Golden Rules of Social Philosophy/The Author's Reasons for not Eating Animal Food
THE AUTHOR'S
REASONS FOR NOT EATING ANIMAL
FOOD.
I.
Because, being mortal himself, and holding his life on the same uncertain and precarious tenure as all other sensitive beings, he does not feel himself justified, by any alleged superiority, or inequality of condition, in destroying the vital enjoyment of any other mortal, except in the necessary defence of his own life.
II.
Because the desire of life is so paramount, and so affectingly cherished by all sensitive beings, that he cannot reconcile it to his feelings to destroy, or become a voluntary party in the destruction of, any living creature, however much in his power, or apparently insignificant.
III.
Because he perceives in nature a gradation of existence, subordinate and successive, by which atoms form the granular and crystallized masses of inert matter, these forming vegetation, and vegetables forming animalization; and this succession, with some exceptions, unworthy of moral example, is the general chain of all existence.
IV.
Because nature appears to have made a super-abundant provision for the nourishment of animals in the saccharine matter of roots and fruits; in the farinaceous matter of grain, seed, and pulse; and in the oleaginous matter of the stalks, leaves, and pericarps, of numerous vegetables.
V.
Because the destruction of the mechanical organization of vegetables inflicts no sensitive suffering, nor violates any moral feeling; while vegetables serve to render his own health, strength, and spirits, better than those of most carnivorous men.
VI.
Because, in the hope of emancipating himself from the sensual and selfish instincts which govern the human race, he yields to his moral and mental convictions, setting at defiance all those considerations about health and vigour which have been pressed upon him by the intellectual darkness and unfeeling assumptions of the medical and philosophical schools.
VII.
Because he feels an utter and unconquerable repugnance against applying to his palate, masticating with his teeth, or receiving into his stomach, the flesh or juices of deceased animal organizations.
VIII.
Because, against devouring flesh in general, he feels the same abhorrence which he hears carnivorous persons express against eating human flesh, or the flesh of dogs, cats, horses, or other animals, which in some countries it is customary for the carnivorous to devour.
IX.
X.
Because, observing that carnivorous propensities among animals are accompanied by a total want of sympathetic feelings and humane sentiments, as in the hyena, the tyger, the vulture, the eagle, the crocodile, and the shark; he conceives that the practices of those carnivorous brutes afford no worthy example for the imitation or justification of rational, reflecting, and conscientious, beings.
XI.
Because, during forty-six years' rigid abstinence from the flesh and juices of deceased sensitive beings, he finds that he has suffered but one month's serious illness; that his animal strength and vigour have been equal, or superior, to that of his contemporaries; and that his mind has been fully equal to numerous shocks, which it has had to encounter, from innumerable cases of turpitude in his fellow-men.
XII.
Because the natural sentiments and sympathies of human beings, in regard to the killing of other animals, are generally so averse to the practice, that few men or women could devour the animals which they might be obliged themselves to kill; yet they forget, or affect to forget, the living endearments or dying sufferings of the creature, while they are wantoning over his remains.
XIII.
Because the human stomach appears to be naturally so averse to the remains of animals, that few could partake of them if they were not disguised and flavoured by culinary preparation; yet rational creatures ought to feel that the prepared substances are not the less what they truly are, and none but savages could devour raw flesh, or kill and eat on the spot the quivering warm flesh of their victims, in itself loathsome.
XIV.
Because the forty-seven millions of acres in England and Wales would maintain in abundance as many human inhabitants, if they lived wholly on grain, fruits, and vegetables; but they sustain only fifteen millions scantily, while animal food is made the basis of human subsistence.
XV.
Because animals do not present or contain the substance of food in mass, like vegetables; every part of their economy being subservient to their own existence; arid their entire frames being solely composed of blood necessary for life, of bones for strength, of muscles for motion, and of nerves for sensation, just like ourselves.
XVI.
Because the practice of killing and devouring animals can be justified by no moral plea, by no physical benefit, nor by any allegation of necessity, in countries where there is abundance of vegetable food; and where the arts of gardening and husbandry are favoured by social protection, and by the genial character of the soil and climate: for man is either not indigenous in climates which produce no vegetation, or has neglected to migrate from countries whose physical character has changed.
XVII.
Because in morals, universally, the moral sense governs practices without regard to possible inconveniences; while assumed inconveniences are not in any case admitted as justifications of practices either unjust or immoral. It is not the duty, or in the power of man, to regulate the universe ; but it is his duty to respect his own moral sentiments, and leave to powers above his own, the balancing of nature, and the harmonizing of existence.
XVIII.
Because the practices of savages, and of savage ancestry, in killing and eating animals, are not entitled to more respect among civilized men, than the practices of many nations, even at this day, in killing and eating either their enemies or their way-laid neighbours; and so forcible is custom, that the laws of civilization against murder appear to be insufficient in deterring the practice of cannibalism among some black tribes in the British colonies.
XIX.
Because custom has so misled men, and so hardened their hearts against sympathy for the sufferings of creatures in their power and unprotected by law, that killing and maiming is denominated sport, and skill in such practices placed even on a level with the liberal arts and sciences, insomuch that man is the terror of all other animals, and the merciless tyrant of the whole animated creation.
XX.
XXI.
Because whenever the number and hostility of predatory land animals might so tend to prevent the cultivation of vegetable food, as to render it indispensible to destroy them in self-defence, there could even in that case exist no necessity to destroy the animated existences in water; and, as in most civilized countries there exist no land-animals besides those which are purposely bred for slaughter or luxury, of course all destruction in such countries must arise either from unthinking wantonness or carnivorous gluttony.
XXII.
Because the stomachs of locomotive beings appear to have been provided for the purpose of conveying about, with the moving animal, nutritive substances, analogous in effect to the soil in which are fixed the roots of plants; and, consequently, nothing ought to be introduced into the stomach for digestion and for absorption by the lacteals, or roots of the animal system, but the natural bases of simple nutrition, as the saccharine, the oleaginous, and the farinaceous, matter of the vegetable kingdom.