Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers

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Plutarch and the Greece of His Age
cum of intelligence, this at least cannot be entirely
denied to them, any more than it can be denied to a
bad man. A certain measure of reason is the gift of
nature; perfect and virtuous reason is the result of
practice and instruction. The reasoning powers of
many animals are, to an extent, on a level with those
of man; they differ not so much in quality
as in
quantity. It is right, therefore, to use but not to
abuse them. Cruelty to animals is evidence of a
base heart. Those who treat them harshly usually
accentuate their bad traits in their dealings with men.
Our treatment of animals is, therefore, in some sort
and often to a considerable extent, an index of how
we treat our fellow beings. Plutarch finds the lower
animals in some respects more rational than men.
They never eat or drink more than enough to satisfy
hunger and thirst; nor do they give way to any un
natural or excessive appetites. He is somewhat
inclined to condemn the use of animal food; but, at.
any rate, animals must not be cruelly dealt with to
make them more palatable, nor put to death by
lingering and inhuman methods. He had in view
more particularly some of the practices prevalent in
Rome in his day. practices that were, in truth, horri
ble in the extreme. It is n<> that he names
them only to condemn them. The extreme modernness
of Plutarch in this matter becomes the more
strikingly evident when we remember that classical
antiquity not only very seldon has a kind word for
irrational creatures, but was wont to treat them with