even than an
Erewhonian Puritan would be able to stand.

Those who take this view hold that he knew how impossible it would be to
get the nation to accept legislation that it held to be sinful; he knew
also how hopeless it would be to convince people that it was not wicked
to kill a sheep and eat it, unless he could show them that they must
either sin to a certain extent, or die. He, therefore, it is believed,
made the monstrous proposals of which I will now speak.

He began by paying a tribute of profound respect to the old prophet,
whose advocacy of the rights of animals, he admitted, had done much to
soften the national character, and enlarge its views about the sanctity
of life in general. But he urged that times had now changed; the lesson
of which the country had stood in need had been sufficiently learnt,
while as regards vegetables much had become known that was not even
suspected formerly, and which, if the nation was to persevere in that
strict adherence to the highest moral principles which had been the
secret of its prosperity hitherto, must necessitate a radical change in
its attitude towards them.

It was indeed true that much was now known that had not been suspected
formerly, for the people had had no foreign enemies, and, being both
quick-witted and inquisitive into the mysteries of nature, had made
extraordinary progress in all the many branches of art and science. In
the chief Erewhonian museum I was shown a microscope of considerable
power, that was ascribed by the authorities to a date much about that of
the philosopher of whom I am now speaking, and was even supposed by some
to have been the instrument with which he had actually worked.

This philosopher was Professor of botany in the chief seat of learning
then in Erewhon, and whether with the help of the microscope still
preserved, or with another, had arrived at a conclusion now universally
accepted among ourselves--I mean, that all, both animals and plants, have
had a common ancestry, and that hence the second should be deemed as much
alive as the first. He contended, therefore, that animals and plants
were cousins, and would have been seen to be so, all along, if people had
not made an arbitrary and unreasonable division between what they chose
to call the animal and vegetable kingdoms.

He declared, and demonstrated to the satisfaction of all those who were
able to form an opinion upon the subject, that there is no difference
apprec