Page:Henry Stephens Salt - A Plea for Vegetarianism and Other Essays.pdf/80

Rh indubitable economy cannot wisely be disregarded in a country where poverty is as prevalent as in ours. If we are not blinded by prejudice and custom, we should see that the most truly practical man is he who can live most simply, healthily, and contentedly ; while the term “crotchet-monger” is to none more fitly applicable than to him who fondly imagines that he cannot live a useful life without costly and unnecessary food. But, alas ! this is one of the commonest of all fallacies, to make ourselves believe that those people are “unpractical” who advocate a course of life which we ourselves do not wish to practise.

5. “We ought to eat meat for the sake of others” Selfishness is the next crime with which the Vegetarian is charged. His relatives are anxious about him, for he is delicate by nature, and the doctor has been heard to mutter words of ominous import ; the neighbours are beginning to talk ; the servants, too, are puzzled and annoyed ; the cook grumbles at having to prepare new dishes, and the butcher’s tenderest feelings are shocked and violated. Would it not be far nobler and more unselfish on the part of the author of all this trouble, if he would set