Page 282 - erewhon

to kill and eat animals, it was not less sinful to do the like
by vegetables, or their seeds. None such, he said, should be
eaten, save what had died a natural death, such as fruit that
was lying on the ground and about to rot, or cabbage- leaves
that had turned yellow in late autumn. These and other like
garbage he declared to be the only food that might be eaten
with a clear conscience. Even so the eater must plant the
pips of any apples or pears that he may have eaten, or any
plum-stones, cherry- stones, and the like, or he would come
near to incurring the guilt of infanticide. The grain of ce-
reals, according to him, was out of the question, for every
such grain had a living soul as much as man had, and had
as good a right as man to possess that soul in peace.
Having thus driven his fellow countrymen into a corner
at the point of a logical bayonet from which they felt that
there was no escape, he proposed that the question what
was to be done should be referred to an oracle in which the
whole country had the greatest confidence, and to which
recourse was always had in times of special perplexity. It
was whispered that a near relation of the philosopher’s was
lady’s-maid to the priestess who delivered the oracle, and
the Puritan party declared that the strangely unequivocal
answer of the oracle was obtained by backstairs influence;
but whether this was so or no, the response as nearly as I
can translate it was as follows:-
‘He who sins aught Sins more than he ought; But he who
sins nought Has much to be taught. Beat or be beaten, Eat or
be eaten, Be killed or kill; Choose which you will.’
It was clear that this response sanctioned at any rate the

1