"I can only say that I interpret our rules conscientiously, and obey them according to my interpretation faithfully. I do not see in our profession any vow or engagement comparable to that about _never tasting_ intoxicating drink. If my wife, who is not a professed vegetarian (though in practice she is all but one), asks me to taste a bit of flesh and see... whether it is good, I find nothing in our rules to forbid my gratifying her _curiosity_. In that case I do not take it _as diet_ to nourish me nor to gratify me. My words of adhesion simply declared that I had abstained from such _food_ for half a year, and _I intended to abstain in the future_. Of course this forbids my _habit_ or any _intention_ to the contrary; but I deprecate interpreting this as a vow or as a trap and a superstition. One who feels and believes as I do the vast superiority of our vegetarian food, never can desire, unless perhaps in some abnormal state of illness, the inferior food.... "Faithfully yours, "F. W. Newman." "_1st Oct._, 1883. "Dear Sir, "... On reading yours anew after some ten days or less, I think I ought to notice what you say of an unknown publisher. "I cannot remember that for twenty years I have ever eaten in the company of any well-known publisher (anyone known to _me_ as a publisher) except Mr. Nicolas Trübner _before_ I joined the Vegetarians, and _one other_ more recently. The latter was in the house of a lady friend who always anxiously humoured me by providing a _special dish_ for me. "Her cook was not skilful in _our_ cookery, but did her best. I remember distinctly who was present on this occasion with this respected publisher. It was a luncheon with meats. I ate at the same table, and it may very easily have escaped his notice that a different dish was handed to me. * * * * * "I have several times sat at this friend's table with a large number of guests. I remember once counting that seventeen dishes were handed to me. I dined on my own food to the great marvel of those near me.... "I have always maintained that the main reason for proclaiming any _rule_ of diet is, that the outsiders may be afforded facts to aid their own judgment; and that our engagement has no other element of obligation than that we shall not vitiate the materials of such judgment. "Therefore also I have advocated several grades--for instance, an engagement allowing of _fish_ as food (which many will take who will not go our length), and another in which absence from home (where one cannot arrange the cookery) is an exemption. I rejoice also in the Daniclete rule. Provided that it is KNOWN what is the diet, we give valuable information." "_14th Oct._, 1883. * * * * *