" Then, craving leave, he* spake

Of life, which all can take but none can give,

Life, which all creatures love and strive to keep,

Wonderful, dear, and pleasant unto each,

Even to the meanest; yea, a boon to all

Where pity is, for pity makes the world

Soft to the weak and noble for the strong.

Unto the dumb lips of his flock he lent

Sad pleading words, showing how man, who prays

For mercy to the gods, is merciless.

* * * *

While still our Lord* went on, teaching how fair

This earth were if all living things be linked

In friendliness and common use of foods,

Bloodless and pure; the golden grain, bright fruits,

Sweet herbs which grow for all, the waters wan,

Sufficient drinks and meats.

* * * *

And through the land next day passed a decree*

* * * *

* Buddha.

* * * *

'Thus the King's will is: -- There hath been slaughter for the sacrifice And slaying for the meat, but hence forth none

Shall spill the blood of life nor taste of flesh,

Seeing that knowledge grows, and life is one,

And mercy cometh to the merciful.'"

-- From the Light of Asia by Sir Edwin Arnold.

* * * *

"A carnivorous animal is not an ideal animal, and never can be. The life of a carnivorous animal is a perpetual onslaught. Every meal is a murder. Eating is not the harmless activity it is to one who sits down to fruit and grains. The carnivore must kill somebody, or have somebody else do it for him, in order to eat. It cannot be otherwise. And an animal whose life is one unbroken succession of such necessities, whose stomach is the grave of hundreds and thousands and even tens of thousands of his fellow-beings, may be meritorious in other respects -- may preach the Golden Rule, decry war, give money to missionaries, and rail at the rich, but so long as he continues to fill himself every few hours with the blood and vitals of others he is not only not an ideal animal, but has in reality no just claims on life."

-- The New Ethics by J. Howard Moore.

* * * *

"Does it not shame you to mingle blood and murder with nature's beneficent fruits? Other carnivora you call savage and ferocious, -- lions, tigers, and serpents, while yourselves come behind them in no species of barbarity. And yet for them murder is the only means of sustenance, whereas to you it is a superfluous luxury and crime."

-- Phitarch.

* * * *

"No, experience will teach you that if you do away with flesh-eating and get in its place the other valuable foods, the time will come when you will care less and less for it; then again, the time will come when you have no desire for it, and finally, you will grow positively to dislike it and its effects, and nothing could induce you to return to the flesh pots."

-- Ralph Waldo Trine.

* * * *

"It is well to write and legislate, and pray for better and kinder treatment of these frightened, thirsty-maddened, tortured creatures on their journey to our tables, but the surest, quickest way to help (and this can be done even while continuing to work for the alleviation of their sufferings) is to stop feeding upon them."

-- Maud R. L. Sharp.

President of Millenium Guild.

* * * *

"Some say if animals are not used for food they will overrun the earth. In India the Hindus do not kill cows, but they are not overrun with them. The Hindus did not have any slaughter houses until the British Government established them. In the states that are still governed

by the Hindu Rajahs, the wild animals and birds are protected by strict laws. But these states are not overrun by wild animals, nor are the inhabitants driven out by them."

-- From "Every Living Creature," by Ralph Waldo Trine.

* * * *

"It is impossible for one who has become aware of the sickening details of animal and fowl transportation and killing, to eat meat of any kind without an accusing conscience, which speaks in a still, small voice, asking if this means of sustenance is necessary for the maintenance of life and strength"

-- Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

* * * *

"But is not flesh-eating natural?" I hear it asked, 'Does not man in his primitive, savage state make use of flesh naturally? Do not wild animals devour one another?' Yes, but we are not savages, nor are we purely animals, and it is time for us to have outgrown this attendant-of-savage life-custom.

-- Ralph Waldo Trine.

* * * *

"You have just dined; and however scrupulously the slaughter-house is concealed in a graceful distance of miles, there is complicity."

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson.

* * * *

"And now to my individual reader this last appeal. Who creates this demand that brings to the shambles every year to die at man's hand the more than a hundred millions of cattle, sheep and swine that are annually sacrificed for food ? Every man, woman and child who eats the meat their carcasses supply. After the last word is said about the callous drover, the ranchman and the railroad, the butcher whose hands must drip with blood, the packer who grows rich out of his traffic, we come face to face with ourselves. But for us there would be no demand and no supply."

-- Dr. Francis H. Rowley.

President Massachusetts Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

* * * *

"Back of the Loaf is the snowy Flour,

And back of the Flour is the Mill, And back of the mill is the field and the shower,

And the Sun and the Father's will."

* * * *

"I ask you to ask yourselves in all love and candor, as you prepare for, or as you eat your Christmas feast, if back of all the procuring which has made it possible, can be found, "the Father's Will" -- the will of God, who is Mercy, Purity, Justice, Kindness, Divine Love, -- and who gave the plain command in the Bible most of you claim as your guide: --

"And behold I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed. To You It Shall Be For Meat;" and who made one of the Ten Commandments He gave for Man's Moral guidance read: --

" Thou Shalt Not Kill"

-- Extract from a Christmas address by Maude R. L. Sharp.

* * * *

"I am a Vegetarian not because I want to be healthy and because it is better brain food, but because I want to be human, or if you care to express it a little differently, because I want to be humane."

-- Benj. Fay Mills.