Page 560:—
It is most desirable, therefore, that an intelligible definition should be framed to indicate accurately the diet thus erroneously described as "Vegetarian," a term which denotes the consumption of food only obtained from the vegetable kingdom, and can by no possibility be accurately, that is, honestly, used to include anything else.
We forgive Sir Henry's ignorance of the origin and use of our official title, but he need not denounce as dishonest those who reject his authority in matters of scholarship. What he calls impossible, I say is necessary. Vegetarian cannot, whether you look to the form of the word, or to the meaning assigned to it by its inventors, mean an eater of vegetables.
Mr. Leslie Stephen, in a far-fetched joke, invited beef-eating moralists (the Ethical Society) to thank God that they are not as the Vegetarian Publican, who by his abstinence would doom herds and flocks to extinction. Whatever grounds we may allege for our heresy, we must make no pretence to humanity. Sir Henry borrows this sophism, though, lacking the pen of a ready writer, he cannot set it off to advantage. Mr. H. S. Salt has said all that need to be said on the matter. To men of sense the following passage confutes itself:—
Ibid, p. 558 :—
Grant them that conscious life is a boon to its possessors. The "mixed feeder," in a civilised society, at all events, ought to be aware that he is not the mere occasion of death to animals, but is, on the other hand, promoting life by propagating them for the purpose of food, and that he may conscientiously feel pleasure in the fact that he plays a humble part in promoting the happiness of his fellow creatures by furthering the great scheme which has associated joy with life. For the breeding of animals of all kinds for human food confers life on millions of beings possessing considerable capacity for enjoyment in their own way, on the best conditions attainable; conditions far superior in point of comfort, freedom from pain, accident, &c., to those which govern the wild breeds inhabiting the prairie or the forest. Better conditions than those which affect and constitute the mean of human experience; for those organised by man, when he acts as a temporary vice-providence to the beast, exclude as far as possible all suffering from famine, exposure, from prolonged disease, and slow decay. He confers a brief life, perhaps, but one which is well protected, thanks to vigilant oversight of the flocks and herds. For it is the manifest interest of the proprietor to maintain a healthy and happy condition for every one of his creatures during the entire term of their existence. And when the last hour has arrived, which is happily unforseen, unsuspected, without the anxiety or dread it often brings to man, the stroke of death is arranged to take place almost instantaneously and without pain. Or it should be so, for this can always be accomplished if ordinary care and skill be employed.
The Editor of the Nineteenth Century, by publishing optimistic pictures like this, shews that he has never heard of cattle-ships
