Alfred Russel Wallace 



with great pleasure and approval. The moment Mr. Ben- 

 jamin Kidd invented the striking term of " equality of 

 opportunity " I adopted it, and have often preached it in 

 the pulpit and on the platform, just as you preach it in the 

 tract before me. I fully agree that justice, not charity, is 

 the fundamental principle of social reform. There is some- 

 thing very contemptible in the spiteful way in which many 

 newspapers and magistrates are trying to aggravate the diffi- 

 culties of conscientious men who avail themselves of the con- 

 science clause in the new Vaccination Act. There is very 

 much to be done yet before social justice is realised, but the 

 astonishing manifesto of the Czar of Kussia, which I have no 

 doubt is a perfectly sincere one, is a revelation of the extent 

 to which social truth is leavening European society. Since 

 I last wrote to you I have been elected President of the 

 Wesleyan Methodist Conference, which will give me a great 

 deal of special work and special opportunities also, I am 

 thankful to say, of propagating Social Christianity, which 

 in fact, and to a great extent in form, is what you yourself 

 are doing.— Yours very sincerely, h. Price Hughes. 



To Alfred Russell 



Parkstone, Dorset. May 11, 1900. 



Dear Sir, — I am not a vegetarian, but I believe in it 

 as certain to be adopted in the future, and as essential to 

 a higher social and moral state of society. My reasons are : 



(1) That far less land is needed to supply vegetable than 

 to supply animal food. 



(2) That the business of a butcher is, and would be, re- 

 pulsive to all refined natures. 



(3) That with proper arrangements for variety and good 

 cookery, vegetable food is better for health of body and mind. 

 —Yours very truly, Alfred R. Wallace. 



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