"The unseen power who has revealed himself to me alone among you, has
told me to tell you that you ought by this time to have outgrown the
barbarous habits of your ancestors. If, as you believe, you know better
than they, you should do better. He commands you, therefore, to refrain
from killing any living being for the sake of eating it. The only animal
food that you may eat, is the flesh of any birds, beasts, or fishes that
you may come upon as having died a natural death, or any that may have
been born prematurely, or so deformed that it is a mercy to put them out
of their pain; you may also eat all such animals as have committed
suicide. As regards vegetables you may eat all those that will let you
eat them with impunity."
So wisely and so well did the old prophet argue, and so terrible were the
threats he hurled at those who should disobey him, that in the end he
carried the more highly educated part of the people with him, and
presently the poorer classes followed suit, or professed to do so. Having
seen the triumph of his principles, he was gathered to his fathers, and
no doubt entered at once into full communion with that unseen power whose
favour he had already so pre-eminently enjoyed.
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