Page:Henry Stephens Salt - A Plea for Vegetarianism and Other Essays.pdf/31

Rh who make practical proof for themselves, is its physical superiority, insuring, as it does, a simpler, healthier, more enjoyable manner of life, and aﬁ'ording immunity, as Vegetarians very plausibly assert, from many of our worst diseases and epidemics.

The progress of all reforms is slow and in the question of diet, as in all others, a national error takes centuries, as Sydney Smith has observed, “to display the full bloom of its imbecility” ; yet a Vegetarian, without being over sanguine, may well comfort himself with the reﬂection that, in the case of ﬂesh-eating, these conditions have now been amply fulfilled, and that the outlook is therefore not entirely devoid of encouragement. Centuries have passed; we see our upper classes rioting in degrading wastefulness, while our lower classes are sunk in degrading want, and both alike the victims of degrading, because unnecessary, disease. The failure of our diet system is