Page:Henry Stephens Salt - A Plea for Vegetarianism and Other Essays.pdf/22

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Ecstasy!
My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time,
And make as healthful music. It is not madness
That I have uttered: bring me to the test.

To bring a question to the test is, however, a process which to most people is particularly disagreeable. They greatly prefer the easier and more expeditious method of shaping their ideas in accordance with the time-honoured traditions of custom and "society;" and hence, on the subject of food, they cling firmly to the notion that the roast beef of England is the summum bonum of dietetic aspiration. I believe that time will prove this to be a fallacy, and that future and wiser generations will look back with amazement on the habit of flesh-eating as a strange relic of ignorance and barbarism.