MARCH 229 



control and rule the cruelty of man. But the most tender- 

 hearted of old maids has to shut her eyes to the fact that 

 superfluous kittens and puppies are put out of the way ; 

 and if we are told that the rats are devouring our beauti- 

 ful black and white pigeons, the cruel rat-catcher is sent 

 for to fight and kill the enemy, though, poor things ! 

 Mr. and Mrs. Eat enjoyed their spring life and their 

 young families quite as much as the pigeons. Can 

 vegetarians keep their kitchens full of blackbeetles or 

 their Eoses covered with green fly? Do they give 

 over all their Peaches to the wasps, or their nuts to the 

 mice? 



The wasteful redundancy of Nature involves the 

 whole question in a cloud of difficulties, and to my mind 

 not one of these is removed, nor is any light thrown on 

 the subject by the sentimental view that we should give 

 up eating meat, not for our own good, but with the idea 

 of sparing animal life. 



Besides, such countless other products are dependent 

 upon the killing of animals that, even if the whole world 

 were non-meat-eating, hardly fewer animals than at present 

 would be bred and slaughtered. 



I myself believe it has to be proved that people who do 

 not eat meat are less strong than those who do. The 

 subject is receiving much attention in Germany. Last 

 year I saw in the newspapers that a man left money to 

 build a school for poor children on condition that it was 

 conducted on vegetarian principles. The trustees refused 

 the bequest. On the other hand, last June a very in- 

 teresting walking-match took place in Berlin which, the 

 papers said, attracted the attention of the Minister of 

 War. The course was over seventy English miles. There 

 were twenty-two starters, amongst them eight vegetarians, 

 and the distance had to be covered within eighteen hours. 

 The interesting result was that the first six to arrive at 



