132 The Great World's Farm 



said, and substances which are closely similar may be 

 obtained both from a beefsteak and a cauliflower; from 

 the white of an egg and from a cabbage; from milk curd, 

 and from peas and beans, of which the Chinese do actually 

 make a vegetable cheese. 



Quantity for quantity, a cabbage is, indeed, less nutri- 

 tious than the white of an egg, but the cabbage contains 

 a similar substance. It would, however, be necessary to 

 eat a much larger weight of cabbage to obtain as much 

 flesh-forming food as is contained in an egg. 



And then, again, though the nitrogenous compounds 

 obtained from flesh and vegetables are similar — so closely 

 similar even as to appear almost identical — they are not 

 absolutely identical, and it would be rash, therefore, to 

 conclude that they are equally nutritious. For, if one 

 thing be more plain than another, from what has been 

 said in the previous pages, it is the immense importance 

 belonging to little things — to trifles so minute as almost, 

 or quite, to escape detection. 



Let us remember the vineyards growing side by side — 

 the treatment the same, the soil so apparently the same, 

 that the difference cannot be detected^and yet the wine 

 from the one is worth, and fetches in the market, twenty 

 times as much as the other! The vines being of the same 

 species, and all other things being equally enjoyed by both, 

 it follov/s that the difference in quality must be caused by 

 some slight difference in the soil, which is so slight as to 

 be undiscoverable. 



If, therefore, so slight a difference in the vine's food 

 can make so large a difference in its produce, it seems 

 altogether rash to conclude that the cheese of beans is as 



