
A Vindication of Natural Diet.
- Reading level
- Fairly demanding
- Price
- Free
About the book
"A Vindication of Natural Diet" by Percy Bysshe Shelley is an essay on vegetarianism published in 1813. Originally written as notes to his poem "Queen Mab," Shelley argues that eating meat is unnatural and responsible for disease and immorality. Using comparative anatomy and vivid imagery of slaughtered lambs, he contends that humans are naturally plant-eating creatures. Shelley prescribes a strict vegetarian diet and distilled water as the path to health, longevity, and moral living, linking meat consumption to bodily corruption and social ills.
- Vegetarianism
Updated September 2026. Public domain in the USA. Text and summary from Project Gutenberg eBook #38727. A Vindication of Natural Diet. on Wikipedia.
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![Cover of The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Vol. 2 [of 2]](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/67926/pg67926.cover.medium.jpg)



![Cover of The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Vol. 1 [of 2]](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/67925/pg67925.cover.medium.jpg)




