Richard Phillips (1767-1840)


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.