Page:The Complete Works of Lyof N. Tolstoi - 11 (Crowell, 1899).djvu/585

Rh But why, if the wrongfulness, i.e. the immorality, of animal food was so long ago known to humanity, have people not yet come to acknowledge this law? will be asked by those who are accustomed to be led rather by public opinion than by reason. The answer to this question is that the moral progress of humanity—which is the foundation of every other kind of progress—always takes place slowly; but that the sign of true, not casual, progress is its uninterruptedness and continual acceleration.

And so it is with the progress of vegetarianism. This progress is expressed both in the words of the writers cited in the above-mentioned book, and in the very life of mankind, which is continually advancing from the use of animal to that of vegetable food, both unconsciously and also consciously—in vegetarianism, which now manifests especial vigor and is attaining ever greater and greater dimensions. This movement has during the last ten years been steadily accelerating: more and more books and periodicals upon this subject appear every year; one meets more and more people who have given up animal food; and abroad, especially in Germany, England, and America, the number of vegetarian hotels and restaurants is increasing year by year.

This movement must cause especial joy to those whose life consists in seeking to found the kingdom of God upon earth, not because vegetarianism is in itself an important step toward that kingdom (all true steps are both important and unimportant), but because it is a sign that the aspiration of mankind toward moral perfection is serious and sincere, as it has taken the one unalterable order of succession natural to it, beginning with this first step.

One cannot fail to rejoice at this, as people could not fail to rejoice who, after striving to reach the upper story of a house by trying vainly and at random to climb the walls from different points, should at last begin to assemble at the first step of the staircase, and to crowd around it, convinced that there could be no way up except by this first step of the stairs.

1892.