ON CONSIDERATIONS SUGGESTIVE OF FURTHER INQUIRY UPON A SUBJECT OF GRAVE NATIONAL AND INTER- NATIONAL IMPORTANCE.

Most of us are familiar with certain facts of the teetotal
controversy. We, who oppose wine, beer, and spirits as
drinks^ do not set ourselves against pleasure in drinking,
as such ; but we deprecate that form of pleasure which is
bought too dearly; which is liable to cause what is worse
than pain, namely, demoralisation. So too it is a suffi-
cient reason for dissuading the pleasure of flesh-meat, if
it deprive men of higher and nobler pleasures : for. in-
stance, if it deprive men of cultivation, leisure, and refine-
ment, by keeping them poor. Such an argument cannot
justly be set aside by appealing to the palate.

Yet, in a highly-respected London weekly paper of no
small literary pretensions, a leading article, some years
back, condemned Vegetarianism on grounds which con-
fess a mean sensuality. It vehemently declared that
flesh-meat is not necessary to strength or health, and
treated those as blameably ignorant who were surprized at the muscular strength and endurance of vegetarians.
But it went on to say that the main question is, whether,
in a world which has so few pleasures, it is worth while
to give up the pleasure which flesh-meat affords to the
palate. The reader's first thought might be, * Is the
editor sarcastic, and intending bitterly to show contempt
for flesh-eaters?' I fear that this interpretation is in-
admissible, and that we must take his utterance seriously.
It is a sad parallel to the wine-lover, with whom *I
like my wine ' is a sufficient reply to every possible ob-
jection.

However, we remind such a wine-drinker that tastes
change ; that wine is not the only nice drink ; that many
who once loved wine have now ceased to hanker for it ;
and that it is quite degrading to overrule moral argu-
ments by an appeal to the palate. All this applies to
Vegetarianism. First of all, we observe that no one re-
gards raiv flesh as nice ; it has to be cooked : and scarcely
any flesh, even after cookery, is nice, without vegetable
additions, as condiments or sauce. The number of
vegetable flavours is too many to count. The savoury
herbs used to dress flesh need no definite mention ; they
often impart to a dish its familiar flavour, which we are
apt to ascribe to the fibre of the animal. Even pork and
ham have their characteristic tastes from the sugar, the
sage and onion, the apple sauce, the mustard or vinegar.
I have known a person fancy he was eating roast veal,
when a compost similar to the usual stuffing of roast veal
was given him. Boiled mutton dressed like boiled pork
will puzzle many, and deceive some. Hare is a peculiarly
high-tasted flesh, yet the stuffing and the red-currant
jelly have much to do with its niceness. There is no end
of things delicious to the palate.