The Ethics of Diet: A Catena of Authorities Deprecatory of the Practice of Flesh EatingWilliams, Howard
Philosophy
The Ethics of Diet: A Catena of Authorities Deprecatory of the Practice of Flesh Eating
Williams, Howard
Diet; Vegetarianism
Best known as the editor of _The Adventurer_--a periodical in imitation
of the _Spectator_, _Rambler_, &c.--which appeared twice a week during
the years 1752-54. Johnson, Warton, and others assisted him in this
undertaking, which has the honour of being one of the first periodicals
which have ventured to denounce the cruel barbarism of “Sport,” and the
papers by Hawkesworth upon that subject are in striking contrast with
the usual tone and practice of his contemporaries and, indeed, of our
own times.
In 1761 he published an edition of Swift’s writings, with a life which
received the praise of Samuel Johnson (in his _Lives of the Poets_),
and it is a passage in that book which entitles him to a place here.
In 1773 he was entrusted by the Government of the day with the task
of compiling a history of the recent voyages of Captain Cook. He also
translated the _Aventures de Télémaque_ of Fénélon. The coarseness
and repulsiveness of the dishes of the common diet seldom have been
stigmatised with greater force than by Dr. Hawkesworth. His expressions
of abhorrence are conceived quite in the spirit of Plutarch:--
“Among other dreadful and disgusting images which Custom has
rendered familiar, are those which arise from eating animal food.
He who has ever turned with abhorrence from the skeleton of a
beast which has been picked whole by birds or vermin, must confess
that _habit_ alone could have enabled him to endure the sight of
the mangled bones and flesh of a dead carcase which every day
cover his table. And he who reflects on the _number_ of lives that
have been sacrificed to sustain his own, should enquire by _what_
the account has been balanced, and whether his life is become
proportionately of more value by the exercise of virtue and by the
superior happiness which he has communicated to [more] reasonable
beings.”[186]
XXXI.
PALEY. 1743-1805.
With the exception of Joseph Butler, perhaps the ablest and most
interesting of English orthodox theologians. As one of the very few
of this numerous class of writers who seem seriously to be impressed
with the difficulty of reconciling orthodox _dietetics_ with the higher
moral and religious instincts, Paley has for social reformers a title
to remembrance, and it is as a moral philosopher that he has a claim
upon our attention.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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