Memoir and Letters of Francis W. Newman Part 28

The following letters have been kindly sent me for reproduction by Mr. F.

P. Doremus in connection with Newman's views on Vegetarianism:--

_To Mr. F. P. Doremus from Professor Newman._

"_21st Sept._, 1883.

"Dear Sir,

"I _deliberately prefer_ the rule of our Society and by preference adhere to it. But I have never interpreted it as severely as I find some to do.

On some occasions, in early years, when I could get no proper vegetarian food, I have eaten some small bit of ham fat (as I remember on _one_ occasion) to aid dry potato from sticking in my throat. I do not interpret our rule as forbidding _exceptional_ action _under stress of difficulty_.

But when I found what a fuss was made about this, and saw that many people took the opportunity of _inferring_ that a simple act implied a habit, I saw that it was unwise to give anyone a handle of attack....

"I can only say that I interpret our rules conscientiously, and obey them according to my interpretation faithfully. I do not see in our profession any vow or engagement comparable to that about _never tasting_ intoxicating drink. If my wife, who is not a professed vegetarian (though in practice she is all but one), asks me to taste a bit of flesh and see... whether it is good, I find nothing in our rules to forbid my gratifying her _curiosity_. In that case I do not take it _as diet_ to nourish me nor to gratify me. My words of adhesion simply declared that I had abstained from such _food_ for half a year, and _I intended to abstain in the future_. Of course this forbids my _habit_ or any _intention_ to the contrary; but I deprecate interpreting this as a vow or as a trap and a superst.i.tion. One who feels and believes as I do the vast superiority of our vegetarian food, never can desire, unless perhaps in some abnormal state of illness, the inferior food....

"Faithfully yours,

"F. W. Newman."

"_1st Oct._, 1883.

"Dear Sir,

"... On reading yours anew after some ten days or less, I think I ought to notice what you say of an unknown publisher.

"I cannot remember that for twenty years I have ever eaten in the company of any well-known publisher (anyone known to _me_ as a publisher) except Mr. Nicolas Trubner _before_ I joined the Vegetarians, and _one other_ more recently. The latter was in the house of a lady friend who always anxiously humoured me by providing a _special dish_ for me.

"Her cook was not skilful in _our_ cookery, but did her best. I remember distinctly who was present on this occasion with this respected publisher.

It was a luncheon with meats. I ate at the same table, and it may very easily have escaped his notice that a different dish was handed to me.

"I have several times sat at this friend's table with a large number of guests. I remember once counting that seventeen dishes were handed to me.

I dined on my own food to the great marvel of those near me....

"I have always maintained that the main reason for proclaiming any _rule_ of diet is, that the outsiders may be afforded facts to aid their own judgment; and that our engagement has no other element of obligation than that we shall not vitiate the materials of such judgment.

"Therefore also I have advocated several grades--for instance, an engagement allowing of _fish_ as food (which many will take who will not go our length), and another in which absence from home (where one cannot arrange the cookery) is an exemption. I rejoice also in the Daniclete rule. Provided that it is KNOWN what is the diet, we give valuable information."

"_14th Oct._, 1883.

"I knew that the publisher to whom you referred could only be Mr. Kegan Paul, who met me some few years back at luncheon in the house of my friends the Miss Swanwicks: that until _you told_ me his name, I thought it better not to write to him. But thereupon I wrote and explained to him that my friend Miss Anna Swanwick knew perfectly that I could not accept their hospitality (as I have habitually done for a week or more at a time) if they expected me to partake of any food inconsistent with the rules of our Society. I long ago furnished her with some of our recipes, and she _showed her cook_ always to make a _special_ dish for me. At one of their dinner parties I remember the amazement of guests at my pa.s.sing _all_ the dishes, as at first it seemed, until my own little dish came. I told Mr.

Kegan Paul that _he must have mistaken_ what was in my plate (perhaps crumb omelette _browned over_--which I remember the cook was apt to give me) for some fish of which he and others were partaking. I have no doubt that this was the whole matter....

"I am sincerely yours,

"F. W. Newman."

The closing letter in this series is evidently an answer to some questions from Mr. Doremus as regards Newman's portrait, and as regards the incidents of his life.

"My life has been eminently uneventful." When one remembers in how many questions of social reform, of theology, of written matter, Newman had been concerned, this short sentence strikes one's eyes strangely enough.

For what is an "event"? Surely it does not mean only something which is a carnal happening: a material outbreak in some form or other which occurs before our eyes? Surely there are far greater spiritual "events" than physical ones? And of _this_ kind of event Newman's life had been full.

Originality of thought, of conception, of aim, is the Event which takes precedence of all other. And these events were strewn like Millet's "Sower" from side to side of his path: to take the true Latin significance of the word, they _came out_ from him.

"_31st July_, 1884.

"Dear Sir,

"Your letter has been forwarded to me from home to this place [Keswick].... Messrs. Elliot and Fry (Baker Street, Portman Square), recently by pressure induced me to let them take my photograph. In fact they took four, in different positions, all judged excellent, all of cabinet size. Each, I believe, costs 2/-. I have none at my disposal. With or without my leave, anyone can publish them in any magazine. Now, as to my biography--my life has been eminently uneventful. There is nothing to tell but my studies, my successive posts as a teacher, and the list of books, etc., from my pen, _unless one add_ the effects of study on my CREED, which more than one among you might desire _not_ to make prominent in the _Food Reformer_.

"Can I a.s.sent to the request that I will myself write something? Others might wish to know in how many _Antis_ I have been and am engaged!!

Certainly more than you will care to make known will go into two pages of your magazine.

"I am, sincerely yours,

"F. W. Newman."

Two letters to Dr. Nicholson from Newman I think may be given here: one in April, 1875, and one in June, 1881, as both bear strongly on the vegetarian question:--

"25 _April_, 1875.

"My dear Nicholson,

"How time flies! Bearded men, active in moral and political questions, tell me they know nothing of the Austro-Hungarian events, because they happened when they were children.

"One of them asked me to give a lecture on Austria and Hungary of the Past, as he was curious and totally ignorant.... We are overrun with every kind of meeting, and the public are sated....

"Happily every day is too short for me, and I cannot have time on my hands.... I do not know whether you have attended the movement against vivisection, which is becoming lively. It has long been a dire horror to me. I rejoice to see that Sir W. Thomson, [Footnote: Sir William Thomson, born 1843, was late President of the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland; Exam. in Surgery, Queen's University and Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland.] and other scientific men, desire a severe restriction to be put on it. I agree heartily with those who say we have no more RIGHT to torture a dog than to torture a man; but I fear that to move at present with Mr. Jesse for the total prohibition will only give to the worst practices a longer lease of life.

"Our vegetarianism is becoming more active with the pressure from the high price of butcher's meat. Not that we make many entire conversions, but plentiful well-wishers and half-converts, and a great increase in the belief that _too much_ flesh meat is eaten, and that the doctors are much to blame for having pressed it as they press wine and ale, calling it 'generous' food. At the same time it is remarkable that the argument against slaughter-houses and for tenderness to tame animals plays a more decisive part, especially with women, than economic and sanitary arguments.... I am ever in experiment on something. At present it is on cacao b.u.t.ter and vegetable oils. We esteem the cacao b.u.t.ter for _savoury dishes_ very highly. Messrs. Cadbury sell it 'to me and my friends' for 1s. a lb. In pastry and sweets the chocolate smell offends most people; but my wife likes it. It is too hard to spread on cold meat.

"The gardens are becoming sprightly. I have not had success with new vegetables, viz. German peas, celery, turnips, Belgian red dwarf beans.