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» Whether it be Lawfull to Eat Flesh or No

Plutarch [ca46-120], Whether it be Lawful to Eat Flesh or No in The Philosphie Commonlie Called the Morals, trans. by Philemon Holland (London, 1603; Online at Animal Rights History, 2003).

WHETHER IT BE LAW-full to eat flesh or no.

The former Oration or Treatise.

But you demand of mee, for what cause Pythagoras absteined from eating flesh? And I againe do marvell, what affection, what maner of courage, or what motive and reason had that man, who first approached with his mouth unto a slaine creature, who durst with his lips once touch the flesh of a beast either killed or dead; or how he could finde in his heart to be served at his table with dead bodies, and as a man may say, very idols, to make his food and nourishment of those parts and members which a little before did blea, low, bellow, walke and see. How could his eies endure to beholde such murder and slaughter, whiles the poore beasts were either sticked or had the throats cut, were slaied and dismembred? how could his nose abide the smell and sent that came from them? how came it that his talk was not cleane marred and overthrowen with horrour, when he came to handle those uncouth sores and ulcers; or receive the blood and humours, issuing out of the deadly wounds.

The skinnes now slaied, upon the ground did spraule,
The flesh on spits did bellow still and low:
Roast, sod and raw, did crie aswell as craule,
And yeeld a voice of living oxe or cow.

But this, you will say, is a loud lie, and meere poeticall fiction; howbeit, this was certeinly a strange and monstrous supper, that any man should hunger after those beasts, and desire to eat them whiles they still kept a lowing; to prescribe also, and teach men how they should feed of those creatures which live and crie still; to ordeine likewise, how they ought to be dressed, boiled, roasted, and served up to the boord.

But he who first invented these monstruosities, ought to be inquired after, and not hee who last gave over and rejected the same. Or a man may well say, that those who at the first began to eat flesh, had all just causes so to do, in regard of their want and necessitie: for surelv, it was not by reason of disordinate and enormious appetite which they used a long time, nor upon plentie and abundance of necessarie things, that they grew to this insolencie, to seeke after strange pleasures, & those contrarie to nature. But verily, if they could recover their senses and speech againe, they might well say now, Oh how happie and well beloved of the gods are you, who live in these daies! in what a world and age are you borne! what affluence of all sorts of good things do you enjoy! what harvests, what store of fruits yeeldeth the earth unto you! how conmmodious are the vintages! and what riches do the fields bring unto you! what a number of trees and plants do furnish you with delights and pleasures, which you may gather and receive, when you so thinke good! you may live (if you list) in all mailer of delicacie, without once fouling your hands for the matter; whereas our hap was to be borne in the hardest time and most terrible age of the world, when as we could not chuse but incur (by reason of the new creation of all things) a great want and streight indigence of many necessaries: the face of the heaven and skie was still covered with the aire; the starres were dusked with troubled and instable humors, together with fire and tempestuous windes: the sunne was not yet setled and established, having a constant and certeine race to holde his course in,

[573] From East to West, to make both even and morne
Distinct, nor by return from Tropiques twaine;
The seasons chang'd from those that were beforne,
Bedight with leaves, with flowers, with fruits and graine.

The earth suffered wrong by the inordinate streames and inundations of rivers, which had neither certeine chanels nor banks: much of it lay waste and deformed, with loughs, marishes, and deepe bogges; much also remained savage, being over-spred with wild woods and fruitlesse forests: it brought forth no fruits ripe and pleasant; neither were there any tooles and instruments belonging to any arte; nor so much as any invention of a witty head. Hunger never gave us case or time of repose; neither was there any expectation or waiting for the yeerely seasons of seednesse, for there was no sowing at all. No marvell therefore, if we did eat the flesh of beasts and living creatures even contrary to nature, considering that then the very mosse and barke of trees served for food; & well was he who could find any greene grasse or quick coich, or so much as the root of the herbe Phleos: but whensoever men could meet with acornes and mast to taste and feed upon, they would dance and hop for joy about an oake or beech tree; and in their rusticall songs call the earth their bountifull mother, and their kinde nourse: and such a day as that onely, they accounted festivall: all their life besides was full of vexation , sorrow and heavinesse. But now, what rage, what furie and madnesse inciteth you to commit such murders and carnage? seeing you have suck store and plentie of all things necessarie for your life? why belie you the earth, and most unthankfully dishonour her, as if shee could not susteine and nourish you? why doe you violate the divine power of Certes the inventresse of sacred lawes, and shame sweet and gracious Bacchus, as if these two deities gave you not sufficient where upon you might live? what! are you not abashed to mingle at your tables pleasant frutes with bloudie murder? You call lions and libards savage beasts; meane while your selves are stained with bloudshed, giving no place to them in crueltie, for where as they doe worie and kill other beasts, it is for verie necessitie and need of food; but you doe it for daintie fare, for when wee have slaine either lions or wolves in defence of our selves, we eat them not but let them lie: But they be the innocent, the harmelesse, the gentle and tame creatures, which have neither teeth to bite, nor pricke to sting withall, which we take and kill, although nature seemeth to have created them, onely for beautie and delight: [Much like as if a man seeing Nilus overflowing overflowing his banks, and filling all the countrey about with running water, which is generative and frutefull, would not praise with admiration the propertie of that river, causing to spring and grow so many faire and goodly fruits, and the same so necessarie for mans life; but if he chance to espie a crocodill swimming, or an aspick creeping and gliding downe, or fume venemous flie, hurtfull and noisome beasts all, blameth the said river upon that occasion, and saith that they be causes sufficient, that of necessitie he must complaine of the thing: Or verily, when one seeing this land and champian countrey overspred with good and beautifull frutes, charged also and replenished with eares of corne, should perceive casting his eie over those pleasant corne fields, here & there an eare of darnel, choke-ervil, or some such unhappie weed among, should there upon foreare to reape and carie in the said corne, and forgoe the benefit of a plentifull harvest, & find fault therewith: Semblably standeth the case when one seeth the plea of an oratour in anie cause or action,who with a full and forcible streame of eloquence, endevoureth to save his client out of the danger of death, or otherwise to proove and verifie the charges and imputations of certaine crimes; this oration (I say) or eloquent speech of his, running not simplie and nakedly, but carrying with it many and sundrie affections of all sorts, which he imprinteth in the minds and hearts of the hearers or judges, which being many also, and those divers and different, he is to turne, to bend and change, or otherwise, to dulce, appease and staie; if he I say should anon passe over arid not consider the principall issue, and maine point of the cause, and busie himself in gathering out some by-speeches besides the purpose, or haply some phrases improper and impertinent, which the oration of some advocate with the flowing course thereof, hath caried downe with it, lighting thereupon, and falling with the rest of his speech.] But we are nothing mooved either with the faire and beautifull colour, or the sweet and tunable voice, or the quicknesse and subtiltie of spirit, or the neat and cleane life, or the vivacitie of wit and understanding, of these poore feelly creatures; and for a little peece of flesh we take away their life, we bereave them of thier sunne and of light, cutting short that race of life which nature had limited and prefixed for them; and more than so ,those lamentable and trembling voices which they utter for feare, we suppose to be inarticulate or unsignificant sounds, and nothing lesse than pitifull [574] full praiers, supplications, pleas & justifications of those poore innocent creatures, who in their language, everie one of them crie in this manner: If thou be forced upon necessitie, I beseech thee not to save my life: but if disordinate lust moove thee thereto, spare me: in case thou hast a mind simply to eat on my flesh, kill me: but if it be for that thou wouldest feed more delicately, hold thy hand and let me live. O monstrous crueltie! It is an horrible sight to see the table of rich men onely, stand served and furnished with viands, set out by cooks and victuallers that dresse the flesh of dead bodies; but most horrible it is to see the same taken up, for that the reliques and broken meats remaining be farre more than that which is eaten: To what purpose then were those silly beasts slaine? Now there be others, who making spare of the viands served on the table, will in no hand that they should be cut or sliced; sparing them when as they be nothing els but bare flesh; whereas they spared them not whiles they were living beasts: But forasmuch as we have heard that the same men hold and say: That nature hath directed them to the eating of flesh; it is plaine and evident, that this cannot accord with mans nature: And first and formost this appeereth by the very fabrick and composition of his bodie: for it resembleth none of those creatures whom nature hath made for to feed on flesh, considering they have neither hooked bil, no hauke-pointed tallans, they have no sharpe and rough teeth, nor stomack so strong, or so hot breath and spirit, as to be able to concoct and digest the heany masse of raw flesh: And if there were naught else to be alledged, nature her-selfe by the broadnesse and united equallity of our teeth, by our small mouth, our soft toong, the imbecillitie of naturall heat, and spirits serving for concoction, sheweth sufficiently that she approoveth not of mans usage to eat flesh, but dissavoreth and disclaimeth the same: And if you obstinately maintaine and defend, that nature hath made you for to eat such viands; then, that which you minde to eat first kill your selfe, even your owne selfe (I say) without using any blade, knife, bat, club, axe, or hatchet: And even as beares, lions and woolves, slay a beast according as they meane to eat it; even so kill thou a beese, by the bit of thy teeth; slay me a swine with the helpe of thy mouth and jawes; teare in peeces a lambe or an hare with thy nailes; and when thou hast so done, eat it up while it is alive, like as beasts doe; but if thou staiest untill they be dead ere thou eate them, and art abashed to chase with thy teeth the life that presently is in the flesh witch thou eatest; why doest thou against nature eat that which had life? and yet, when it is deprived of life, and fully dead, there is no man hath the heart to eat the same as it is; but they cause it to be boiled, & to be roasted; they alter it with fire, and many drogues and spices, changing, disguising, and quenching (as it were) the horror of the murder, with a thousand devices of seasoning; to the end that the sense of tasting being beguiled and deceived by a number of sweet sauces and pleasant conditure, might admit and receive that which it abhorreth, and is contrary unto it. Certes it was a pretie conceit which was reported by a Laconian, who having brought in his Inne or hostelrie, a little fish, gave it, as it should seeme, to the Inkeeper for to be dressed; but when hee called unto him for vineger, cheese, and oyle to doe it withall: If (quoth the Laconian) I had that which tho demandest of me, I would never have bought this fish. But we contrariwise, for to please our delicate tooth, are so delighted in slaughter and carnage, that flesh we call our viand; and yet then we have need of other viands for the very dressing of flesh it selfe, mixing and adding thereto, oile, wine, honie, the prickle or sauce garum and vineger, embalming (as it were) and burying a dead corps with Sytiake spices and Arabicke sauces. And verily, when our flesh meats after this maner be mortified, made tender, and in some sort putrified, our naturall heat hath much adoe to concoct the same, and being not able in deed to digest them perfitly, it ingendereth in us dangerous heaviness and crudities apt to breed diseases. Diogenes upon a time was so rash, that he durst eat a polype or pourcuttle fish all raw, because he would have taken away the use and helpe of fire in dressing such meats; and there being certeine priest and many other men standing about him, when he covered his head with his cloake, and put the flesh of the said pouple to his mouth, he said unto them all; For your sake it is that I hazard my selfe thus as I doe, and adventure this jeopardie. Now by Jupiter, this was a proper perill in deed, and a doutie danger, was it not? for this Philosopher heere exposed not himslefe to any perillous hazard, as Pelopidas did, for recovery of the Thebans libertie; nor as Armodius and Aristogiton, for the freedome of Athens: who thus wrestled with a raw poulpe fish in his stomacke, and all to make the life of man more beastlike and savage. Well then, plaine it is that the eating of flesh is not onley unnaturall in regard of the bodie, but also by repletion, fulnesse and satietie, it maketh the soule fat and grosse; for the drinking of wine and feeding upon flesh meats to the full, howsoever it may seeme to cause the bodie to be more able and strong, yet [575] surely the minde it doth enfeeble and weaken. And left I should he thought a professed enemie to those who practise the exercise of the bodie named Athleticæ I will use the domesticall examples of mine owne countrey: for the inhabitants of Attica do tearme us of Bæotia, fat-backs, grosse and senselesse, yea, blockish sots, principally for our ranke and large feeding; like as one said:

Of trueth these men, in judgement mine,
Be nothing els but franked swine.

And as Menander wrote in one place:

With fat their cheeks be puft and swolne;
See, see their chaps how they be bolne.

As also Pindarus:

They plie thier jawes, they feed amaine,
That even their cheeks do shine againe.

But according to Heraclitus, the drie soule seemeth to be the wisest; for know thus much moreover; that emptie, tunnes, pipes or barrels, resound when they be knocked upon; whereas if they be full, they answer not againe to the knocks or stroaks given them: brasse pannes or coppers which be thin & slender, render sounds, and ring all about untill such time as one come and with his hand seerne to stop and dull the stroke that otherwise went round about: The eie filled with superfluous humiditie, becommeth dim and darke; neither hath it the full strength and power to performe his office. When we behold the sunne through a moist aire, and a number of thick mists, and grosse undigested vapors, we see him not in his owne nature pure, cleere, and bright; but as it were in the bottome of a cloud, all duskish, and casting foorth thicke wandring and dispersed beames; And even so through a bodie troubled with vapors, full fedde overcharged with nutriments, of unkind and strange viands, it cannot chuse but all the light and shining brightness of the soule which is naturall, should become dusked and troubled, having no radiant setled splendour, able to pierce throughly to the ends and externities of subtile and fine objects, hardly to be discerned, but the same is wandering, unsteadie and dispersed.

But setting all these matters aside, is it not, thinke you, a right commendable thing to be acquainted and accustomed to humanitie? for who would ever finde in his heart to abuse & wrong a man, who is affectionate, gentle, and milde, to the very beasts which are of a strange kind from us, and have no communication of reason with us? Three daies agoe, I alledged and cited in my disputation a testimonie of Xenocrates to this purpose; and namely: How the Athenians condemned him to pay a round fine, who had slaied a quick ramme: And in very truth, he that tormenteth and putteth to paine one that is living, is not in my conceit woorse than he that taketh the life away and killeth him; Howbeit, as farre as I can see, more sense and feeling we have of such things as be unusuall and against custome, than unnaturall and contrarie unto kinde: But those reasons which I then delivered, smell haply of some grossenesse, and were too triviall; for I feare and am loth to touch and set abroch in these my discourses, that great and high principle, that deepe and mysticall cause of this our position: That we ought not to eat flesh; for that I say the hidden secret and original thereof is so incredible to base and timorous persons, as Plato saith, and to such as favour of nothing but of earthly and mortall matters; and heerein I fare much like unto the pilot and master of the ship, who in a tempest is afraid to put his ship to sea; or unto a poet, who dareth not set up his fabrick or engin in the theater, all while the stage or pageant is turned and caried round about: And yet peradventure it were not amisse in this place to resound and pronounce aloud those verses of Empedocles, * * * . For under covert tearmes he doth allegorize and give us to understand; that the soules heere, are tied and fastened to mortall bodies, by way of punishment, for that they have beene murderers, have eaten flesh, devoured one another, and beene fed by mutuall slaughter and carnage: And yet this seemeth to be an opinion more ancient than Empedocles: for those fictions of Poets and touching the dismembring of Bacchus and the outragious attempts of the Tyrans against him, and how they tasted of flesh murdred, as also of their punishment, and how they were smitten with lightning, they be meere fables: the hidden mythologie whereof, tendeth to that renovation of birth or resurrection; for surely that brutish and reasonlesse part of our soule which is violent, disordered, and not divine, but divelish and dæmoniack, the auncient philosophers called Titans; and this is that which is tormented, and suffereth judiciall punishment.

THE

PHILOSOPHIE,

commonlie called,

THE

MORALS

WRITTEN BY

the learned Philosopher

PLUTARCH

of Chæronea.



Translated out of Greeke into English, and conferred
with the Latine translations and the French,
by PHILEMON HOLLAND of
Coventrie, Doctor in
Physicke.

Whereunto are annexed the Summaries necessary to be
read before every Treastie.



AT LONDON
Printed by Arnold Hatfield.
1603