are so offended by what
is set before them that they will not suffer it to be cut or sliced;
thus abstaining from them when dead, while they would not spare them
when alive.

Well, then, we understand that that sort of men are used to say, that
in eating of flesh they follow the conduct and direction of Nature.
But that it is not natural to mankind to feed on flesh, we first of all
demonstrate from the very shape and figure of the body. For a human
body no ways resembles those that were born for ravenousness; it hath no
hawk's bill, no sharp talon, no roughness of teeth, no such strength of
stomach or heat of digestion, as can be sufficient to convert or alter
such heavy and fleshy fare. But even from hence, that is, from the
smoothness of the tongue, and the slowness of the stomach to digest,
Nature seems to disclaim all pretence to fleshy victuals. But if you
will contend that yourself was born to an inclination to such food as
you have now a mind to eat, do you then yourself kill what you would
eat. But do it yourself, without the help of a chopping-knife, mallet,
or axe,--as wolves, bears, and lions do, who kill and eat at once. Rend
an ox with thy teeth, worry a hog with thy mouth, tear a lamb or a hare
in pieces, and fall on and eat it alive as they do. But if thou hadst
rather stay until what thou greatest is become dead, and if thou art
loath to force a soul out of its body, why then dost thou against Nature
eat an animate thing? Nay, there is nobody that is willing to eat even a
lifeless and a dead thing as it is; but they boil it, and roast it, and
alter it by fire and medicines, as it were, changing and quenching the
slaughtered gore with thousands of sweet sauces, that the palate being
thereby deceived may admit of such uncouth fare. It was indeed a witty
expression of a Lacedaemonian, who, having purchased a small fish in
a certain inn, delivered it to his landlord to be dressed; and as he
demanded cheese, and vinegar, and oil to make sauce, he replied, if I
had had those, I would not have bought the fish. But we are grown so
wanton in our bloody luxury, that we have bestowed upon flesh the name
of meat [Greek omitted], and then require another seasoning [Greek
omitted], to this same flesh, mixing oil, wine, honey, pickle, and
vinegar, with Syrian and Arabian spices, as though we really meant to
embalm it after its disease. Indeed when things are dissolved and
made thus tender and soft, and are as it were t