Custom renders palatable to the cannibal the dainty flesh of human kind, even as it does that of animal flesh to the palate of civilized eaters.
The writer, a few years ago, thought nothing of dining off the corpses of hogs, oxen, sheep, &c.; indeed, he imagined that abstinence from such diet meant bodily weakness, sickness, and perhaps death. The experiment was determined upon, and in two years, an increase of about thirty-five pounds, and elastic health, such as never before enjoyed, has caused a radical change in his belief that it is necessary to take the life of animals to sustain our own.
The first that led the writer to abstain from flesh-eating, was the thought of the principle involved—cruelty to animals, the slaughter of innocents. To slay an animal and consume its flesh is selfish and murderous,—the spirit which keeps Heaven away from this gloriously beautiful earth.
