Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1898-01-22
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THE DAYS OF CHANGE,

i AhE DAtS Of CHANCE.
Many considerations and elements
enter into the formation of human
lives. What these think about makes
or mars; the books they read color the
character, and associations do deter
mine In great part what an Individual
may become. From this pretty well
determined conclusion much of the
counsel given is based. "As n man
thinketh 30 he is" says an observant
writer. a mans reading is one of the
touchstones by which one Intelligent
mind estimates and weighs another
Evil communications" said Paul,
corrupt good manners" and the old
English versifler claimed that zone
sickly sheep affects the flock and poi
sons all the rest" so the Idea has the
sanction of human experience; phil
osophers agree to 1t, educators seek to
fortify the plastic mind against the in
fuences OF evil,while Apostles and holy
men under inspiration appreciate as IL
'twere fundamental truth.
1t Is asserted by physicists and
psychologists that the man Is affected
fundamentally by that which he eats.
and that through sympathy the mind
becomes affected In some mysterious
and undetermined way through diet
in the course of time. Some have said
that the submissive character of the
Chinese and Hindoos is the result OF
vegetable diet acting upon their gem
erations, and that British pluck and
I,l To-,
instance to animal food, and in the
latter to their methods of life and war.
Knowing ones say that when they are
worked up to high state of bloodshed
and vengeance the drinking of human
blood Is a stimulus beyond contradict
tion. Whether an abnormal appetite
for hog meat would make man
hoggish, or that one who uses much
mutton will become sheepish. may not
have been determined by scientific
methods or is probably not yet clear.
But 1t has been determined that as
diet does affect the physical so also
does the mental 'pabulum supplied the
mind determine the mental develop
ment OF man, and mans speech will
often betray by his expressions the
special drift and caliber of the one to
whom men listen.
1t used to be said that the fecundity
Of the Irish peasantry was a conse-
quence of potato consumption, and
theorists have chained that the phos-
phorus in fish made 1t peculiarly
suitable food for the student and
thinker; brain food It was called But
Al L.,
most potent in the tissues and make
up of an average Scotchman probably
only few can tell Science has not es-
sayed to establish the idea that Var
mouth or Douglas men are any more
brainy than others, because of bloaters,
any more than religionists would claim
for the fishermen of Galilee special
mental or spiritual prominence be-
cause to their profession.
Nevertheless diet has been legislated
upon from time immemorial.
one of the earliest communications
made to Adam and Eve was in regard
to what they should eat, and the Mo-
sale economy was in part devoted to
declaring "things clean and unclean,"
and commencing or commanding in re-
gard to one or the other In our very
early experiences of association with
members of the Church, after some
years of dietary consideration and
practice, the question was asked of the
most devout, whether living in an era
of so-called revelation any restrictions
as to diet ad been placed upon the
Church members. The reply was. no.
which brought out the rejoinder, that
'if the new system was verify and in
deed divine, sooner or later that regu-
lation was sure"---and the preaching of
the Word of Wisdom was not long de-
layed. to the half CONSERVATION of
come. and the general abandonment of
the old fashioned tea party" which
at that date was as much of a feature
of their social gatherings as II was
among the sectarian churches.
Both under Moses and under Christ
blood was prohibited upon the ar
rument that 1t was "the life:" but is
blood the life. or is II the vehicle used
by the indwelling spirit for the assimi-
lntlon of material things by the body?
..rhe sn,rit,, is life according 70 cood
authority and no better recognized