# Salt's future pioneers and Chesterton's moving moral clock

Commentary on Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton.

On [CH07.P014](https://glosses.org/orthodoxy/pg16769-r1/CH07.P014/#char=1090,1190): "and they suggest (in words that could be quoted) that some day it may be wrong to eat milk and eggs."

There are indeed closely matching words in Henry S. Salt's *The Logic of Vegetarianism* (first published 1899; inspected here in the revised second edition, 1906). In ‘The Raison d'Être of Vegetarianism,’ Salt calls people who already avoid milk and eggs ‘pioneers’ anticipating a future stage, and grants that their diet is more ideal. This is a strong candidate for Chesterton's unquoted reference, although it does not prove which text he read. [Salt, chapter III](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/49949/pg49949-images.html#CHAPTER_III).

The context qualifies Chesterton's inference. Salt advocates tackling the worst abuses first and rejects the demand that reform achieve everything at once. His distinction concerns the extent of reform now practicable, rather than expressly declaring yesterday's cruelty morally right. Chesterton identifies a real philosophical problem if historical timing itself determines justice; he has not established that Salt requires that premise. Incremental implementation can follow a stable principle. Conversely, Salt's permission for partial reform leaves a question Chesterton presses sharply: what makes a tolerated practice permissible rather than merely incompletely reformed? Their disagreement is therefore more precise than a contrast between immediate compassion and evolutionary indifference.

## Sources

- [Henry S. Salt, The Logic of Vegetarianism: Essays and Dialogues (second edition, revised, 1906)](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/49949/pg49949-images.html), Title page and Preface; chapter III, ‘The Raison d'Être of Vegetarianism,’ especially dialogue beginning ‘But surely it is rational to deal with the worst abuses first’ (HTML lines 253–286).

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