Some of Sir Richard Phillips' sixteen reasons for a vegetarian diet, Medical
Journal, 27 July 1811 (as quoted in The Extended Circle by Jon Wynne-Tyson)
1. Because, being mortal himself, and holding his life on the same uncertain
and precarious tenure as all other sensitive beings, [man] does not find himself
justified, by any supposed superiority or inequality of condition, in destroying
the enjoyment of existence of any other mortal, except in the necessary defence
of his own life.
2. Because the desire of life is so paramount, and so affectingly cherished
in all sensitive beings, that he cannot reconcile it to his feelings to destroy
or become a voluntary party in the destruction of any innocent being being,
however much in his power, or apparently insignficant.
9. Because he observes that carnivorous men, unrestrained by reflection or sentiment,
even refine on the most cruel practices of the most savage animals and apply
their resources of mind and art to prolong the miseries of the victims of their
appetites bleeding, skinning, roasting, and boiling animals alive, and torturing
them without reservation or remorse, if they thereby add to the variety or the
delicacy of their carnivorous gluttony.
10. Because the natural sentiments and sympathies of human beings, in regard
to the killing of other animals, are generally so averse from the practice that
few men or women could devour the animal whom they might be obliged themselves
to kill; and yet they forget, or affect to forget, their living endearments
or dying sufferings.
11. Because the human stomach appears to be naturally so averse from receiving
the remains of the animals, that few people could partake of them if they were
not disguised and flavoured by culinary preparation; yet rational beings ought
to feel that the prepared substances are not the less what they truly are, and
that no disguise of food, in itself loathsome, ought to delude the unsophisticated
perceptions of a considerate mind.
12. Because the forty-seven millions of acres in England and Wales would maintain
in abundance as many human inhabitants, if they lived wholly on grain, fruits,
and vegetables; but they sustain only twelve millions [in 1811] scantily, while
animal food is made the basis of human subsistence.
14. Because the practice of killing and devouring animals can be justified by
no moral plea, by no physical benefit, nor by any just allegation of necessity
in countries where there is abundance of vegetable food, and where the arts
of gardening and husbandry are favoured by social protection, and by the genial
character of the soil and climate.