No.ffy. FIFTY YEARS OF FOOD REFORM A HISTORY OF THE VEGETARIAN MOVEMENT IN ENGLAND. From 1ts Incept1on 1n 1847, down to the close of 1897: WITH INCIDENTAL REFERENCES TO VEGETARIAN WORK IN AMERICA AND GERMANY. BY ; CHARLES W. FORWARD, WITH UPWARDS OF TWO HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS. Percy Bysshe Shelley. MDCCCXCVIII. LONDON : THE IDEAL PUBLISHING UNION, LTD., MEMORIAL HALL, FARR1NGDON STREET. MANCHESTER : THE VEGETARIAN SOCIETY, 9, PETER STREET. (L- THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY 127291II AVTOR. LENOX ANT) TIU'TN FOl NDATIONS P 1941 L ffff^fv^^f^^ffmvvvvrfv X . .- «fflo i • ' I■ ' 1 t ,1,1 H B ■ i lis rWr ^^Ml 14* 19 QJ L' ■ ■^«iwri » Inter1or of Northwood V1lla. [The Room where the Vegetarian Society was founded in 1847.) Northwood V1lla, Ramsgate. {.Hydropathic Infirmary and Restdence 0/ Mr. W. Horscll, in 1847. Now (1897) a Sea-sUe Home for Boys in carnation with the Ragged School Un1on. THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED (BY KIND PERMISSION) TO MY FRIEND AND FELLOW-WORKER IN THE CAUSE OF VEGETARIANISM, ARNOLD FRANK HILLS, WHOSE HIGH IDEALS, UNFAILING EXAMPLE, AND INEXTINGUISHABLE ENTHUSIASM, HAVE INSPIRED MYSELF /■ AND MANY OTHERS •; [■. WITH RENEWED FAITH AND ENERGY, • AND DEEPENED THE CONVICTION THAT' THE TRIUMPH OF VEGETARIANISM, WHICH HE HAS DONE SO MUCH TO PROMOTE, IS DESTINED TO BRING WITH IT A REIGN OF" PEACE, GOODWILL, AND UNIVERSAL HAPPINESS WHICH MANKIND HAS. BEEN VAINLY SEEKING THROUGHOUT PAST AGES. PREFACE. HE task of writing a historical survey of the Vegetarian Move ment in England is one which I did not seek, and I should not have undertaken had I foreseen the difficulties it entailed. However, it is at last accomplished, and it is my fervent hope that this humble record of what, to my mind, is destined to prove one of the most far-reaching of the reform movements which the Victorian Age has produced, will prove useful both as a work of reference and as a means of inspiring future adherents to the Vegetarian cause. I have endeavoured to make the volume rather more than a dead record of actual Vegetarian work, by dealing, not only with the various phases of the move ment, as such, but also introducing such material as might help to indicate the attitude of public opinion, and the relationship of allied movements. I felt that, although the work does not profess to deal exclusively with the Vegetarian Society, it would be appropriate that the name of that organization should appear as joint publishers on the title-page. To this suggestion the Executive of that Society gave its unconditional assent, but, having taken objection to that part of Chapter XII. which deals with the " Amalgamation " of the National Food Reform Society, the Vegetarian Society wrote to me, through its Hon. Secretary, requesting me to omit its name from the title-page. As the title-page and frontispiece to the whole edition was already printed, I was unable to do this, and feel, therefore, in fairness to the Vegetarian Society, bound to make this statement. In justice to myself, I must say, however, that I have submitted pages 108 and 1o9 to two gentlemen, one of whom was Hon. Secretary of the National Food Reform Society at the time of the incidents related, and the other a prominent member of its Committee, and they both replied endorsing my statements. I expressed my belief on page 109 that the Vegetarian Society did not invite any of the signatories to the N.F.R.S. circular to join the Committee of the London Auxiliary. I find, however, that some three months after that Committee was formed, two of the signatories were invited to join, and that the Rev. W. J. Monk and Mr. James Salsbury had also been asked. Why this invidious selection was made I know not, but I record the correction with pleasure. CHARLES W. FORWARD. 6, Blackfriars Road, London. December, 1897. A HISTORY OF THE VEGETARIAN MOVEMENT. By Charles W. Forward. CHAPTER I. — Introductory. O mutually de of the question, inasmuch as the inception structive state and accomplishment of organized Vege ments are not tarian work in the nineteenth century has infrequen 1 l y been made possible largely owing to the made in criti crystallization and accumulation of cising the Vege thought throughout past ages. tarian move- That Pythagoras enjoined abstention men t, firstly, from the flesh of animals is comparatively that Vege well-known, but it is not so generally tarianism is a recognized that many equally well-known new "crank," teachers subsequent to the sage of Samcs or "fad" likely have held opinions upon diet as pro to have a brief existence ; and secondly, nounced as those of Pythagoras himself. that, after all, there is The Ro nan Poet Ovid nothing new in Vege was evidently well ac- tarianism. quainted with the The historiographer Pythagorean doctrines, has to deal with facts (or in the fifteenth book rather than arguments, of his "Metamor and it will be best per phoses " — said by Dry- haps to leave the two den to be the finest part statements referred to of the whole poem — he above to annihilate puts into the mouth of each other after the Medea a forcible dis manner of the Kilkenny quisition upon the Cats. As a matter of Golden Age " Blest in fact, it would be diffi the produce of the trees cult to trace anything and in the herbs which like an organized Vege the earth brings forth, tarian propaganda and the human mouth prior to the present was not polluted with century, but on the blood." other hand there have Seneca, the greatest been, from Pythagoras of the Stoics, writes downwards, philoso with force and fre phers and scholars in quency upon the ques numerable who have Seneca. tion of diet. Thus, expatiated with no he declares, " Bread little vehemence upon the evils of gluttony and Pearl Barley certainly is not luxurious and the advantages of an Edenic djet. feeding, but it is no little advantage to It is not proposed in these chapters to be able to receive pleasure from a simple deal very fully with this branch of the diet, of which no change of fortune can subject, more especially that Mr. Howard deprive one." Williams in his magnificient "Catena of " Man alone," he writes, "supports Authorities Deprecatory of the Practice of himself by the pillage of the whole earth Flesh-eating " has gone into the biblio and sea ; " and further, " If these maxims " graphy. Some reference, however, to this (the Pythagorean) " are true, then to aspect of Vegetarian history is almost abstain from the flesh of animals is to necessary to anything like a clear review encourage and foster innocence; if ill A HISTORY OF THE VEGETARIAN MOVEMENT. founded, at least they teach us frugality view as previously mentioned writers, and and simplicity of living. And what loss consequently not setting so clear a line of demarcation between animal and vegetable food Cornaro's writings are replete with denunciations of the prevalent vice of intemperance. Voltaire, Paley, Pope, Shelley, Bentham, Lamartine, and many other notable writers have urged in no uncertain way the desirability of a humane dietary, whilst Shelley, Lamartine, Sir Richard Phillips, Wesley, John Howard, Swedenborg, and others personally ab stained from flesh-food. That Alexander Pope was conversant with the philosophy of dietetics is clear not only from his poetry, but also from his expression of opinion that, "nothing can be more shocking and horrid than one of our kitchens sprinkled with blood, and abounding with the cries of expiring victims, or with the limbs of dead animals scattered or hung up here and there. It gives one the image of a giant's den in romance, bestrewed with scattered heads and mangled limbs." But of all the CORNarO. English poets who have urged the claims have you in losing your cruelty? I of the humane dietary and condemned in merely deprive you of the food of lions unequivocal terms the barbarity of flesh- and vultures. M oved by these and similar eating, Shelley stands foremost. One of arguments, I resolved to abstain from his Notes to " Queen Mab "consists, in fact, flesh meat, and at the end of a year the of a powerful essay in favour of Vege- habit of abstinence was not only easv but delightful." Plutarch, as his " Essay on Flesh- eating " shows, was a staunch abstainer from the flesh of animals, and he expresses himself in terms of almost unqualified d;testation with respect to man's car nivorous habits. A little more practical acquaintance with the writings of the Fathers of the Church would bring the fact home to many modern students of divinity that some of the most earnest of the earlier Christian leaders were practical Vege tarians. The writings of Clement of Alexandria, Chrysostom, Tertullian, and others may be referred to in this connexion. In the fifteenth century one of the earliest and most remarkable writers upon the subject of dietetics proved in his own person the benefits of abstemiousness, Shelley. and although not apparently acquainted tarianism. Both in the above-mentioned with the subject from the same points of poem, and in "The Revolt of Islam," EARLY FOOD REFORMERS. Shelley speaks of the Golden Age, the interesting. As the fac-simile given epoch when, below is scarcely legible, it may be well to Never again may blood of bird or beast transcribe it. Stain with its venomous stream a human feast. "N.B. — For upwards of eighty-six years and when, I have kept my accounts exactly. I will No longer now not attempt it any longer, being satisfied Man slays the lamb that looks him in the face.