[200] The observation of a non-Christian moralist (Juvenal, xv.) It is the motto chosen by Oswald for his title page.
[201] In the Hindu sacred scriptures, and especially in the teaching of the great founder of the most extensive religion on the globe, this regard for non-human life, however originating, is more obvious than in any other sacred books. But it is most charmingly displayed in that most interesting of all Eastern poetry and drama—Sakuntala; or The Fatal Ring, of the Hindu Kalidâsa, the most frequently translated of all the productions of Hindu literature. We may refer our readers also to The Light of Asia, an interesting versification of the principal teaching of Sakya-Muni or Gautama.
[202] The Cry of Nature: an Appeal to Mercy and to Justice on behalf of the Persecuted Animals. By John Oswald. London, 1791.
[203] Long Life, or the Art of Prolonging Human Existence.
[204] See the Nouvelle Biographie Universelle for complete enumeration of his writings.
[205] Makrobiotik.
[206] Afterwards Sir Richard Phillips, whose admirable exposition of his reasons for abandoning flesh-eating, published in the Medical Journal, July 1811, is quoted in its due place.
[207] Abstinence from Animal Food a Moral Duty, ix. Ritson, in a note, quotes the expression of surprise of a French writer, that whereas abstinence “from blood and from things strangled” is especially and solemnly enjoined by the immediate successors of Christ, in a well-known prohibition, yet this sacred obligation is daily “made of none effect” by those calling themselves Christians.
[208] “I have known,” says Dr. Arbuthnot, “more than one instance of irascible passions having been much subdued by a vegetable diet.”—Note by Ritson.
[209] Written in 1802. Since that time the “pastime” of worrying bulls and bears, has in this country become illegal and extinct. Cock-fighting, though illegal, seems to be still popular with the “sporting” classes of the community.