Chapter XVII: Byron. 1788-1824 (1)

“As we had none of us been apprised of his peculiarities with
respect to food, the embarrassment of our host [Samuel Rogers] was
not little, on discovering that there was nothing upon the table
which his noble guest could eat or drink. Neither [flesh] meat,
fish, nor wine would Lord Byron touch; and of biscuits and soda
water, which he asked for, there had been, unluckily, no provision.
He professed, however, to be equally well pleased with potatoes and
vinegar; and of these meagre materials contrived to make rather a
hearty meal....

“We frequently, during the first months of our acquaintance dined
together alone.... Though at times he would drink freely enough
of claret, he still adhered to his system of abstinence in food.
_He appeared, indeed, to have conceived a notion that animal food
has some peculiar influence on the character_;[317] and I remember
one day, as I sat opposite to him, employed, I suppose, rather
earnestly over a ‘beef-steak,’ after watching me for a few seconds,
he said in a grave tone of inquiry,--‘Moore, don’t you find eating
_beef-steak_ makes you ferocious?’”--_Life, Letters, and Journals
of Lord Byron_, by Thomas Moore. New Edition. Murray, 1860.

In these Memorials of Byron, reference to his aversion from all “butcher’s meat” is frequent; and for the greater part of his life, he seems to have observed, in fact, an extreme abstinence as regards eating; although he had by no means the same repugnance for fish as for flesh-eating. That this abstinence from flesh-meats was founded upon physical or mental, rather than upon moral, reasons, has already been pointed out. Nor, unhappily, was he as abstinent in drinking as in eating; to which fact, in great measure, must be attributed the failure of his purer eating to effect all the good which, otherwise, it would have produced.

* * * * *

The observations of the author of a book entitled _Philozoa_, published in 1839, and noticed with approval by Schopenhauer, are sufficiently worthy of note, and may fitly conclude this work:--

“Many very intelligent men have, at different times of their lives,
abstained wholly from flesh; and this, too, with very considerable
advantage to their health. Mr. Lawrence, whose eminence as a
surgeon is well known, lived for many years on a vegetable diet.
Byron, the poet, did the same, as did P. B. Shelley, and many other
distinguished _literati_ whom I could name. Dr. Lambe and Mr. F.
Newton have published very able works in defence of a diet of
herbs, and have condemned the use of flesh as tending to undermine
the constitution by a sort of slow poisoning. Sir R. Phillips
has published _Sixteen Reasons for Abstaining from the Flesh of
Animals_, and a large society exists in England of persons who eat
nothing which has had life.

“The most attentive researches, which I have been able to make
into the health of all these persons, induce me to believe that
vegetable food is the natural diet of man. I tried it once with
very considerable advantage. My strength became greater, my
intellect clearer, my power of continued exertion protracted, and
my spirits much higher than they were when I lived on a mixed diet.
I am inclined to think that the ‘inconvenience’ which some persons
profess to experience from vegetable food is only _temporary_.
A few repeated trials would soon render it not only safe but
agreeable, and a disgust for the taste of flesh, _under any
disguise_, would be the result of the experiment. The Carmelites,
and other religious orders, who subsist only on the productions
of the vegetable world, live to a greater age than those who feed
on flesh; and, in general, frugivorous persons are milder in
their disposition than other people. The same quantity of ground
has been proved to be capable of sustaining a _larger[318] and
stronger population_ on a vegetable than on a flesh-meat diet; and
experience has shown _that the juices of the body are more pure,
and the viscera much more free from disease, in those who live in
this simple way_.

“All these facts, taken collectively, point to a period in
the history of civilisation when men will cease to slay their
fellow-mortals for food, and will tend to realise the fictions
of Antiquity, and of the Sybilline oracles respecting a ‘Golden
Age.’”[319]

INDEX.

Abernethy John, M.D., _Surgical Observations on Tumours_,
quoted, 196

Aderholdt A., M.D., referred to, 271-284

Æsop, _Fable of the Wolf_, referred to, 117

Alcott Wm., M.D., referred to, 262-264

Anquetil Du Perron, _Récherches sur les Indes_,
referred to, 177-210

Apollonius of Tyana (_Life_ by Philostratus),
quoted and referred to, 50-51, 303

Arbuthnot John, M.D., _Essay Concerning Aliments_,
referred to, 132

Arnold Edwin, _The Light of Asia_, quoted, 296

Attalus, noticed by Seneca, 30

Axon W. E. A.,(Biog. Sketches of George Nicholson,
Sir R. Phillips, and William Cowherd), referred to, 191, 244, 260

Baker Thomas, Abstract of Graham’s _Science of Human Life_,
referred to, 265, 266

Baltzer Eduard, _Porphyry_ and _Musonius_, 68, 284, 304

Bartolini Biagio, M.D. (Notice of Cornaro), referred to, 89

Bentham Jeremy, quoted, 327, 328

Blot-Lequène, Critique of _Thalysie_, quoted by R. Springer, 211

Bonnodière La, _De la Sobriété et de ses Avantages_,
referred to, 306

Bossuet Jacques Bénigne, _Discours sur l’Histoire Universelle_,
quoted, 112

Brewster Sir David, _More Worlds than One_, quoted, 255

Brotherton Joseph, M.P., President of the English
Vegetarian Society, referred to, 202, 259, 264

Buddha Gautama, referred to and noticed, 6, 295-296

Buddhist Sacred Scriptures, Texts from the Buddhist Canon,
commonly known as _Dhammapada_, also the _Kûla Sîlam_,
translated from the Pâli, 295-299

Buffon George Louis Le Clerc de, _Histoire Naturelle_,
quoted and referred to, 166, 214

Burigni de (Translator of Porphyry, and author of a Treatise
against Flesh-Eating, noticed by Voltaire), 67

Busbecq Augier de, on the Turks, referred to by Lord
Chesterfield, 321

Byron George Gordon, Lord, _Life, Letters, and Journals_,
by Moore, and _Poems_, 234, 331

Cabantous J., Doyen de in Faculté de Lettres, Toulouse,
noticed by R. Springer, 210

Chantrans Girod de, noticed by R. Springer, 210

Charron Pierre, _De la Sagesse_, referred to, 99

Chesterfield Philip Dormer, Lord, _The World_, CXC.,
quoted, 139, 320-321

Cheyne George, M.D., _Essay on the Gout_; _Of Health
and a Long Life_; _English Malady: or, a Treatise of
Nervous Diseases of all Kinds_; _Essay on Regimen_;
_Natural Method of Curing the Diseases of the Body,
and the Disorders of the Mind Depending on the Body_,
referred to and quoted, 97, 120-128

Christian Sacred Scriptures, 52, 54, 55, 79

Chrysostom Ioannes, _Homilies_, _Golden Book_, quoted, 76-81

Cicero Marcus Tullius, _Epistles_ vii. 1, quoted, 24

Clarke James, referred to, 259

Clemens Titus Flavius (of Alexandria), _Pædagogus_ or
_Instructor_, _Stromata_ or _Miscellanies_, quoted, 56-63

_Clementine Homilies_, quoted and referred to, 56

Cocchi Antonio, M.D., _Del Vitto Pithagorico Per Uso
Della Medicina_, quoted, 157-159

Collyns C. H., _The Times_, referred to, 202

Cornaro Luigi di, _Trattato della Vita Sobria,
Amorevole Esortazione, &c._; _Lettera a Barbaro_,
quoted and referred to, 83-90, 306

Cowherd William, noticed, 258-260

Cowley Abraham, _The Garden_, quoted, 308-309

Cowper William, _The Task_, quoted, 178

Cuvier George, &c., Baron de, _Leçons d’Anatomie
Comparative, III._, 169, 373, 443, 465, 480
_Régne Animal_, noticed by Shelley, 226

Daumer Georg, _Anthropologismus und Kriticismus_;
_Enthüllungen über Kaspar Hauser_,
referred to and quoted, 281-283

_Dietetic Reformer_, referred to, 212, 251

Eden Sir F. M., _State of the Poor_, referred to, 177, 189

Epikurus, _De Sobrietate Contra Gulam_,
quoted by Gassendi, 101, 104

Erasmus Desiderius, _Encomium Moriæ_, quoted, 92

Erskine Thomas, Lord, referred to, 202

Essenians and Essenism, noticed, 56, 72

Euripides, quoted by Athenæus, 32

Evelyn John, _Acetaria: On Sallets_, quoted, 107-110

Ferdusi, quoted by Sir William Jones, 141

Ferguson Adam, referred to, 208

Flaubert G., _Légende de St. Julien_, quoted in
_Fortnightly Review_, 187

Flourens, I. M. P., _Longévité de la Race Humaine_,
referred to, 175, 268, 270

Fontaine La, Jean de, _Fables_ x. 2, quoted, 117

Forster T., M.D., _Philozoa_, &c., quoted, 332

Franklin Benjamin, _Autobiography_, referred to, 176

Galen, Greek Physician, referred to, 35

Gaskill James, referred to, 259

Gay John, _Fables_--_Pythagoras and the Countryman_;
_The Court of Death_; _The Shepherd’s Dog and the Boy_;
_The Wild Boar and the Ram_; _The Philosopher and the
Pheasants_, quoted, 115-119

Gassendi Pierre, _Letter_ to Van Helmont, _Ethics_, quoted, 100-104

Gibbon Edward, _History of the Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire_, xxvi, quoted and referred to, 177, 220

Gleïzès Jean Antoine, _Thalysie: ou la Nouvelle
Existence_; _Les Nuits Elysiennes_, &c., quoted, 208-218, 252

Gleïzès Colonel, referred to, 210

Grævius Johann Georg, referred to, 293

Graham Sylvester, M.D., _The Science of Human Life_,
referred to and quoted, 262, 263, 264, 271

_Golden Verses The_, referred to and quoted, 21, 294

Göthe Johann Wolfgang von, _Italienische Reise_;
_Werther’s Leiden_, &c., referred to, 327

Goltz Bogumil, _Das Menschendasein in Seinen Weltewigen
Zügen und Zeichen_, 285

Gompertz Lewis, referred to by Forster, 332

Greg W. R., _Social Problems_, referred to and quoted, 215, 332

Gützlaff V., M.D., _Schopenhauer über die Thiere und
den Thierschutz_; _Ein Beitrag zur ethischen Seite
der Vivisectionsfrage_, referred to, 288

Hahn Theodor, _Die Naturgemässe Diät: die Diät der Zukunft_,
quoted, 284, 292

Haller Albrecht von, M.D., quoted, 156, 157

Hardy Sebastian, _Le Vrai Régîme de Vivre_, &c., referred to, 306

Hare Edward, _Life of William Lambe, M.D._, quoted, 205

Hartley David, M.D., _Observations on Man_, quoted, 138, 139

Hartlib Samuel, _A Design for Plenty, by a Universal
Planting of Fruit-Trees_, referred to, 108

Hawkesworth John, _Edition of Swift’s Works_; _Adventurer_,
quoted and referred to, 168

Hecquet Philippe, M.D., _De L’Indécence aux Hommes
d’Accoucher les Femmes, &c._; _Traité des Dispenses
du Carême_; _La Médicine, La Chirurgie, et la Pharmacie
des Pauvres_; _La Brigandage de la Médicine_, &c.,
referred to and quoted, 68, 133, 314-318

Helps Sir Arthur, _Animals and Their Masters_, referred to, 329

Hesiodos, Ἔργα καὶ Ἣμεραι (_Works and Days_), quoted, 1, 3, 293

Hierokles, Χρυσᾶ Επη (_Golden Verses_), referred to
and quoted, 21, 294

Hindu Sacred Books, _Laws of Manu_, referred to
and quoted, 182, 298

Hippokrates, Περὶ Ὑγιαίνης Διαίτης (_On the Healthful
Regimen_), referred to, 12

Hogarth William, _Four Stages of Cruelty_, referred to, 179, 321

Hogg Jefferson, _Life of Shelley_, quoted, 206

Horatius Flaccus, _Odes_, _Ars Poet._, _Sat. II. 2._,
quoted, 74, 299-303

Howard John, _Life of_, referred to, 189

Hufeland Christian Wilhelm, M.D., _Makrobiotik, oder
die Kunst das Menschliche Leben zu Verlängern_, &c.,
quoted and referred to, 184, 268

Hypatia, referred to, 67, 82

Iamblichus, _Life of Pythagoras_, referred to, 5, 8

Jenyns Soame, quoted, 322-324

Jewish Sacred Scriptures, quoted and referred to, 54, 61, 79

Jones Sir William, _Asiatic Researches_, iv. 12, quoted, 141

Josephus Flavius, _Antiquities of the Jews_, quoted, 73

Julianus, Emperor, _Misopogon (Beard Hater)_, noticed, 74-76

Juvenalis Decimus Junius, _Sat._ I., xv., &c.,
quoted, 9, 48, 85, 182

Kalidâsa, _Sakúntala_, referred to, 182, 277

Kingsford Anna, M.D., _The Perfect Way in Diet_, referred to, 271

Laborde Alexandre de, referred to, 252

Lamartine Alphonse de, _Mémoires_; _La Chute d’un Ange_,
quoted, 247-252

Lambe William, M.D., _Additional Reports on Regimen_,
referred to and quoted, 197, 198-205, 206, 207, 331

Lawrence William, Professor, F.R.C.S., _Lectures
on Physiology_, quoted, 270

Lémery Louis, M.D., _Traité des Alimens_, referred to,

Lesage Alain Réné, _Gil Blas_ ii. 2, quoted, 134

Lessio Leonard, _Hygiasticon_, quoted, 305-307

Liebig Justus von, _Chemische Briefe_, referred to
and quoted, 215, 290-292

Linné Karl von, _Amœnitates Accademicæ_, quoted, 164-165

Lipsius Justus von, edition of Seneca, quoted, 31-32

Locke John, _Thoughts on Education_, referred to, 109, 251

Lucretius Titus Carus, _De Rerum Naturâ II._, referred
to and quoted, 25, 300

Lyford H. G., M.D., referred to, 205

_Mahâbhârata_, Story of the Princess Savîtri, quoted, 297

Mandeville Bernard de, M.D., _Fable of the Bees_, quoted, 113-115

Martin John, referred to, 179, 187

Mayor J. E. B., Professor, _Musonius_ and _Juvenal_,
quoted and referred to, 305

Metcalfe William, M.D., _Essay on Abstinence from the
Flesh of Animals_; _Moral Reformer_; _American
Vegetarian and Health Journal_, &c., noticed, 260-264

Michelet Jules, _La Bible de l’Humanité_; _La Femme_;
_L’Oiseau_, quoted, 252-258

Mill John Stuart, _Principles of Political Economy_;
_Dissertations_, referred to and quoted, 328

Milton John, _Paradise Lost_, v., xi.; _Latin Poem_
addressed to Diodati, quoted, 110-112

Moffet Thomas, M.D., _Health’s Improvement_, quoted, 307

Montaigne Michel de, _Essais_, quoted, 94-99

More Sir Thomas, _Utopia_, quoted, 90-94

Musonius Rufus, in _Anthologion_ of Stobæus, quoted
by Professor Mayor, 303-305

Neo-Platonism, referred to, 56, 67, 82

Newman F. W., Professor, President of the English
Vegetarian Society, _Lectures on Vegetarianism_,
referred to, 93, 172, 215, 292

Newton Sir Isaac, referred to by Voltaire (_Elémens
de la Philosophie de Newton_), and by Haller, 101, 145

Newton J. F., _The Return to Nature_, quoted and
referred to, 205-208, 331

Nichols T. L., M.D. (Hygienic Literature), referred to, 314

Nicholson George, _On the Conduct of Man to Inferior
Animals_; _The Primeval Diet of Man_, quoted, 190-196

Nicholson E. B., _The Rights of an Animal_, referred to, 329

Nodier Charles, referred to, 210

Oswald John, _The Cry of Nature_, quoted, 179-183

Ovidius Naso, _Metamorphoses_, xv.; _Fasti_, iv.,
quoted, 23-27, 49, 299-303

Paley William, _Principles of Moral and Political
Philosophy_, quoted, 169-172

Phillips Sir Richard, _Golden Rules of Social Philosophy_;
_Medical Journal_ (July 27, 1811); _Dictionary of the
Arts of Life and Civilisation_, quoted and
referred to, 235-244, 331

Philolaus, _Pythagorean System_, referred to, 5

Philostratus, _Life of Apollonius of Tyana_, quoted, 50-51

Pilpai, _Fable of the Cow_, quoted by Pope, 320

Pitcairn Archibald, M.D., referred to, 200

Plato, _Republic_ ii; _Laws_, quoted, 12-22

Plinius the Elder, _Hist. Naturalis_, quoted, 24

Plotinus, noticed by Donaldson, 65-66

Plutarch, _Essay on Flesh-Eating_; _Symposiacs_;
_Parallel Lives_, quoted, 41-49

Pope Alexander, _Pastorals_; _Essay on Man_; _The
Guardian_, quoted, 71, 128-132, 318-320

Porphyry, Περὶ Τῆς Ἀπόχης (_On Abstinence_); _Life
of Pythagoras_, quoted, 63-74

Pressavin Jean Baptiste, Membre du Collége Royale
de Chirurgie, Lyon, Demonstrateur en Matière
Médicale-Chirurgicale à Lyon, _L’Art de Prolonger
la Vie et de Conserver la Santé_, quoted, 324-326

Proklus, referred to, 82

Pythagoras (in Hierokles, Diogenes, Iamblichus,
Porphyry, and Cocchi) noticed and quoted, 4-11, 21, 158, 294

Ramazzini Bernardo, M.D., referred to, 89

Ray John, _Historia Plantarum_, quoted, 106, 107

Richardson B. W., M.D., _Salutisland_; _Hygieia_, referred to, 326

Richter Jean Paul, _Levana_, quoted, 287, 288

Ritson Joseph, _Abstinence from Animal Food: a Moral Duty_,
quoted, 185-190, 323

Rorarius, _Quòd Animalia Bruta Sæpe Utantur Ratione
Melius Homine_, referred to, 99

Rousseau Jean Jacques, _De l’Inégalité Parmi les Hommes_;
_Emile_; _Julie: ou la Nouvelle Héloise_; _Confessions_,
referred to and quoted, 159-164, 195

Sadi, Persian Poet, referred to, 141

Sakya Muni, referred to, 182

Schiller Johann Friedrich, _Das Eleusische Fest_;
_Alpenjäger_, quoted, 326-327

Schopenhauer Arthur, _Fundament der Moral_ (_Le Fondement
de la Morale_); _Parerga und Paralipomena_, quoted and
referred to, 286-290

Seefeld A. von, referred to, 284

Seneca Marcus Annæus, _Epistolæ ad Lucilium_; _De
Clententiâ_; _De Vitâ Beatâ_; _De Irâ_; _Questiones
Naturales_, quoted, 27-40

Sextius Quintus, referred to, 31

Shelley Percy Bysshe, _Queen Mab_ and _Note_; _The Revolt
of Islam_, quoted, 218-234

Shakespeare William, _As You Like It_, ii. 1; _Cymbeline_,
i. 6, referred to and quoted, 105

Simpson James, President of English Vegetarian Society,
referred to, 263

Sinclair Sir John, _The Code of Health and Longevity_,
quoted, 330

Sloane Sir Hans, _Nat. Hist. of Jamaica_, referred to, 177

Smith Adam, _The Wealth of Nations_, quoted, 177

Smith John, _Fruits and Farinacea: the Proper Food of Man_,
edited by Professor Newman, quoted, 71

Smith Sydney, quoted, 168

Sotion, referred to by Seneca, 31

Sparrman André, referred to, 177

Sperone Speroni, referred to, 89

Springer Robert, German translator of _Thalysie, ou
la Nouvelle Existence_, quoted, 211

Strauss David Friedrich Dr., _Der Alte und der Neue Glaube_,
quoted, 287

Struve Gustav, _Mandaras’ Wanderungen_; _Das Seelenleben_;
_Die Pflanzenkost_, quoted;, 271-281

St. Pierre Bernardin, _Paul et Virginie_; _Etudes de
la Nature_, quoted, 173-176

Stubbs Philip, _Anatomy of Abuses_, quoted by Ritson, 307

Swedenborg Emanuel, referred to, 176

Swift Jonathan, Dean, _Gulliver’s Travels_, 133

Tertullianus Quintus Septimius, _De Jejuniis Adversus
Psychicos_, quoted, 51-55

Thomson James, _The Seasons_, quoted, 134-137

Trelawney F., _Life of Shelley_, referred to, 220

Tryon Thomas, _The Way to Health and Long Life_;
_A Treatise on Cleanliness in Meats and Drinks_;
_The Way to make all People Rich_; _England’s Grandeur_;
_Dialogue between an East-India Brachman and a French
Gentleman_, &c., 309-314

Villeneuve C. de, M.D., referred to, 202

Virgilius Maro, _Georgica_; _Æneis_, quoted, 50, 51, 96

Volney Constantine Comte de, _Voyages en Syrie et en
Egypte_, referred to and quoted, 109, 330

Voltaire François Marie Arouet de, _Essai sur les Mœurs
et L’Esprit des Nations_; _Dictionnaire Philosophique_
(Art. _Viande_); _Princesse de Babylone_; _Lettres
d’Amabed à Shastasid_; _Dialogue du Chapon et de la
Poularde_, quoted and referred to, 39, 68, 101, 141-156

Weilshäuser Emil, quoted by R. Springer, 211

Wesley John, _Journals_, referred to, 176

Williamson John (noticed by Ritson, and by writer in
_Gentleman’s Magazine_, Aug. 1787), 189

_Woman and the Age_, an Essay, referred to, 256

Young Thomas, _On Cruelty_, referred to by Forster (_Philozoa_), 333

Zimmerman W., M.D. _Der Weg zum Paradiese_ (_The Way
to Paradise_), quoted, 285

JOHN HEYWOOD, Excelsior Steam Printing and Bookbinding Works, Hulme Hall Road, Manchester.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Quoted by Sir Arthur Helps in his _Animals and their Masters_. (Strahan, 1873.) The further just remark of Arnold upon this subject may here be quoted:--“Kind, loving, submissive, conscientious, much-enduring we know them to be; but _because_ we deprive them of all stake in the future--_because_ they have no selfish, calculated aims--these are not virtues. Yet, if we say a ‘vicious’ Horse, why not say a ‘virtuous’ Horse?”

[2] That the indescribable atrocities inflicted in the final scene of the slaughter-house, are far from being the only sufferings to which the victims of the Table are liable, is a fact upon which, at this day, it ought to be superfluous to insist. The frightful sufferings during “the middle passage,” in rough weather, and especially in severe storms, have over and over again been recounted even by spectators the least likely to be easily affected by the spectacles of lower animal suffering. Thousands of Oxen and Sheep, year by year, are thrown _living_ into the sea during the passage from the United States alone. In the year 1879, according to the official report, 14,000 thus perished, while 1,240 were landed dead, and 450 were slaughtered on the quay upon landing to prevent death from wounds.--See, among other recent works on humane Dietetics, the _Perfect Way in Diet_ of Dr. Anna Kingsford for some most instructive details upon this subject. The reader is also referred to the Lecture recently addressed to the Students of Girton College, Cambridge, by the same able and eloquent writer, for other aspects of the humanitarian argument.

[3] Cf. Horace (whom, however, we do not quote as an authority)--

“Let olives, endives, mallows light
Be all my fare;”

and Virgil thus indicates the charm of a rural existence for him who realises it:--

“Whatever fruit the branches and the mead
Spontaneous bring, he gathers for his need.”

[4] The same apparent contradiction--the co-existence of “flocks and herds” with the prevalence of the non-flesh diet--appears in the Jewish theology, in _Genesis_. It is obvious, however, that in both cases the “flocks and herds” might be existing for other purposes than for slaughter.

[5] _Daimones._ The _dæmon_ in Greek theology was simply a lesser divinity--an _angel_.

[6] Compare Spenser’s charming verses (“Faery Queen,” Book ii., canto 8): “And is there care in heaven,” &c.

[7] His moral principles are reduced to these:--“1. Mercy established on an immovable basis. 2. Aversion to all cruelty. 3. A boundless compassion for all creatures.” Quoted from Klaproth by Huc, _Chinese Empire_, xv. Buddhism was to Brahminism, sacerdotally, what early Christianity was to Mosaism.

[8] All the varieties of the bear tribe, it is perhaps scarcely necessary to observe, are by organisation, and therefore by preference, frugivorous. It is from necessity only, for the most part, that they seek for flesh.

[9] Compare Montaigne (_Essais_, Book II., chap. 12), who, to the shame of the popular opinion of the present day, ably maintains the same thesis.

[10] The allegory of the trials and final purification of the soul was a favourite one with the Greeks, in the charming story of the loves and sorrows of Psyche and Eros. Apuleius inserted it in his fiction of _The Golden Ass_, and it constantly occurs in Greek and modern art.

[11] Beans, like lean flesh, are very nitrogenous, and it is possible that Pythagoras may have deemed them too invigorating a diet for the more aspiring ascetics. This may seem at least a more solid reason than the absurd conjectures to which we have referred.

[12] “As regards the fruits of this system of training or belief (the Pythagorean), it is interesting to remark,” says the author of the article Pythagoras in Dr. Smith’s _Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography_, “that, wherever we have notices of distinguished Pythagoreans, we usually hear of them as men of great uprightness, conscientiousness, and self-restraint, and as capable of devoted and enduring friendship.” Amongst them the names of Archytas, and Damon, and Phintias are particularly eminent. Archytas was one of the very greatest geniuses of antiquity: he was distinguished alike as a philosopher, mathematician, statesman, and general. In mechanics he was the inventor of the wooden flying dove--one of the wonders of the older world. Empedokles (the Apollonius of the 5th century B.C.), who devoted his marvellous attainments to the service of humanity, may be claimed as, at least in part, a follower of Pythagoras.

[13] “Quæ Philosophia fuit, facta Philologia est.” (Ep. cviii.) Compare Montaigne, _Essais_, i., 24, on Pedantry, where he admirably distinguishes between _wisdom_ and _learning_.

[14] _The Republic of Plato._ By Davies and Vaughan.

[15] In support of this thesis Plato adduces arguments derived from analogy. Amongst the non-human species the sexes, he points out, are nearly equal in strength and intelligence. In human savage life the difference is far less marked than in artificial conditions of life.

[16] Ὄψον--the name given by the Greeks generally to everything which they considered rather as a “relish” than a necessary. Bread was held to be--not only in name but in fact--the veritable “staff of life.” Olives, figs, cheese, and, at Athens especially, fish were the ordinary Ὄψον.

[17] Translated by Davies and Vaughan. 1874.

[18] The _four_ sacred Pythagorean virtues--justice, temperance, wisdom, fortitude. See notice of Plato above.

[19] Upon which excellent maxim Hierokles justly remarks: “The judge here appointed is the most just of all, and the one which is [ought to be] most at home with us, viz.: conscience and right reason.”

[20] _Nineteenth Century_, October, 1877. The Greek original of the _Golden Verses_ is found in the text of Mullach, in _Fragmenta Philosophorum Græcorum_. Paris, 1860.

[21] The Romans, we may remark, imported the gladiatorial fights from Spain.

[22] _Hist. Naturalis VIII._ 7. His nephew says of these huge slaughter-houses that “there is no novelty, no variety, or anything that could not be seen once for all.” On one occasion, in the year A.D. 284, we are credibly informed that 1,000 ostriches, 1,000 stags, 1,000 fallow-deer, besides numerous wild sheep and goats, were mingled together for indiscriminate slaughter by the wild beasts of the forest or the equally wild beasts of the city. (See _Decline and Fall._)

[23] Some traces of it may be found, _e.g._, in Lucretius (_De Rerum Nat. II._, where see his touching picture of the bereaved mother-cow, whose young is ravished from her for the horrid sacrificial altar); Virgil (_Æneis VII._), in his story of Silvia’s deer--the most touching passage in the poem; Pliny, _Hist. Nat._ In earlier Greek literature, Euripides seems most in sympathy with suffering--at least as regards his own species.

[24] I see and approve the better way; I pursue the worse.--_Metam._ vii., 20.

[25] In a note on this passage Lipsius, the famous Dutch commentator, remarks: “I am quite in accord with this feeling. The constant use of flesh meat (_assidua_ κρεοφαγία) by Europeans makes them stupid and irrational (_brutos_).”

[26] Lipsius suggests, with much reason, that Seneca actually wrote the opposite respecting his father, “who had no dislike for this philosophy, but who feared calumny,” &c.

[27] On this melancholy truth compare Montaigne’s _Essais_.

[28] Ep. xxv. Lipsius here quotes Lucan “still more a philosopher than a poet”:--

“_Discite quam parvo liceat producere vitam,
Et quantum natura petat.
. . Satis est populis fluviusque Ceresque._”

“Learn by how little life may he sustained, and how much nature requires. The gifts of Ceres and water are sufficient nourishment for all peoples.”--(_Pharsalia._)

Also Euripides:--

“Ἐπεὶ τί δεῖ βροτοῖσι . . . .
. . . πλὴν δύοιν μόνον,
Δημητρὸς ἀκτῆς, πώματος θ’ ὑδρηχόου,
Ἃπερ πάρεστι καὶ πέφυχ’ ἡμᾶς τρέφειν·
Ὧν οὐκ ἀπαρκεῖ πλησμονή· τρυφῇ γέ τοι
Ἄλλων ἐδεστῶν μηχανὰς θηρεύομεν.”

Which may be translated:--

“_Since what need mortals, save twain things alone,
Crush’d grain (heaven’s gift), and streaming water-draught?
Food nigh at hand, and nature’s aliment--
Of which no glut contents us. Pampered taste
Hunts out device of other eatables._”

(Fragment of lost drama of Euripides, preserved in _Athenæus_ iv.
and in _Gellius_ vii.)

See, too, the elder Pliny, who professes his conviction that “the plainest food is also the most beneficial” (_cibus simplex utilissimus_), and asserts that it is from his eating that man derives most of his diseases, and from thence that all the drugs and all the arts of physicians abound. (_Hist. Nat._ xxvi., 28.)

[29] Cf. Pope’s accusation of the gluttony of his species:--

“Of half that live, the butcher and the tomb.”

--_Essay on Man._

[30] Compare Juvenal _passim_, Martial, Athenæus, Plutarch, and Clement of Alexandria.

[31] _Ep._ cx. Cf. St. Chrysostom (_Hom._ i. on _Coloss._ i.) who seems to have borrowed his equally forcible admonition on the same subject from Seneca.

[32] _Epistola_ vii. and _De Brevitate Vitæ_ xiv. As to the effect of the gross diet of the later _athletes_, Ariston (as quoted by Lipsius) compared them to columns in the _gymnasium_, at once “sleek and stony”--λιπαροὺς καὶ λιθίνους. Diogenes of Sinope, being asked why the athletes seemed always so void of sense and intelligence, replied, “Because they are made up of ox and swine flesh.” Galen, the great Greek medical writer of the second century of our æra, makes the same remark upon the proverbial stupidity of this class, and adds: “And this is the universal experience of mankind--that a gross stomach does not make a refined mind.” The Greek proverb, “παχεῖα γαστὴρ λεπτὸν οὐ τίκτει νόον,” exactly expresses the same experience.

[33] _De Clementiâ_ i. and ii. The author has been accused of flattering a notorious tyrant. The charge is, however, unjust, since Nero, at the period of the dedication of the treatise to him, had not yet discovered his latent viciousness and cruelty. Like Voltaire, in recent times, Seneca bestowed perhaps unmerited praise, in the hope of flattering the powerful into the practice of justice and virtue.

[34] Cf. the sad experiences of the great Jewish prophet. “The prophets prophesy falsely,” &c.

[35] In the original, “dumb animals” (_mutis animalibus_)--a term which, it deserves special note, Seneca usually employs, rather than the traditional expressions “beasts” and “brutes.” The term “dumb animals” is not strictly accurate, seeing that almost all _terrestrials_ have the use of voice though it may not be intelligible to human ears. Yet it is, at all events, preferable to the old traditional terms still in general use.

[36] Compare the advice of the younger Pliny--“Read much rather than many books.” (_Letters_ vii., 9 in the excellent revision of Mr. Bosanquet, Bell and Daldy, 1877) and Gibbon’s just remarks (_Miscellaneous Works_).

[37] See this finely and wittily illustrated in _Micromégas_ (one of the most exquisite satires ever written), where the philosopher of the star Sirius proposes the same questions to the contending metaphysicians and _savans_ of our planet.

[38] This essay ranks among the most valuable productions that have come down to us from antiquity. Its sagacious anticipation of the modern argument from comparative physiology and anatomy, as well as the earnestness and true feeling of its eloquent appeal to the higher instincts of human nature, gives it a special interest and importance. We have therefore placed it separately at the end of this article.

[39] Περὶ τοῦ Τὰ Ἄλογα Λογῶ Χρῆσθαι--“An Essay to prove that the Lower Animals reason.”

[40] This essay is remarkable as being, perhaps, the first speculation as to the existence of other _worlds_ than ours.

[41] As regards this complete silence of Plutarch, it may be attributed to his eminently _conservative_ temperament, which shrank from an exclusive system that so completely broke with the sacred traditions of “the venerable Past.” Besides, Christianity had not assumed the imposing proportions of the age of Lucian, whose indifference is therefore more surprising than that of Plutarch.

[42] See, for example, the _Isis and Osiris_, 49. And yet, with Francis Bacon, and Bayle, and Addison, he prefers Atheism to fanatical Superstition.

[43] Of the many eminent persons who have been indebted to, or who have professed the greatest admiration for, the writings of Plutarch are Eusebius, who places him at the head of all Greek philosophers, Origen, Theodoret, Aulus Gellius, Photius, Suidas, Lipsius. Theodore of Gaza, when asked what writer he would first save from a general conflagration of libraries, answered, “Plutarch; for he considered his philosophical writings the most beneficial to society, and the best substitute for all other books.” Amongst moderns, Montaigne, Montesquieu, Voltaire, and especially Rousseau, recognise him as one of the first of moralists.

[44] See Milton (_Paradise Lost_, xi.), and Shelley (_Queen Mab_).

[45] Cf. Pope:--“Of half that live, the butcher and the tomb.”--_Moral Essays._

[46] _Parallel Lives: Cato the Censor._ Translated by John and William Langhorne, 1826.

[47] See _Odyssey_, xii., 395, of the oxen of the sun impiously slaughtered by the companions of Ulysses.

[48] “Hinc subitæ mortes, atque intestata Senectus.”--“Hence sudden deaths, and age without a will.” Juvenal, _Sat._ I.

[49]

“The anarch Custom’s reign.”

Shelley: _Revolt of Islam_.

[50] Such it seems, were some of the popular methods of torture in the Slaughter Houses in the first century of our æra. Whether the “calf-bleeding,” and the preliminary operations which produce the _pâté de foie gras_, &c., or the older methods, bear away the palm for ingenuity in culinary torture, may be a question.

[51] See Περὶ Σαρκοφαγίας Λόγος--in the Latin title, _De Esu Carnium_--“On Flesh-Eating,” Parts 1 and 2. We shall here add the authority of Pliny, who professes his conviction that “the plainest food is the most beneficial.” (_Hist. Nat._ xi., 117); and asserts that it is from his eating that man derives most of his diseases. (xxv., 28.) Compare the feeling of Ovid, whom we have already quoted--_Metamorphoses_ xv. We may here refer our readers also to the celebration, by the same poet, of the innocent and peaceful gifts of _Ceres_, and of the superiority of her pure table and altar--_Fasti_ iv., 395-416.

_Pace, Ceres, læta est._ At vos optate, Coloni,
_Perpetuam pacem_, perpetuumque ducem.
Farra Deæ, micæque licet salientis honorem
Detis: et in veteres turea grana focos.
Et, si thura aberant, unctas accendite tædas.
Parva bonæ Cereri, _sint modo casta_, placent.
_A Bove succincti cultros removete ministri:
Bos aret....
Apta jugo cervix non est ferienda securi:
Vivat, et in durâ sæpe laboret humo._

And the fine picture of Virgil of the agricultural life in the ideal “Golden Age,” in which slaughter for food and war was unknown:--

_Ante
Impia quam cæsis gens est epulata juvencis._

“Before
An impious world the labouring oxen slew.”--_Georgics II._

[52] “The proclamation of the birth of Apollonius to his mother by Proteus, and the incarnation of Proteus himself--the chorus of swans which sang for joy on the occasion--the casting out of devils, raising the dead, and healing the sick--the sudden disappearances and reappearances of Apollonius--his adventures in the Cave of Trophonius, and the sacred Voice which called him at his death, to which may be added his claim as a teacher to reform the world--cannot fail to suggest the parallel passages in the Gospel history.... Still, it must be allowed that the resemblances are very general, and on the whole it seems probable that the life of Apollonius was not written with a _controversial_ aim, as the resemblances, though real, only indicate that a few things were borrowed, and exhibit no trace of a systematic parallel.”--_Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography._ Edited by Wm. Smith, LL.D. So great was the estimation in which he was held, that the emperor Alexander Severus (one of the very few good Roman princes) placed his statue or bust in the imperial _Larium_ or private Chapel, together with those of Orpheus and of Christ.

[53] Cf. Virgil, _Georgics_ II.: “Fundit humo _facilem_ victum _justissima_ Tellus.”

[54] So greatly was he esteemed by the later and leading Fathers of the Church that Cyprian, the celebrated Bishop of Carthage, and “the doctor and guide of all the Western Churches,” was accustomed to say, whenever he applied himself to the study of his writings, “_Da mihi magistrum_” (“Give me my master”).--Jerome, _De Viris Illustribus_ I., 284.

[55] _On Fasting or Abstinence Against the Carnal-Minded._ The style of Tertullian, we may remark, is, for the most part, obscure and abrupt.

[56] It is worth noting that neither the original (βρωμάτων) of the “Authorised Version,” nor the _meats_ of the “A. V.” itself, says anything about _flesh-eating_ in this favourite resort of its apologists. Both expressions merely signify foods of _any kind_; so that the passage in question of this Pastoral Letter--which is apparently post-Pauline--can be made to condemn _absolute_ fasting only: nor does the context warrant any other interpretation. As to St. Paul, the great opponent of the earlier Christian belief and practice, it must be conceded that he seems not to have shared the abhorrence of the immediately accredited disciples of Jesus for the sanguinary diet, especially of St. Matthew, of St. James, and of St. Peter, who, as we are expressly assured by Clement of Alexandria, St. Augustine, and others, lived entirely on _non-flesh_ meats. The apparent indifferentism of St. Paul upon the question of abstinence is best and most briefly explained by his avowed principle of action--from the missionary point of view useful, doubtless, but from the point of view of abstract ethics not always satisfactory--the being “all things to all men.”

[57] Compare Seneca, _Epistles_, cx., and Chrysostom, _Homilies_.

[58] _Aquis sobrius, et cibis ebrius._ This important truth we venture to commend to the earnest attention of those philanthropists, or hygeists, who are adherents of what may be termed the _semi_-temperance Clause--who abstain from alcoholic drinks but not from flesh.

[59] A more accurate version of the original than that of the _A. V._ (1 _Cor._ viii., 8-13). We may here quote the conclusion of the argument of the Greek-Jew Apostle--“Wherefore, if [the kind of] meat is a cause of offence to my brother, I will eat no flesh while the world stands, that I may not be a cause of offence to my brother”--and press it, more particularly, upon the attention of English residents, and especially of Christian _missionaries_, amongst the sensitive and refined Hindus who form so overwhelming a proportion of the population of the British Empire. According to the evidence of the missionaries of the various Christian churches themselves, their habits of flesh-eating have not infrequently been found to prejudice all but the lowest caste of Hindus against the reception of other ideas of Christian and Western “civilisation.”

[60] _Usque ad choleram ortygometras cruditando._ In the present case it seems that the wanderers in the Arabian deserts were not so much clamorous for flesh as for _some_ kind of sustenance, or rather for something more than the _manna_ with which they were supplied; since the late Egyptian slaves are reported to have said, “We remember the fish that we did eat in Egypt freely--the cucumbers, the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic; but now our soul is dried away: _there is nothing at all_ besides this manna before our eyes.”

We may here take occasion to observe that the fact of the existence of _sacrifice_ throughout their history necessarily involves the practice of flesh-eating--indeed, the two practices are, historically, clearly connected. What, however, we may fairly deduce from their simple and frugal living in the Egyptian slavery, lasting, as it did, through several centuries, during which period they must have been weaned from the gross living of their previous barbarous _pastoral_ life, is this--that but for the sacrificial rites (and, perhaps, the necessities of the desert) the Jews would have, like other Eastern peoples, probably adopted this _frugal_ living--of cucumbers, melons, onions, &c.--in their new homes. Such, at least, seems to be a legitimate inference from the highly-significant fact that, throughout their sacred scriptures, not flesh-meats but corn, and oil, and honey, and pomegranates, and figs, and other vegetable products (in which their land originally abounded), are their highest dietary _ideal_--_e.g._, “O that my people would have hearkened to me; for if Israel had walked in my ways.... He should have fed them with the finest wheat flour: and with honey out of the stony rock should I have satisfied thee.” (Ps. lxxxi., 17; cf. also Ps. civ., 14, 15.) It is equally significant of the latent and secret consciousness of the _unspiritual_ nature of the products of the Slaughter-House, even in the Western world, that in the _liturgies_ or “public services” of the Christian churches, wherever food is prayed for or whenever thanks are returned for it, there is (as it seems) a natural shrinking from mention of that which is obtained only by cruelty and bloodshed, and it is “the kindly fruits of the earth” which represent the legitimate dietary wants of the petitioners.

[61] “For they that are after the Flesh do mind the things of the Flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be _carnally minded is death_; but to be _spiritually minded is life and peace_.... So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.... Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye, through the spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” (_Rom._ viii., 5, &c.) A more spiritual apprehension of ‘divine verities,’ if we may so say, than the apparently more equivocal utterance of the same great reformer elsewhere. Here it is well to observe, once for all that the whole significance of the utterances of St. Paul upon flesh-eating depends upon the bitter controversies between the older Jew and the newer Greek or Roman sections of the rising Church. It is, in fact, a question of the lawfulness of eating the flesh of the victims of the Pagan and Jewish sacrificial altars--not of the question of flesh-eating in the _abstract_ at all. In fine, it is a question not of _ethics_, but of theological ritual. It is greatly to be lamented that the confused and obscure translation of the _A. V._ has for so many centuries hopelessly mystified the whole subject--as far, at least, as the mass of the community is concerned.

[62] See _De Jejuniis Adversus Psychicos_. (Quinti. Sept. Flor. Tertulliani Opera. Edited by Gersdorf, Tauchnitz.)

[63] In the _Clementine Homilies_, which had a great authority and reputation in the earlier times of Christianity, St. Peter is represented, in describing his way of living to Clement of Rome, as professing the _strictest_ Vegetarianism. “I live,” he declares, “upon bread and olives only, with the addition, rarely, of kitchen herbs” (ἄρτῳ μόνῳ καὶ ἐλαίαις χρῶμαι καὶ σπανίως λαχάνοις xii. 6.) Clement of Alexandria (_Pædagogus_ ii. 1) assures us that “Matthew the apostle lived upon seeds, and hard-shelled fruits, and other vegetables, without touching flesh;” while Hegesippus, the historian of the Church (as quoted by Eusebius, _Ecclesiastical Hist._ ii. 2, 3) asserts of St. James that “he never ate any animal food”--οὔδε εμψυχον ἔφαγε: an assertion repeated by St. Augustine (_Ad. Faust_, xxii. 3) who states that James, the brother of the Lord, “lived upon seeds and vegetables, never tasting flesh or wine” (_Jacobus, frater Domini, seminibus et oleribus usus est, non carne nec vino_). The connexion of the beginnings of Christianity with the sublime and simple tenets of the Essenes, whose communistic and abstinent principles were strikingly coincident with those of the earliest Christians, is at once one of the most interesting and one of the most obscure phenomena in its nascent history. The Essenes, “the sober thinkers,” as their assumed name implies, seem to have been to the more noisy and ostentatious Jewish sects, what the Pythagoreans were to the other Greek schools of philosophy--_practical moralists_ rather than mere talkers and theorisers. They first appear in Jewish history in the first century B.C. Their communities were settled in the recesses of the Jordan valley, yet their members were sometimes found in the towns and villages. Like the Pythagoreans, they extorted respect even from the worldly and self-seeking religionists and politicians of the capital. See Josephus (_Antiquities_ xiii. and xviii.), and Philo, who speak in the highest terms of admiration of the simplicity of their life and the purity of their morality. Dean Stanley (_Lectures on the Jewish Church_, vol. iii.) regards St. John the Baptist as Essenian in his substitution of “reformation of life” for “the sanguinary, costly gifts of the sacrificial slaughter-house.”

[64] It is a curious and remarkable inconsistency, we may here observe, that the modern ardent admirers of the Fathers and Saints of the Church, while professing unbounded respect for their _doctrines_, for the most part ignore the one of their _practices_ at once the most ancient, the most highly reputed, and the most universal. _Quod semper, quod ubique_, &c., the favourite maxim of St. Augustine and the orthodox church, is, in this case, “more honoured in the breach than in the observance.” Partial and periodical Abstinence, it is scarcely necessary to add, however consecrated by later ecclesiasticism, is sufficiently remote from the daily _frugal_ living of a St. James, a St. Anthony, or a St. Chrysostom.

[65] The full title of the treatise is--_The Miscellaneous Collection of T. F. Clemens of Gnostic (or Speculative) Memoirs upon the true Philosophy_.

[66] This celebrated term distinguished the superiority of _knowledge_ (_gnosis_) of “the most polite, the most learned, and the most wealthy of the Christian name.” During the first three or four centuries the Gnostics formed an extremely numerous as well as influential section of the Church. They sub-divided themselves into more than fifty particular sects, of whom the followers of Marcion and the Manicheans are the most celebrated. Holding opinions regarding the Jewish sacred scriptures and their authority the opposite to those of the Ebionites or Jewish Christians, they agreed, at least a large proportion of them, with the latter on the question of kreophagy.

[67] _History of the Literature of Ancient Greece_, by K. O. Müller, continued by J. W. Donaldson, D.D., vol. iii., 58.

[68] The argument here suggested, although rarely, if ever, adduced, may well be deemed worthy of the most serious consideration. It is, to our mind, one of the most forcible of all the many reasons for abstinence. That the life even of a really useful member of the human community should be supported by the slaughter of hundreds of innocent and intelligent beings is surely enough to “give us pause.” What, then, shall be said of the appalling fact, that every day thousands of worthless, and too often worse than useless, human lives go down to the grave (to be thenceforth altogether forgotten) after having been the cause of the slaughter and suffering of countless beings, surely far superior to themselves in all real worth? To object the privilege of an “immortal soul” is, in this case, merely a miserable subterfuge. Sidney Smith calculated that _forty-four_ wagon-loads of flesh had been consumed by himself during a life of seventy years! (See his letter to Lord Murray.)

[69] It was the fond belief of the _mediating_ Christian writers that the best parts of Greek philosophy were derived, in whole or in part, from the Jewish Sacred Scriptures. For this belief, which has prevailed so widely, which, perhaps, still lingers amongst us, and which has engaged the useless speculation of so many minds, an Alexandrian Jew of the age of the later Ptolemies is responsible. It is now well known that he deliberately forged passages in the (so-called) Orphic poems and “Sybilline” predictions, in order to gain the respect of the Greek rulers of his country for the Jewish Scriptures. This patriotic but unscrupulous Jew is known by his Greek name of Aristobulus. He was preceptor or counsellor of Ptolemy VI.

[70] 2 _Sam._ vi., 19. Clement, in common with all the first Christian writers, quotes from the _Septuagint_ version, which differs considerably from the Hebrew. The English translators of the latter, presuming that “flesh” must have formed part of the royal bounty, gratuitously insert that word in the context.

[71] _Pædagogus_ ii. 1, “On Eating.”

[72] These works, which would have been highly interesting, have, with so many other valuable productions of Greek genius, long since perished.

[73] _Miscellanies_ vii. “On Sacrifices.”

[74] See Plutarch’s denunciation of the very same practice of the butchers of his day, _Essay on Flesh Eating_. Unfortunately for the credit of Jewish humanity, it must be added that the method of butchering (enjoined, it is alleged, by their religious laws) entails a greater amount of suffering and torture to the victim than even the Christian. This fact has been abundantly proved by the evidence of many competent witnesses. The cruelty of the Jewish method of slaughter was especially exposed at one of the recent International Congresses of representatives of European Societies for Prevention of Cruelty.

[75] _Miscellanies_ ii., 18. We have used for the most part the translation of the writings of Clement, published in the Ante-Nicene Library, by Messrs. Clarke, Edinburgh, 1869. The Greek text is corrupt.

[76] Περὶ Ἀποχῆς Τῶν Εμψύχων

[77] “The first book discussed alleged contradictions and other marks of human fallibility in the Scriptures; the third treated of Scriptural interpretation, and, strangely enough, repudiated the allegories of Origen; the fourth examined the ancient history of the Jews; and, the twelfth and thirteenth maintained the point now generally admitted by scholars--that _Daniel_ is not a prophecy, but a retrospective history of the age of Antiochus Epiphanes.”--_Donaldson_ (_Hist. of Gr. Lit._)

[78] In justice to the old Greek Theology which, as it really was, has enough to answer for, it must be remarked that its Demonology, or belief in the powers of subordinate divinities--in the first instance merely the internunciaries, or mediators, or _angels_ between Heaven and Earth--was a very different thing from the _Diabolism_ of Christian theology, a fact which, perhaps, can be adequately recognised by those only who happen to be acquainted with the history of that most widely-spread and most fearful of all superstitions. Necessarily, from the vague and, for the most part, merely secular character of the earlier theologies, the _infernal_ horrors, with the frightful creed, tortures, burnings, &c., which characterised the faith of Christendom, were wholly unknown to the religion of Apollo and of Jupiter.

[79] Neo or New-Platonism may be briefly defined as a _spiritual_ development of the Socratic or Platonic teaching. In the hands of some of its less judicious and rational advocates it tended to degenerate into puerile, though harmless, superstition. With the superior intellects of a Plotinus, Porphyry, Longinus, Hypatia, or Proclus, on the other hand, it was, in the main at least, a sublime attempt at the purification and spiritualisation of the established orthodox creed. It occupied a position midway between the old and the new religion, which was so soon to celebrate its triumph over its effete rival. That Christianity, on its spiritual side (whatever the ingratitude of its later authorities), owes far more than is generally acknowledged to both the old and newer Platonism, is sufficiently apparent to the attentive student of theological history.

[80] Author of a _Treatise on the Abandonment of the Flesh Diet_, 1709. He died in the year 1737.

[81] Voltaire might have added the examples of the Greek _Coenobites_. There is at least one celebrated and long-established religious community, in the Sinaitic peninsula, which has always rigidly excluded all flesh from their diet. Like the community of La Trappe, these religious Vegetarians are notoriously the most free from disease and most long-lived of their countrymen.

[82] Article _Viande_ (_Dict. Phil._) In other passages in his writings the philosopher of Ferney, we may here remark, expresses his sympathy with the humane diet. See especially his _Essai sur les Mœurs et l’Esprit des Nations_ (introduction), and his Romance of _La Princesse de Babylone_.

[83] Οἰκειώσις strictly means adoption, admission to intimacy and family life, or “domestication.”

[84] The founder of the new Academy at Athens, and the vigorous opponent of the Stoics.

[85] That unreasoning arrogance of human selfishness, which pretends that all other living beings have come into existence for the sole pleasure and benefit of man, has often been exposed by the wiser, and therefore more humble, thinkers of our race. Pope has well rebuked this sort of monstrous arrogance:--

“Has God, thou fool, worked solely for thy good,
Thy joy, thy pastime, thy attire, thy food?

* * * * *

Know, Nature’s children all divide her care,
The fur that warms a monarch, warmed a bear.
While man exclaims: ‘See, all things for my use!’
‘See, man for mine,’ replies a pampered goose.
And just as short of reason he must fall,
Who thinks _all made for one, not one for all_.”

_Essay on Man, III._

And, as a commentary upon these truly philosophic verses, we may quote the words of a recent able writer, answering the objection, “Why were sheep and oxen created, if not for the use of man? replies to the same effect as Porphyry 1600 years ago:” It is only pride and imbecility in man to imagine all things made for his sole use. There exist millions of suns and their revolving orbs which the eye of man has never perceived. Myriads of animals enjoy their pastime unheeded and unseen by him--many are injurious and destructive to him. All exist for purposes but partially known. Yet we must believe, in general, that all were created for their own enjoyment, for mutual advantage, and for the preservation of universal harmony in Nature. If, merely because we can eat sheep pleasantly, we are to believe that they exist only to supply us with food, we may as well say that man was created solely for various parasitical animals to feed on, “_because_ they do feed on him.”--(_Fruits and Farinacea: the Proper Food of Man._ By J. Smith. Edited by Professor Newman. Heywood, Manchester; Pitman, London.) See, also, amongst other philosophic writers, the remarks of Joseph Ritson in his “Essay on Abstinence from Animal Food a Moral Duty”--(Phillips, London, 1802). As to Oxen and Sheep, it must be further remarked that they have been made what they are by the intervention of man alone. The original and wild stocks (especially that of sheep) are very different from the metamorphosed and almost helpless domesticated varieties. Naturam violant, pacem appellant.

[86] The Artificer or _Creator, par excellence_. In the Platonic language, the usual distinguishing name of the subordinate creator of our imperfect world.

[87] Cf. Ovid’s _Metam._, xv.; Plutarch’s _Essay on Flesh-Eating_; Thomson’s _Seasons_.

[88] Περὶ Ἐποχῆς κ. τ. λ. In the number of the traditionary reformers and civilisers of the earlier nations, the name of Orpheus has always held a foremost place. In early Christian times Orpheus and the literature with which his name is connected occupy a very prominent and important position, and some celebrated forged prophecies passed current as the utterances of that half-legendary hero. Horace adopts the popular belief as to his radical dietetic reform in the following verses:--

Silvestres homines sacer, interpresque Deorum,
_Cædibus et fœdo victu_ deterruit Orpheus.

--_Ars Poetica._

Virgil assigns him a place in the first rank of the Just in the Elysian paradise.--_Æn._ vi.

[89] In his witty satire, the _Misopogon_ or _Beard-Hater_--“a sort of inoffensive retaliation, which it would be in the power of few princes to employ”--directed against the luxurious people of Antioch, who had ridiculed his frugal meals and simple mode of living, “he himself mentions his vegetable diet, and upbraids the gross and sensual appetite” of that orthodox but corrupt Christian city. When they complained of the high prices of flesh-meats, “Julian publicly declared that a _frugal city ought to be satisfied with a regular supply of wine, oil, and bread_.”--_Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, xxiv.

[90] Gibbon, _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, xxii. The philosophical fable of Julian--_The Cæsars_--has been pronounced by the same historian to be “one of the most agreeable and instructive productions of ancient wit.” Its purpose is to estimate the merits or demerits of the various Emperors from Augustus to Constantine. As for the _Enemy of the Beard_, it may be ranked, for sarcastic wit, almost with the _Jupiter in Tragedy_ of Lucian.

[91] Article, “Chrysostom,” in the _Penny Cyclopædia_.

[92] Baur’s _Life and Work of St. Paul_. Part ii., chap. 3.