Temperance in All Things (1839)

AUTHOR: Alcott, William Andrus

KEYWORDS: animals, Christian ethics, food and diet

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).