BEHIND THE SCENES IN
SLAUGHTER-HOUSES.
"Notwithstanding the assertion of Dr. Johnson," writes Mr. Lecky, "I venture to maintain that there are multitudes to whom the necessity of discharging the duties of a butcher would be so inexpressibly painful and revolting, that if they could obtain flesh diet on no other condition, they would relinquish it for ever. But to those who are inured to the trade this repugnance has simply ceased. It has no place in their emotions or calculations. Nor can it be reasonably questioned that most men by an assiduous attendance at the slaughter-house could acquire a similar indifference."
In this statement the author of the History of European Morals rightly notices, though he probably somewhat exaggerates, the enormous powers of custom to render indifferent an occupation which at first starting is odious and repulsive to the highest degree. We may take it for granted that ordinary human nature shrinks instinctively from shedding the blood of one of the lower animals. This may not be the case with savages, but now-a-days we treat "human nature" as that belonging to the average man in a community removed several steps from mere barbarism. It may with some confidence be affirmed that the average European or Asiatic would rather be excused from the task of providing his own beef or mutton. With persons who have attained to any degree of education or refine-
