Humanity Against Cruelty to Animals in Historical Literature, Timeline of Animal Rights History

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2nd c. | Morals

Whether it be Lawful to Eat Flesh or No

And for a little peece of flesh we take away their life, we bereave them of their 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 praiers, supplications, pleas & justifications of those poore innocent creatures, who in their language, everie one of them crie. (Plutarch, Morals, "Whether it be Lawful to Eat Flesh or No")

Of Eating Flesh

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. (Plutarch, Morals, "Of Eating Flesh")

What supper then, is not to be counted sumptuous, for which there is evermore killed some living creature or other ; for doe we thinke little of the dispense of a soule ? and suppose we, that the losse of life is not costly ? I do not now say, that it was peradventure the soule of a mother, a father, some friend, or a sonne, as Empedocles gave it out; but surely a soule endued with sense, with seeing, hearing, apprehension, understanding, witte and discretion, such as nature hath given to each living creature. (Plutarch, Morals, "Of Eating Flesh")

[In this later edition of Plutarch's Morals, the contents of volume the fifth provides the following introductory paragraph for William Baxter's translation of Of Eating of Flesh.]

The very idea of eating the carcasses of slain animals is repulsive, 3. Who could have begun the practice, but from the direst necessity ? 4. Men must have been driven to the deed of slaying animals for food, because the supply of food from the vegetable world had utterly failed, 4, 5. We have no such necessity, 5. Man is not by nature a carnivorous animal, 7. Our conduct in slaying animals and then preparing them for food is wholly against nature, 8. Animal food is injurious : it clogs and confuses the mind and renders it stupid, 9. It operates unfavourably on character, 9, 10. If we must eat flesh, let it be with sorrow and pity ; not tormenting and abusing the poor animal before taking its life, 11. Passing the bounds of nature in our feeding, intemperate appetites and shameful lusts are gratified, 12. Cruelty to mankind is induced, 12. Animals have senses ; they have faculties for seeing, hearing, understanding : is it right to extinguish these faculties ? 13. Who knows but the bodies of animals may contain the souls of deceased men ; of a father, brother, son or other friend ? 14, 15. (Plutarch, Morals, "Of Eating of Flesh")

That Brute Beasts Have Use of Reason

That the soule of brute beasts is by nature more kinde, more perfect and better disposed to yeeld vertue, considering that without compulsion, without commandement, or any teaching, which is as much to say, as without tillage and sowing it bringeth forth and nourisheth that vertue which is meet and convenient for every one…Nay, what vertue are they not capable of ? yea, and more than the wisest man that is. (Plutarch, Morals, "That Brute Beasts Have Use of Reason")

Man (being through his disordiante appetite of pleasures, and by his gluttonie, provoked to all things, tasting and assaying whatsoever he can meet with or heare of…) is of all creatures living, he alone that eateth and devoureth all things;…for there is neither fowle flying in the aire, nor (in maner) any fish swimming in the sea, nor (to speake in one word) any beast feeding upon the face of the earth, that can escape those tables of yours, which you call gentle, kinde and hospitall. (Plutarch, Morals, "That Brute Beasts Have Use of Reason")

[In this later edition of Plutarch's Morals, the contents of volume the fifth provides the following introductory paragraph for Sir. A. J.'s translation of That Brute Beasts Make Use of Reason.]

A satire on the boasted wisdom, fortitude, magnanimity, and temperance of man, in the form of a dialogue between Ulysses in the island of Circe, and Gryllus, whom she had changed into a swine, and who now prefers his swinish condition to a return to the human form ; Ulysses asks Circe for permission to restore his companions to the human shape, 218. Circe will grant the request if the men themselves desire it, 219. Gryllus, one of them, is brought forward to answer in behalf of the entire company, 219. He refuses, and gives his reasons, 220, et seq. He says that by making him and his companions beats, Circe has done them a great favor, 220. Beasts have more fortitude than men ; they fight in fair, open combat, without trick or artifice; the are no cowards, they never cry for mercy, 222. Beasts are courageous and daring, even the females ; while the courage of men is artificial, and women are timid, 223, 224. Beats are more temperate and chaste then man ; they indulge their appetites only in a natural way, and at the proper season, 225, 226, 228. Beasts do not value silver or gold, 227. They have no adventitious desire, 227. Their senses are more accurate, 227. They have no adventitious desires, 227. Their senses are more accurate, 227. Men are incontinent : they indulge unnatural and excessive appetites ; are never satisfied, 229, 230. Beasts are satisfied with one kind of food, and this procured without difficulty ; they have nature for their teacher, and could teach men many useful lessons, 281, 282. (Plutarch, Morals, "That Brute Beasts Make Use of Reason")

Which are Most Crafty, Water-Animals
or Those Creatures that Breed Upon the Land

[In this later edition of Plutarch's Morals, the contents of volume the fifth provides the following introductory paragraph for John Philips' translation of Which Are More Crafty, Water-Animals or Those Creatures that Breed Upon the Land.]

Field sports, the slaughter of wild and at length of tame animals, prepared the way for men to kill one another, 158. Have brutes a soul ? they certainly have sense and imagination, 160. The learn to desire some things and to avoid others, 161. If they have sense, they have understanding, 161. They have what in men is called understanding, 162. Men punish dogs and horses for their faults, as if for the purpose of producing repentance, 162. Beasts are susceptible of pleasure, joy anger, fear, 163. But are they capable of virtue ? 163. The love their off spring, 164. They may have reason, and yet not have it perfectly, or in a high degree, 164. As sight and swiftness exist in different degrees, so may reason and mental force, 165. Animals differ widely in their faculties, as in their habits, 165. Many brute animals excel men in the faculties of sight and hearing, as well as in swiftness and strength ; but we may not therefore say that men are blind, &c., 166. There are mad dogs and horses ; what is this but a disturbance of the reason ? 167. Mankind are chargeable with great injustice in dealing with beasts as they do, 169. There is a necessary and convenient use of the brute creation, 169, 170. Beyond this, we ought not to go, 170. In the exercise of what so nearly resembles reason, do land animals excel those that live in the water ? 172. There is sufficient reason to believe that they do, 173. Observe the habits of bulls, lions, and elephants, 173. Of the ichenenmon, of swallows, and spiders, 174. Of bees, crows, geese, and cranes, 175. The contrivances and labors of emmets, 176, 177. The sagacity of the elephant and the fox, 178, 179. The affection of the dog for his master : some striking instances related, 180. 181. Story of a mule at Athens, 182. Another dog story, 182, 183. The elephant that carried King Porus, 183. The horse Bucephalus, 183. Where there is one virtue in a brute, there are commonly others, 183, 184. Instances of subtlety and cunning, 184-186. Elephants and lions have a taste for society, 187. Amorous propensities of some brutes towards mankind ; singular instances given, 188. Starlings, magpies, and parrots learn to talk, 188, 189. Swans and nightingales sing, 189. Story of a magpie at Rome imitating the music of trumpets exactly, 190. Wonderful docility of a dog, 191. Men have learned of the spider to weave ; of the swallow to build ; and have acquired from other animals skill in medicine, 191, 192. Some oxen have learned to count, 193. Soothsaying and divination is by means of birds, 194. What now can be said of the sagacity and intelligence of fished and other water-animals ? living in the sea, and remote from our observation, they are but little known to us, 195. Crocodiles come when called, 196. Fish are not easily caught, a proof of great cunning and wariness, 197, 198. Fish stand by and defend each other in danger, 199. Sagacity of the dolphin and the cuttle-fish, 200. Subtlety of the fish in taking their own prey, the torpedo, polypus, and others, 201. 202. Sagacity of the tunny, 203, 204. Mutual affection of the crocodile and the trochilus, 206. Sagacity of fish in depositing their spawn, 207, 208. Care of the tortoise and crocodile for their young, 209, 210. Intelligence and conjugal affection of the haleyon, 211, 212. Story of a dolphin which served as a guide to the messengers of Ptolemy Soter, king of Egypt, 213, 214. The dolphin, a solitary instance among the brutes of disinterested love for man, 214. Stories of affectionate dolphins, 215. 216. (Plutarch, Morals, "Which are Most Crafty, Water-Animals or Those Creatures that Breed Upon the Land")

2nd c. | Lives of the Greeks and Romans

Marcus Cato Censo

To sell slaves in that sort, or to turne them out of doores when you have had the service of all their youth, & that they are growen olde, as you use brute beastes that have served whilest they may for age : me thinkes that must needes proceede of to severe and greedy a nature, that hath no longer regard or consideration of humanity, then whilest one is able to do another good. For we see, gentlenesse goeth further then justice. For nature teacheth us to use justice onely unto men, but gentlenesse sometimes is shewed unto brute beasts : and that commeth from the very fountaine and spring of all curtesie and humanity, which shoulde never dry up in any man living. For to say truely, to keepe cast horses spoiled in our service, and dogs also, not only when they are whelpes, but when they be old : be even tokens of love and kindnes. (Plutarch, Morals, "Which are Most Crafty, Water-Animals or Those Creatures that Breed Upon the Land")

And there is no reason, to use living and sensible things, as we would use an old shoo or a rag, to cast it out upon the dunghill when we have worn it, and can serve us no longer. For if it were for no respect else, but to use us alwaies to humanitie : we must ever shew our selves kind and gentle, even in such small points of pitie. And as for me, I could never find in my heart to sell my draught Oxe that had plowed my land a long time, because he could plough no longer for age : and much lesse my slave, to sell him for a litle money, out of the contrie where he had dwelt a long time, to plucke him from his olde trade of life wherewith he was best acquainted. (Plutarch, Morals, "Which are Most Crafty, Water-Animals or Those Creatures that Breed Upon the Land")

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Plutarch [ca46-120], Of Eating Flesh, Whether it be Lawfull to Eat Flesh or No, and That Brute Beasts Have Use of Reason, in The Philosopie, Commonlie Called, the Morals , trans. by Philemon Holland ([First English Edition] London, 1603; Online at Animal Rights History, 2003).

Plutarch [ca46-120] , Of Eating Flesh, That Brute Beasts Have Use of Reason and Which are Most Crafty, Water-Animals or Those Creatures that Breed Upon the Land in Vol. 5 of Plutarch’s Morals, translated from the Greek by Several Hands, corrected and revised by William W. Goodwin, with an introduction by Ralph Waldo Emerson, 5 Volumes (Boston, 1874; Digitized by Google, 2007)

Plutarch [ca46-120], Marcus Cato Censor in The Lives of Noble Grecians and Romaines, trans. by Sir Thomas North (London, 1603; Online at Animal Rights History, 2003).

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