In your friendly review of my “Seventy Years among Savages,” you mention that a notice which appeared in the Times (January 11) was a very favourable one. There was, however, one error in that notice which it is of some importance to correct. George Meredith is there represented as having remarked of vegetarianism: “If it be possible for some persons, it is not possible for me.” The Times writer overlooked the fact that Mr. Meredith was speaking ironically. That this was made clear in my book will be seen from the following extract:
“At dinner Mr. Meredith talked of his distaste for flesh food, and his esteem for simplicity in all forms, and stated emphatically that it was quite a mistake to suppose that his own experiments in vegetarianism had injured his health. Yet, if he were to try that diet again, he knew how his friends would explain to him that it is “impossible to live without meat,” or (this in dramatically sarcastic tones) that “if it be possible for some persons, it is not possible for me.”
Henry S. Salt
19, Hightown Road, Brighton