 the monstrous proposals of
which I will now speak.
    He began by paying a tribute of profound respect to the old prophet, whose
advocacy of the rights of animals, he admitted, had done much to soften the
national character, and enlarge its views about the sanctity of life in general.
But he urged that times had now changed; the lesson of which the country had
stood in need had been sufficiently learnt, while as regards vegetables much had
become known that was not even suspected formerly, and which, if the nation was
to persevere in that strict adherence to the highest moral principles which had
been the secret of its prosperity hitherto, must necessitate a radical change in
its attitude towards them.
    It was indeed true that much was now known that had not been suspected
formerly, for the people had had no foreign enemies, and, being both quick
witted and inquisitive into the mysteries of nature, had made extraordinary
progress in all the many branches of art and science. In the chief Erewhonian
museum I was shown a microscope of considerable power, that was ascribed by the
authorities to a date much about that of the philosopher of whom I am now
speaking, and was even supposed by some to have been the instrument with which
he had actually worked.
    This philosopher was Professor of Botany in the chief seat of learning then
in Erewhon, and whether with the help of the microscope still preserved, or with
another, had arrived at a conclusion now universally accepted among ourselves -
I mean, that all, both animals and plants have had a common ancestry, and that
hence the second should be deemed as much alive as the first. He contended,
therefore, that animals and plants were cousins, and would have been seen to be
so, all along, if people had not made an arbitrary and unreasonable division
between what they chose to call the animal and vegetable kingdoms.
    He declared, and demonstrated to the satisfaction of all those who were able
to form an opinion upon the subject, that there is no difference appreciable
either by the eye, or by any other test, between a germ that will develop into
an oak, a vine, a rose, and one that (given its accustomed surroundings) will
become a mouse, an elephant, or a man.
    He contended that the course of any germ's development was dictated by the
habits of the germs from which it was descended, and of whose identity it had
once formed part. If a germ found itself placed as the germs in the line of its
ancestry were placed, it would do as its ancestors had done, and grow
