sameness. It is often stated that as an ordinary flesh-eater has the
choice of a greater range of foods and flavours than a vegetarian, he can
obtain more enjoyment, and that the latter is disagreeably restricted.
Certainly he has the choice, but does he avail himself of it to any
considerable extent? No one cares to take all the different kinds of food,
whether of animal or vegetable that are possible. Of edible animals but a
very few kinds are eaten. A person who particularly relishes and partakes
largely of flesh-foods will reject as insipid and unsatisfying many
mild-flavoured foods at one end of the scale. The vegetarian may abstain
from foods at the opposite end of the scale, not always from humane
reasons, but because they are unpleasant. Thus there may be little to
choose between the mere range of flavours that give enjoyment to each
class of persons. The sense of taste is in its character and range lower
than the sense of sight and hearing. The cultivation of the taste for
savouries seems to blunt the taste for fruits and the delicate foods. The
grass and herbs on which the herbivora subsist, seems to our imagination
of little flavour and monotonous; but they eat with every sign of
enjoyment, deliberately munching their food as though to get its full
flavour. In all probability they find a considerable range of flavours in
the great varieties of grasses commonly found together in a pasture.

Our elaborate cooking customs entail a vast amount of labour. They
necessitate the cost, trouble and dirt from having fires in great excess
of that required for warmth: the extra time in preparing, mixing and
attending to food which has to be cooked: and the large number of greasy
and soiled utensils which have to be cleaned. Cooked savoury food is
generally much nicer eaten hot, and this necessitates fires and attention
just previous to the meal. We have already said that soft cooked food
discourages mastication and leads to defective teeth. Our elaborate
cookery is mainly due to our custom of eating so largely of flesh, whilst