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Pythagorean system. About a fortnight has elapsed since the change, and we do not find ourselves any the worse for it. . . . We are delighted with it, and think it the best thing in the world." But they did not hesitate to provide a "murdered fowl," which has become historic, for Miss Catharine Nugent, the kindly, keen-witted, and patriotic Irishwoman, who earned her living as a furrier's assistant, and charmed the visitors by her pleasant conversation and generous heart. And there was need of both hope and courage, for "I had no conception," says Shelley, "of the depths of human misery until now. The poor of Dublin are assuredly the meanest and the most miserable of all."
Mr. Cordy Jeaffreson thinks that Shelley took up Vegetarianism in imitation of Byron's dietetic habits. The influence of the Vegetarians, "with whom he lived intimately at London and Bracknell," cannot, in Mr. Jeaffreson's opinion, "be held accountable for his first trial of a diet which he adopted in Dublin before making their acquaintance. Perhaps he adopted the Byronic diet just as he adopted the Byronic shirt collar. in imitation of the poet whom he admired so greatly."—("Real Shelley," Vol. ii., p. 143.) But what evidence is there that Shelley knew of Byron's spasmodic displays of Vegetarianism? Shelley's first essay was but of short duration, for the poet with his wife and sister-in-law left Dublin for Holyhead "at two o'clock in the afternoon of Saturday, April 4. They tacked against a baffling wind to get clear of land; the whole of Sunday they struggled against the breeze; and at length, two hours past midnight, reached Holyhead in a drenching mist. Lighted by the sailors' lanterns, they scrambled for a mile over the rough way, and having tasted no food since leaving Dublin, and being much exhausted by the voyage, they forgot that they were Pythagoreans, and fell to with exceeding good will upon a supper of meat—the abhorred thing!"—(Dowden's "Life," Vol. i., p. 267.)
After their return to London they resumed their "bloodless banquets," but Hogg, who was allowed to have whatever he pleased on his visits, was not well pleased by the flesh-pots set before him when he visited the young Vegetarians—although the word had not then been invented. Shelley appears to have been completely indifferent to regular meals, ate only when he was hungry, and if he could
