ferocity of mind and fierceness of character which form the leading
feature of all carnivorous animals. On the other hand, an entire
diet of vegetable matter, as appears in the Brahmin and Gentoo,
gives to the disposition a softness, gentleness, and mildness of
feeling directly the reverse of the former character. It also has
a particular influence on _the powers of the mind_, producing
liveliness of imagination and acuteness of judgment in an eminent
degree.”
Sir John Sinclair elsewhere quotes the following sufficiently
condemnatory remarks from the _Encyclopédie Methodique_, vol. vii.,
part 1:--
“The man who sheds the blood of an Ox or a Sheep will be habituated
more easily than another to witness the effusion of that of his
fellow-creatures. Inhumanity takes possession of his soul, and the
trades, whose occupation is to sacrifice animals for the purpose
of supplying the [pretended] necessities of men, impart to those
who exercise them a ferocity which their relative connections with
Society but imperfectly serve to mitigate.”--_Code of Health and
Longevity_, vol. i., 423, 429, and vol. iii., 283.[316]
XVII.
BYRON. 1788-1824.
“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.