"Howard Williams, a devoted disciple of Shelley and an enthusiastic defender of vegetarianism.Although the progress of vegetarianism has been slow, at least in European countries, the problem is older than Christianity, and it is highly interesting to study its history from Hesiod eight hundred years before Christ to our times. In penetrating into this subject we must examine the possibility of a purely vegetarian diet and its compatibility with progress and civilization." -The University Magazine and Free Review "It is much more than its title implies. It contains a series of excellent biographies of all the great men who have been vegetarians, or who have advocated vegetarianism.Few people have any idea of the great number of wise men who, in all ages since the dawn of civilization, have protested against flesh eating." -Amalgamated Engineers Monthly Journal "When things are present in abundance we often say they are as common as blackberries, and of book in London we may fitly say they are very much more common than that humble berry has ever been in our day. The good people in the 'Row' tell us that books have their seasons, but we find them coming in upon us in season and out of season.
Still we always open a new book with genuine pleasure, and the one before us is unusually charming.'The Ethics of Diet' will take a permanent place on the shelves of scholars, if only as a mere display of pure adn chaste learning. A man need not be a vegetist to enjoy it, and no words of ours are sufficient to express our high appreciation of its merits.We cannot conclude this little notice without personally our thanks to Mr. Howard Williams for so choice a literary treat." -The Homoeopathic World "The author surveys mankind throughout the ages, and it is astonishing what a vast consensus of opinion he has been able to amass on the side of the humane aspect of dietetics." -The Glasgow Evening Times "Undoubtedly the greatest and most notable of all Howard Williams' contributions to the literature of humanitarianism.One of his strongest convictions is that the sacred cause of Right and Humaneness would be now far more advanced if there were a fuller persuasion among all humane persons of the importance of more efficient organization and concentration of energy against the worst forms of cruelty, and if the value of private propagandism and insistence upon the criminality of acquiescing in cruel usages were more generally recognized.
'The Ethics of Diet' has well deserved the appellation of 'the text book of vegetarianism,' and the exceptional honor of being translated into Russian by so great a literary and ethical authority as Count Leo Tolstoy, who has spoken of Mr. Williams' work of the Vegetarian Society, to which all humane dietists owe their thanks, this extremely valuable and important book.is an event of real significance in the annals of humane reform." -The Humane Review "As a book of reference and as a historical work on food it has high value.An interesting work, giving the opinions of philosophers and moral reformers, eminent physicians and others in all ages on the subject of diet and drink. Prefacing each is a brief sketch of the life of the person whose views have been quoted. There are several hundred names altogether, and the opinions are all in favor of temperance and moderation in diet, with a preponderance in favor of vegetable food." -Journal of Hygiene and Herald of Health.