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Diet and Disposition

About This Item

  • Title: Diet and Disposition
  • Date: 12 February 1858
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: per.00764
  • Source: Brooklyn Daily Times., 12 February 1858: 2. Our transcription is based on a digital image of a microfilm scan of the original issue. Microfilm of original issue held at Pennsylvania State University Libraries. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the journalism, see our statement of editorial policy.
  • Editorial note: This piece is unsigned, as was the case for most of Whitman's journalism. However, this editorial is part of a series of texts that deal with a coherent theme that has been identified by the Whitman Archive journalism team as likely authored by Whitman. This decision is based on a combination of historical and (auto)biographical accounts, similarity to contemporary Whitman writings, a history of scholarly attribution, extant clippings retained by Whitman, computational stylometric analysis, and, in some cases, manuscript evidence in Whitman’s hand.
  • Contributors to digital file: W Max Radl Kaylen Michaelis Tara Ballard Stephanie Blalock Karie Cobb
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Diet and Disposition." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 26 September 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: per.00764.xml (TEI)
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DIET AND DISPOSITION

Life Illustrated argues that men ought to subsist on vegetable instead of animal food, beacuse all the useful animals—the horse, sheep, ox, elephant, &c.—are herbivorous, while the ferocious and destructive animals are carnivorous. But even granting the assumption that diet regulates disposition, we demur to the inference. If a race of men want to be slaves like the domestic animals, let them feed exclusively on the products of the earth, as the Hindoos do, and like them they will become downtrodden and pusillanimous. But if we desire liberty and independence, such as the animals of the forest enjoy, it follows that we should feed on flesh as they do. And we deny that flesh-eaters are as savage in their disposition as vegetarian races. The Anglo Saxon race is the most humane and generous, taken all in all; while the fruit-eating lazzaroni​ 1 of Naples and the rice-eating Sepoy are the most treacherous, malignant and cruel of human beings.2 The noblest traits of brute sagacity and highest range of dumb intelligence is found in the meat-eating dog. So it seems to us that the vegetarian theory will not bear examination.

Notes:

1. The Lazzaroni of Naples were considered to be of the lowest socioeconomic class, often consisting of beggars or unhoused individuals. [back]

2. The Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 was a failed rebellion by Indian soldiers, known as sepoys, against the rule of British East India Company. [back]

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