THEOSOPHICAI SOCIETY.

Evening Star, Issue 10341, 15 June 1897, Page 1

THEOSOPHICAI SOCIETY.

The public meeting held in the rooms of the above society in the A.M.P. Buildings last evening listened with attention to an address by Miss E. J. Horne on ‘Vegetarianism from the Standpoint of a Theoscphist.’ Starting with the declaration that the society were not responsible for her views, the lecturer went on to show the effect of meat-eating on the physical body and on the mind, stating that, by overexcitation of the digestive organs and nervous apparatus, flesh food caused disease and stimulated evil passions, besides originating and keeping alive a craving for alcohol. Nor was it so strength-giving as vegetable diet, for the horse, ox, elephant, and camel lived mainly on grass and grain, developing enormous muscular power; and the athletes of ancient Greece, as well as the gladiators and soldiers of Rome, were fed on barley-meal, fruit, and oiL If wc fed on impure food, we radiated impurity to others, the atoms of our bodies being reabsorbed by the organisms of other people; thus a duty to our fellows was involved in vegetarianism. The speaker then gave an account of the effects produced on the astral plane by the slaughter of birds and animals, vividly portraying the agony, fear, and hatred of the animal souls thrust violently through the gateway of death. These feelings were reflected on to the minds of men, producing depression in the well-disposed and deepening the evil tendencies of the depraved. We had a duty towards animals: they were our younger brothers in the great scheme of evolution, and our task was to help them onward. In ancient times, before the priesthood lost spirituality, men were taught these things, and treated animals with consideration. A verse from Ovid was read, wherein the killing of animals for food was deprecated; and it was stated that Buddha and I’ythagonts forbade a flesh diet, the followers of the latter even going the length of wearing shoes and clothing prepared from vegetable fibre. The depraved animal souls of the worst of mankind, besides other oijectional entities, were enabled to persist and derive magnetic strength from the emanations of freshly-spilt blood, and this evil magnetism was used for the harming of men ; hence the blood sacrifices demanded by the African and other village deities, who bad a real existence, though the idea was laughed at. Until the eating of meat was abolished it was impossible for the race to ascend to any spiritual height, for flesh food coarsened and darkened the sheaths of the eternal ego. We were responsible to our fellows for the condition of our physical body, while the condition of our mind was even more important. In everything we did and thought we incurred responsibility to our brothers, human and animal. The lecture concluded with the recitation of a poem by a New Zealand writer dealing with and inveighing against the slaughter of animals. Several questions were asked and answered at the close, the gathering dispersing about halfpast nine.