It will have been noted that the anti-vegetarian arguments which have so far come under review have been mainly such as are based on purely _materialistic_ grounds, as if the question were wholly one for doctors and scientists to decide; and it has been shown that, even thus, there is no sort of warrant for the supercilious dismissal of vegetarianism as a theory condemned in advance by some superior tribunal. But the question is not one for the _ipse dixit_ of the specialist. It is also a moral question of very great moment, and this fact gives a new significance to such unwilling admissions as that made by the _British Medical Journal_, that "man can obtain from vegetables the nutriment necessary for his maintenance in health"—_i.e._, from vegetables only, much more, therefore, from a vegetable diet with the addition of eggs and milk. The practicability of vegetarianism being thus fully granted, it is impossible to pretend that moral considerations are not relevant to the controversy, and that in forming an opinion on the vexed problem of diet we should not give due weight to the promptings of humaneness. People often talk as if the humanitarian plea were some fanciful external sentiment that has been illogically thrust into the discussion; whereas in truth it is one of the innermost facts of the situation which no sophistry can escape. Our humane instincts are unalterably implanted in us, and we cannot deny them if we would; to be _human_ is to be _humane_. "There is something in human nature," says an old writer,[11] "resulting from our very make and constitution, which renders us obnoxious to the pains of others, causes us to sympathise with them, and almost comprehends us in their case. It is grievous to see or hear (and almost to hear of) any man, or even any animal whatever, in torture." And now that modern science has demonstrated the close kinship that exists between human and non-human, the greater is the repulsion that we feel at any wanton ill-usage of animals. Footnote 11: Wollaston, "Religion of Nature," 1759.