DIET.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1267, 20 November 1884, Page 3

DIET.

People eat too much meat nowadays, and, neglecting vegetables, do not learn the many ways in which these can be cooked so as to provide a diet cheaper than meat, and as agreeable for a change ; therefore, the vegetarians who have been banqueting to show what may be done with vegetables, have rendered a service. But it is a pity that some of them should create a prejudice against themselves and their dishes by nonsensical talk about killing of animals for food. Have they not heard that, according to certain scientists, the vegetable feels and perhaps thinks? It may be demonstrated to future generations that the blushing carrot is susceptible of tender emotions, and the retiring way of the truffle are due to a well seasoned aversion to the wickedness that is witnessed above ground. But again, every vegetable contains animalcule, and we never condemn a potato to boiling without dooming to death thousands of little creatures, who may be as interesting in their ways as the lobster is in his. The truth is, all nature lives, and the man who would eat without destroying life will find his task a difficult one if he sets about it honestly with the help of a microscope. However, wo may borrow dishes from experienced vegetarians without taking their opinions. Meat we must have to some extent, because nature has made us carnivorous, but, being graminivorous also, we shall find ourselves The better for letting vegetables play a greater part in our interior economy _ than they do at present. How comes it that the .eu'ils and white beans, once so much eaten by our agricultural and working classes, are now never so much as named among them ?—Graphic.