THE SCIENCE OF NUTRITION 129brutalize him to such an extent that the law will not
allow him to sit on a jury in a capital case because he
has ceased to have any regard for life.
The animals which we kill also cry aloud against
this murder; there is a cloud of gloom and hatred over
the great slaughter cities. The law protects cats and
dogs against cruelty. We all rejoice to see the little
squirrels in the city parks come and take food from our
hands, but as soon as there is money in the flesh or fur
of an animal, man ceases to have regard for its right to
live, and becomes its most dangerous foe, feeding and
breeding it for gain, imposing suffering and hardships
upon a fellow being for the sake of gold. We have a
heavy debt to pay to the lower creatures whose
mentors we should be; whose murderers we are, and
the good law which works ever to correct abuses will
also in time relegate the habit of eating murdered
animals to the scrapheap of obsolete practices as
cannibalism is now.
It is the nature of a beast of prey to eat any animal
that comes in its path, and its organs are such that it
must have that kind of a diet to exist, buteverything is
in a stage of becoming; it is always changing to
something higher. Man, in his earlier stages of
unfoldment, was also like the beasts of prey in certain
respects; however, he is to become God-like and thus
he must cease to destroy at some time in order that he
may commence to create. Flesh food has fostered
human ingenuity of a low order in the past; it has
served a purpose in our evolution; but we are now
standing on the threshold of a new age when self-
sacrifice and service will bring spiritual growth to
humanity. The evolution of the mind will bring a