A murderer might argue, in like manner, that he found he was always treading on spiders, and therefore it was obviously necessary “to take life.”
11. “The Scriptural argument.” I have often been met by the remark that any system which condemns flesh-eating must be wrong, because it was sanctioned by the usages of the Jews, and is mentioned without disapproval in the New Testament. Having no wish to enter on any religious controversy, I will very briefly state why I consider such reasoning fallacious. It is only in late ages that Vegetarianism has been seriously studied and adopted as a principle ; only lately has its deeper import been widely and systematically recognised. It follows, therefore, that it is unreasonable to look to the New Testament for teaching on this subject, which was quite unknown to the Jews of that day, and was reserved for the consideration of a future generation. Why need we fear to admit that morality, or rather the knowledge of morality, is progressive, and that which is allowable in one age is not necessarily so in another ? For instance, the habit of slavery was sanctioned in the Old Testament, and not condemned in the
