular Quality, Virtue or Vice is stirred up and awakened, by a certain Secret Simpathy or Antipathy" (85). Discord gives rise to "all our inordinate desires and longing after unclean and unequal Meats and Drinks":
Nothing doth more demonstrate the Depravation of Mankind, the depth of Darkness and Error, into which he hath Ingulphed himself, than a voracious desire after unclean Food, especially such as cannot be procured without Violence and Injustice, in destroying the Unity of God's Creatures, who bear the Image of their Creator in a great measure as well as our selves. This distempered Appetite of Man, in coveting unclean Foods, had never exerted its bloody Effects, if Man had not been first Polluted in himself, for no Commands of Violence, Inequality and Uncleanness can spring from Equality, Simplicity and Concord: Desires have always proportionable Nature and Conformity with that Power, from whence they are derived (86).
Dietary choice is also a moral and spiritual choice; by consuming "clean and innocent Foods" humans can advance "Concord, Simplicity and Unity" (86). It is not only the refusal of flesh that would be motivated by the power of unity and "Concord."
Now, if Man were not sunk down to the lowest degree of Depravation, he would not only separate himself from the grosser Uncleannesses and Impurities in Eating Flesh, but also from the Fruits of the Animals too, though it must be confess'd they are abundantly preferrable to Flesh; nevertheless they do carry with them, and contain all the true Natures and Properties of the Stock or Creature from whence they proceed: However, seeing they are the Fruits they can spare Mankind, with no great damage to themselves, without any manifest Pain, Trouble, Injury or Oppression, may be Eaten with less Harm and Prejudice than the other; yet this is to be remembred, that the too frequent use of Butter, Eggs, Milk, Cheese, &c. do insensibly awaken and beget Bestial Inclinations and Dispositions (86).
"LETTER XIX. Of Flesh-BROTHS"
Tryon contrasts soups and broths made from flesh as opposed to plant-based ingredients, on the basis of his claim that "all Meats and Drinks are made and compounded both of Body and Spirits, even as Man, so from our Foods our Bodies and Spirits are continued, made and sustained, all according to the goodness, badness, cleanness or uncleanness of our Meats and Drinks" (87-88). As he argues in Letter XVIII, dietary choices are spiritual choices. "The flesh of all Animals and Beasts is gross, succulent, and full freighted with many impurities and uncleannesses, as we have demonstrated in our Book, Entituled The Way to Health, &c. And to say nothing of the Bestial and revengeful passion of their Mind, which after Deaths painful stroke centers in the Blood and Spirits, and those violent incroaching Spirits do never fail to incorporate with their Similies in the Eaters, it being the natural Law of God and the way of Nature, which no Art can prevent" (87). Tryon's description of flesh soups underlines this corporeal, corrupting quality:
The Fat, Blood, Gravy, or Juices of all Beasts are exceedingly crude, full of gross matter and dull, heavy, purblind Spirits, with contaminated dolorous Species; and when it comes into Boyling Water, the Water immediately penetrates the whole substance, and naturally draws forth and imbibes all the flatulent gross juices and bloody matter, and as it were incorporates it into its self, so that it becomes one Body, and the less water such flesh is Boiled in, the more impure, gross and fulsom the Pottage is" (89-90).
He praises the cleanliness of "The Sal Nitral Vertues or oily Body in Vegetables" as sweet and fragrant, and also beneficial in their impact upon the humors: "the more simple and equal your Meats and Drinks are, the more equal are your Humors; also the calmer and purer is your Blood, which is the Source whence the Spirits are Generated, and from the Spirits, as we said before, arises Dispositions, Imaginations, Inclinations, Words and Works, both equal or unequal, according to the foundation or first matter" (91-92).