"Secondly: Is it not equally unquestionable that it is both more humane, and what, for want of a comprehensive word, I must call more "aesthetic," not to slaughter animals for food, unless it be really necessary to do so .'^ If it can be shown that men can live equally well without flesh-food, or, rather, unless it can be shown that the contrary is the case (for the burden of proof must always rest with those who take on themselves the responsibility of wholesale slaughter), it must surely seem unjustifiable, on the score of humanity, to breed and kill animals for merely culinary purposes."