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The Ethics Of Diet

Howard Williams

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THE ETHICS OF DIET.

THE ETHICS OF DIET.

A Catena OF AUTHORITIES DEPRECATORY OF THE PRACTICE OF FLESH-EATING. BY HOWARD WILLIAMS, M.A. “Man by Nature was never made to be a carnivorous animal, nor is he armed at all for prey and rapine.” — Ray. “Hommes, soyez humains ! c’est votre premier devoir. Quelle sagesse y-a-t-il pour vous hors de l’humanité?” — Rousseau. “Der Mensch ist was er isst.” — German Proverb. L ONDON : F. P ITMAN , 20, P ATERNOSTER R OW ; J OHN H EYWOOL , 11, P ATERNOSTER B UILDINGS , M ANCHESTER : J OHN H EYWOOD , D E

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PREFACE.

PREFACE.

A T the present day, in all parts of the civilised world, the once orthodox practices of cannibalism and human sacrifice universally are regarded with astonishment and horror. The history of human development in the past, and the slow but sure progressive movements in the present time, make it absolutely certain that, with the same astonishment and horror will the now prevailing habits of living by the slaughter and suffering of the inferior species—habits different in degree rather than in kind

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I. HESIOD. EIGHTH CENTURY B.C.

I. HESIOD. EIGHTH CENTURY B.C.

H ESIOD —the poet par excellence of peace and of agriculture, as Homer is of war and of the “heroic” virtues—was born at Ascra, a village in Bœotia, a part of Hellas, which, in spite of its proverbial fame for beef-eating and stupidity, gave birth to three other eminent persons—Pindar, the lyric poet, Epameinondas, the great military genius and statesman, and Plutarch, the most amiable moralist of antiquity. The little that is known of the life of Hesiod is derived from his Works and Days . From

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II. PYTHAGORAS. 570–470 B.C.

II. PYTHAGORAS. 570–470 B.C.

“A GREATER good never came, nor ever will come, to mankind, than that which was imparted by the gods through Pythagoras.” Such is the expression of enthusiastic admiration of one of his biographers. To those who are unacquainted with the historical development of Greek thought and Greek philosophy it may seem to be merely the utterance of the partiality of hero-worship. Those, on the other hand, who know anything of that most important history, and of the influence, direct or indirect, of Pythag

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III. PLATO. 428–347 B.C.

III. PLATO. 428–347 B.C.

T HE most renowned of all the prose writers of antiquity may be said to have been almost the lineal descendant, in philosophy, of the teacher of Samos. He belonged to the aristocratic families of Athens—“the eye of Greece”—then and for long afterwards the centre of art and science. His original name was Aristokles, which he might well have retained. Like another equally famous leader in literature, François Marie Arouet, he abandoned his birth-name, and he assumed or acquired the name by which h

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IV. OVID. 43 B.C.–18 A.D.

IV. OVID. 43 B.C.–18 A.D.

T HE school of Pythagoras and of Plato, although it was not the fashionable or popular religion of Rome, counted amongst its disciples some distinguished Italians, and the name of Cicero, who belonged to the “New Academy,” is sufficiently illustrious. The Italians, however, who borrowed their religion as well as their literature from the Greeks, were never distinguished, like their masters, for that refinement of thought which might have led them to attach themselves to the Pythagorean teaching.

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V. SENECA. DIED 65 A.D.

V. SENECA. DIED 65 A.D.

L UCIUS A NNÆUS S ENECA , the greatest name in the stoic school of philosophy, and the first of Latin moralists, was born at Corduba (Cordova) almost contemporaneously with the beginning of the Christian era. His family, like that of Ovid, was of the equestrian order. He was of a weakly constitution; and bodily feebleness, as with many other great intellects, served to intensify if not originate, the activity of the mind. At Rome, with which he early made acquaintance, he soon gained great disti

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PLUTARCH—ESSAY ON FLESH-EATING.

PLUTARCH—ESSAY ON FLESH-EATING.

“You ask me upon what grounds Pythagoras abstained from feeding on the flesh of animals. I, for my part, marvel of what sort of feeling, mind, or reason, that man was possessed who was the first to pollute his mouth with gore, and to allow his lips to touch the flesh of a murdered being: who spread his table with the mangled forms of dead bodies, and claimed as his daily food what were but now beings endowed with movement, with perception, and with voice. “How could his eyes endure the spectacle

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VII. TERTULLIAN. 160–240 (?) A.D.

VII. TERTULLIAN. 160–240 (?) A.D.

T HE earliest of the Latin Fathers extant is, also, one of the most esteemed by the Church, [54] notwithstanding the well-known heterodoxy of his later life, as the first Apologist of Christianity in the Western and Latin world. He was a native of Carthage, the son of an officer holding an important post under the imperial government. The facts of his life known to us are very few, nor is it ascertained at what period he became a convert to the new religion, or when he was ordained as presbyter

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VIII. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. DIED 220 (?) A.D.

VIII. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. DIED 220 (?) A.D.

T HE attitude of the first great Christian writers and apologists in regard to total abstinence was somewhat peculiar. Trained in the school of Plato, in the later development of neo-platonism, their strongest convictions and their personal sympathies were, naturally, anti-kreophagistic. The traditions, too, of the earliest period in the history of Christianity coincided with their pre-Christian convictions, since the immediate and accredited representatives of the Founder of the new religion, w

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IX. PORPHYRY. 233–306 (?) A.D.

IX. PORPHYRY. 233–306 (?) A.D.

O NE of the most erudite, as well as one of the most spiritual, of the literati of any age or people, and certainly the most estimable of all the extant Greek philosophers after the days of Plutarch, was born either at Tyre or at some neighbouring town. His original name, Malchus, the Greek form of the Syrian Melech (king), and the name by which he is known to us, Porphyrius (purple-robed), we may well take deservedly to mark his philosophic superiority. He was exceptionally fortunate in his pre

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X. CHRYSOSTOM. 347–407 A.D.

X. CHRYSOSTOM. 347–407 A.D.

T HE most eloquent, and one of the most estimable, of the “Fathers” was born at Antioch, the Christian city par excellence . His family held a distinguished position, and his father was in high command in the Syrian division of the imperial army. He studied for the law, and was instructed in oratory by the famous rhetorician Libanius (the intimate friend and counsellor of the young Emperor Julian), who pronounced his pupil worthy to succeed to his chair, if he had not adopted the Christian faith

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XI. CORNARO. 1465–1566.

XI. CORNARO. 1465–1566.

A FTER the extinction of Greek and Latin philosophy in the fifth century, a mental torpor seized upon and, during some thousand years, with rare exceptions, dominated the whole Western world. When this torpor was dispelled by the influence of returning knowledge and reason evoked by the various simultaneous discoveries in science and literature—in particular by the achievements of Gutenberg, Vasco da Gama, Christopher Colon, and, above all, Copernik—the moral sense then first, too, began to show

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XII. SIR THOMAS MORE. 1480–1535.

XII. SIR THOMAS MORE. 1480–1535.

D URING part of the period covered by the long life of Cornaro there is one distinguished man, all reference to whose opinions—intimately though indirectly connected as they are with dietary reform—it would be improper to omit—Sir Thomas More. His eloquent denunciation of the grasping avarice and the ruinous policy which were rapidly converting the best part of the country into grazing lands, as well as his condemnation of the slaughter of innocent life, commonly euphemised by the name of “sport

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XIII. MONTAIGNE. 1533–1592.

XIII. MONTAIGNE. 1533–1592.

T HE modern Plutarch and the first of essayists deserves his place in this work, if not so much for express and explicit denunciation, totidem verbis , of the barbarism of the Slaughter-House, at least for a sort of argument which logically and necessarily arrives at the same conclusion. In truth, if he had not “seen and approved the better way” (even though, with too many others, he may not have had the courage of his convictions), he would be no true disciple of the great humanitarian. It is n

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XIV. GASSENDI. 1592–1655.

XIV. GASSENDI. 1592–1655.

G ASSENDI , one of the most eminent men, and, what is more to the purpose, the most meritorious philosophic writer of France in the seventeenth century, claims the unique honour of being the first directly to revive in modern times the teaching of Plutarch and Porphyry. Other minds, indeed, of a high order, like More and Montaigne, had, as already shown, implicitly condemned the inveterate barbarism. But Gassendi is the writer who first, since the extinction of the Platonic philosophy, expressly

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XV. RAY. 1627–1705.

XV. RAY. 1627–1705.

J OHN R AY , the founder of Botanical and, only in little less degree, of Zoological Science, was an alumnus of the University of Cambridge. He was elected Fellow of Trinity College in 1649, and Lecturer in Greek in the following year. While at Cambridge he formed a collection of plants growing in the neighbourhood, a catalogue of which he published in 1660. Three years later, with his friend Francis Willoughby, he travelled over a large part of Europe, as during his academical life he had trave

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XVI. EVELYN. 1620–1706.

XVI. EVELYN. 1620–1706.

J OHN E VELYN , the representative of the more estimable part of the higher middle life of his time, who has so eloquently set forth the praises of the vegetable diet, also claims with Ray the honour of having first excited, amongst the opulent classes of his countrymen, a rational taste for botanical knowledge. Especially meritorious and truly patriotic was his appeal to the owners of land, by growing trees to provide the country with useful as well as ornamental timber for the benefit of poste

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XVII. BERNARD DE MANDEVILLE. 1670–1733.

XVII. BERNARD DE MANDEVILLE. 1670–1733.

T HE most paradoxical of moralists, born at Dort, in Holland. He was brought up to the profession of medicine, and took the degree of M.D. He afterwards settled and practised in London. It was in 1714 that he published his short poem called The Grumbling Hive: or, Knaves Turned Honest , to which he afterwards added long explanatory notes, and then republished the whole under the new and celebrated title of The Fable of the Bees . This work “which, however erroneous may be its views of morals and

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XVIII. GAY. 1688–1732.

XVIII. GAY. 1688–1732.

T HE intimate friend of Pope and Swift is best known by his charming and instructive Fables . He was born at Barnstaple, in Devonshire, and belonged to the old family of the Le Gays of that county. His father, reduced in means, apprenticed him to a silk mercer in the Strand, London, in whose employment he did not long remain. The first of his poems, Rural Sports , appeared in 1711. In the following year he became secretary to the Duchess of Monmouth, and he served for a short time as secretary t

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XIX. CHEYNE. 1671–1743.

XIX. CHEYNE. 1671–1743.

O NE of the most esteemed of English physicians, and one of the first medical authorities in this country who expressly wrote in advocacy of the reformed diet, descended from an old Scottish family. He studied medicine at Edinburgh—then and still a principal school of medicine and surgery—where he was a pupil of Dr. Pitcairn. At about the age of thirty he removed to London, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and took his M.D. degree, commencing practice in the metropolis. The manner of l

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XX. POPE. 1688–1744.

XX. POPE. 1688–1744.

T HE most epigrammatic, and one of the most elegant, of poets. He was also one of the most precocious. His first production of importance was his Essay on Criticism , written at the age of twenty-one, although not published until two years later. But he had composed, we are assured, several verses of an Epic at the age of twelve; and his Pastorals was given to the world by a youth of sixteen. Its division into the Four Seasons is said to have suggested to Thomson the title of his great poem. The

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XXI. THOMSON. 1700–1748.

XXI. THOMSON. 1700–1748.

I N the long and terrible series of the Ages the distinguishing glory of the eighteenth century is its Humanitarianism —not visible, indeed, in legislation or in the teaching of the ordinarily-accredited guides of the public faith and morals, but proclaimed, nevertheless, by the great prophets of that era. As far as ordinary life was concerned, the last age is only too obnoxious to the charge of selfishness and heartlessness. Callousness to suffering, as regards the non-human species in particul

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XXII. HARTLEY. 1705–1757.

XXII. HARTLEY. 1705–1757.

C ELEBRATED as the earliest writer of the utilitarian school of morals. At the age of fifteen he entered Jesus College, Cambridge, of which he was afterwards elected a Fellow. Scruples of conscience about the “Thirty-nine Articles” would not allow him to subscribe them and take orders, and he turned to the medical profession, in which he reached considerable eminence. His Observations on Man: his Frame, his Duties, and his Expectations , appeared in 1748. The principal interest in the book consi

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XXIII. CHESTERFIELD. 1694–1773.

XXIII. CHESTERFIELD. 1694–1773.

N OTWITHSTANDING his strange self-deception as to the “general order of nature,” by which he attempted (sincerely we presume) to silence the better promptings of conscience, the remarkably strong feeling expressed by Lord Chesterfield gives him some right to notice here. His early instinctive aversion for the food which is the product of torture and murder is much better founded, we shall be apt to believe, than the fallacious sophism by which he seems eventually to have succeeded in stifling th

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XXIV. VOLTAIRE. 1694–1778.

XXIV. VOLTAIRE. 1694–1778.

O F the life and literary productions of the most remarkable name in the whole history of literature—if at least we regard the extent and variety of his astonishing genius, as well as the immense influence, contemporary and future, of his writings—only a brief outline can be given here. Yet, as the most eminent humanitarian prophet of the eighteenth century, the principal facts of his life deserve somewhat larger notice than within the general scope of this work. François Marie Arouet—commonly k

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XXV. HALLER. 1708–1777.

XXV. HALLER. 1708–1777.

T HE founder of Modern Physiology was born at Berne. In 1723 he went to Tübingen to study medicine, afterwards to Leyden, where the famous Boerhaave was at the height of his reputation. Twelve years later he received the appointment of physician to the hospital at Berne; but soon afterwards he was invited by George II., as Elector of Hanover, to accept the professorship of anatomy and surgery at the University of Göttingen. His scientific writings are extraordinarily numerous. From 1727 to 1777

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XXVI. COCCHI. 1695–1758.

XXVI. COCCHI. 1695–1758.

I T might justly provoke expression of feeling stronger than that of astonishment, when we have to record that in South Europe (where climate and soil unite to recommend and render a humane manner of living [169] still more easy than in our colder regions) the followers, or, at all events, the prophets of the Reformed Diet have been conspicuously few. Since, by the à fortiori argument, if abundant experience and teaching have proved it to be more conducive to health in higher latitudes, much mor

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XXVII. ROUSSEAU. 1712–1778.

XXVII. ROUSSEAU. 1712–1778.

F EW lives of writers of equal reputation have been exposed to our examination with the fulness and minuteness of the life of this the most eloquent name in French literature. With the exception of the great Latin father, St. Augustine, no other leader of thought, in fact, has so entirely revealed to us his inner life, his faults and weaknesses (often sufficiently startling), no less than the estimable parts of his character, and we remain in doubt whether more to lament the infirmities or to ad

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XXVIII. LINNÉ. 1707–1778.

XXVIII. LINNÉ. 1707–1778.

K ARL VON L INNÉ , or (according to the antiquated fashion of Latinising eminent names still retained) Linnæus, the distinguished Swedish naturalist, and the most eminent name in botanical literature, in a notable manner arrived at his destined immortality in spite of friends and fortune. Prophecies do not always fulfil themselves, and the estimate of his teachers that he was a hopeless “blockhead,” and the prediction that he would be of no intellectual worth in the world (they had advised his p

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XXIX. BUFFON. 1707–1788.

XXIX. BUFFON. 1707–1788.

A N eminent instance of perversity of logic—of which, by the way, the history of human thought supplies too many examples—is that of the well-known author of the Histoire Naturelle , a work which (highly interesting as it is, and always will be, by reason of the detailed and generally accurate delineation of the characters and habits of the various forms of animated nature, and by reason of the graces of style of that French classic) is, from a strictly scientific point of view, of not always th

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XXX. HAWKESWORTH. 1715–1773.

XXX. HAWKESWORTH. 1715–1773.

B EST known as the editor of The Adventurer —a periodical in imitation of the Spectator , Rambler , &amp;c.—which appeared twice a week during the years 1752–54. Johnson, Warton, and others assisted him in this undertaking, which has the honour of being one of the first periodicals which have ventured to denounce the cruel barbarism of “Sport,” and the papers by Hawkesworth upon that subject are in striking contrast with the usual tone and practice of his contemporaries and, indeed, of our o

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XXXI. PALEY. 1743–1805.

XXXI. PALEY. 1743–1805.

W ITH the exception of Joseph Butler, perhaps the ablest and most interesting of English orthodox theologians. As one of the very few of this numerous class of writers who seem seriously to be impressed with the difficulty of reconciling orthodox dietetics with the higher moral and religious instincts, Paley has for social reformers a title to remembrance, and it is as a moral philosopher that he has a claim upon our attention. The son of a country curate, Paley began his career as tutor in an a

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XXXII. ST. PIERRE. 1737–1814.

XXXII. ST. PIERRE. 1737–1814.

P RINCIPALLY known as the author of the most charming of all idyllic romances— Paul et Virginie . Beginning his career as civil engineer he afterwards entered the French army. A quarrel with his official superiors forced him to seek employment elsewhere, and he found it in the Russian service, where his scientific ability received due recognition. Encouraged by the esteem in which he was held, he formed the project of establishing a colony on the Caspian shores, which should be under just and eq

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XXXIII. OSWALD. 1730–1793.

XXXIII. OSWALD. 1730–1793.

A MONGST the less known prophets of the new Reformation the author of the Cry of Nature —one of the most eloquent appeals to justice and right feeling ever addressed to the conscience of men—deserves an honourable place. Of the facts of his life we have scanty record. He was a native of Edinburgh. At an early age he entered the English army as a private soldier, but his friends soon obtained for him an officer’s commission. He went to the East Indies, where he distinguished himself by his remark

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XXXIV. HUFELAND. 1762–1836.

XXXIV. HUFELAND. 1762–1836.

N OT entitled to rank among the greater prophets who have had the penetration to recognise the essential barbarism, no less than the unnaturalness, of Kreophagy (disguised, as it is, by the arts of civilisation), this most popular of all German physicians, with the Cornaros and Abernethys, may yet claim considerable merit as having, in some degree, sought to stem the tide of unnatural living, which, under less gross forms indeed than those of the darker ages of dietetics, and partially concealed

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XXXV. RITSON. 1761–1830.

XXXV. RITSON. 1761–1830.

K NOWN to the world generally as an eminent antiquarian and, in particular, as one of the earliest and most acute investigators of the sources of English romantic poetry, for future times his best and enduring fame will rest upon his at present almost forgotten Moral Essay upon Abstinence—one of the most able and philosophical of the ethical expositions of anti-kreophagy ever published. His birthplace was Stockton in the county of Durham. By profession a conveyancer, he enjoyed leisure for liter

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XXXVI. NICHOLSON. 1760–1825.

XXXVI. NICHOLSON. 1760–1825.

A MONG the least known, but none the less among the most estimable, of the advocates of the rights of the oppressed species and the heralds of the dawn of a better day, the humble Yorkshire printer, who undertook the unpopular and unremunerative work of publishing to the world the sorrows and sufferings of the non-human races, claims our high respect and admiration. He has also another title (second only to his humanitarian merit) to the gratitude of posterity as having been the originator of ch

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XXXVII. ABERNETHY. 1763–1831.

XXXVII. ABERNETHY. 1763–1831.

D ISTINGUISHED as a practical surgeon and as a physiologist, Abernethy has earned his lasting reputation as having been one of the first to attack the old prejudice of the profession as to the origin of diseases, and as having sought for such origin, not in mere local and accidental but, in general causes—in the constitution and habits of the body. A pupil of John Hunter, in 1786 he became assistant surgeon at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, and shortly afterwards he lectured on anatomy and surgery

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XXXVIII. LAMBE. 1765–1847.

XXXVIII. LAMBE. 1765–1847.

O NE of the most distinguished of the hygeistic and scientific promoters of the reformed regimen, Dr. Lambe, occupies an eminent position in the medical literature of vegetarianism, and he divides with his predecessor, Dr. Cheyne, the honour of being the founder of scientific dietetics in this country. His family had been settled some two hundred years in the county of Hereford, in which they possessed an estate that descended to Dr. William Lambe, and is now held by his grandson. He early gave

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XXXIX. NEWTON. 1770–1825.

XXXIX. NEWTON. 1770–1825.

J OHN F RANK N EWTON , the friend and associate of Dr. Lambe, Shelley, and the little band who met at the house of the former to share his vegetarian repasts, appears to have been one of the earliest converts of Dr. Lambe, to whom he dedicated his Return to Nature , in gratitude for the recovery of his health through the adoption of the reformed regimen. He published his little work, as he informs us in his preface, to impart to others the benefits which he himself had experienced; and especiall

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XL. GLEÏZÈS. 1773–1843.

XL. GLEÏZÈS. 1773–1843.

O F all the enlightened and humane spirits to which the philosophic eighteenth century gave birth, and who were quickened into activity by the great movement which originated in France in its last quarter, not one, assuredly, was actuated by a purer and more exalted feeling than Jean Antoine Gleïzès—the most enthusiastic , perhaps, of all the apostles of humanity and of refinement. He was born at Dourgne, in the (present) department of the Tarn. His father was advocate to the old provincial parl

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XLI. SHELLEY. 1792–1822.

XLI. SHELLEY. 1792–1822.

T HAT a principle of profound significance for the welfare of our own species in particular, and for the peaceful harmony of the world in general—that a true spiritualism, of which some of the most admirable of the poets of the pre-Christian ages proved themselves not unconscious, has been, for the most part, altogether overlooked or ignored by modern aspirants to poetic fame is matter for our gravest lament. Thomson, Pope, Shelley, Lamartine—to whom Milton, perhaps, may be added—these form the

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XLII. PHILLIPS. 1767–1840.

XLII. PHILLIPS. 1767–1840.

I T is an obvious truth—in vain demonstrated seventeen centuries since by the best moral teachers of non-Christian antiquity—that abolition of the slaughter-house, with all the cruel barbarism directly or indirectly associated with it, by a necessary and logical corollary, involves abolition of every form of injustice and cruelty. Of this truth the subject of the present article is a conspicuous witness. During his long and active career, in social and political as well as in literary life, Sir

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XLIII. LAMARTINE. 1790–1869.

XLIII. LAMARTINE. 1790–1869.

O F aristocratic descent, and educated at the college of the “Fathers of the Faith” (Pères de la Foi), Du Prat—such was the name of his family—imbibed in his youth principles very different from those of his great literary contemporary Michelet. Happily, Nature seems to have endowed his mother with a rare refinement and humaneness of feeling; and from her example and instruction he derived, apparently, the germs of those loftier ideas which, in maturer age, characterise a great part of his writi

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XLIV. MICHELET. 1797–1874.

XLIV. MICHELET. 1797–1874.

T HE early life of this most original and eloquent of French historians passed amidst much hardship and difficulty. His father, who was a printer, had been employed by the government of the Revolution period (1790–1794), and at the political reaction, a few years later, he found himself reduced to poverty. From the experiences of his earlier life Jules Michelet doubtless derived his contempt for the common rich and luxuriant manner of living. Until his sixteenth year, flesh-meat formed no part o

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XLV. COWHERD. 1763–1816.

XLV. COWHERD. 1763–1816.

I N any history of Vegetarianism it is impossible to omit record of the lives and labours of the institutors of a religious community who, in establishing humane dietetics as an essential condition of membership, may well claim the honourable title of religious reformers, and to whom belongs the singular merit of being the first and only founders of a Christian church who have inculcated a true religion of life as the basis of their teaching. William Cowherd, the first founder of this new concep

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XLVI. METCALFE. 1788–1862.

XLVI. METCALFE. 1788–1862.

A MONGST the immediate disciples of the founder of the new community, the most active apostle of the principles of Vegetarianism, William Metcalfe, to whom reference has been already made, claims particular notice. Born at Orton in Westmoreland, after instruction in a classical school kept by a philologist of some repute, he began life as an accountant at Keighley, in Yorkshire. His leisure hours were devoted to mental culture, both in reading and in poetic composition. Converted by Cowherd in 1

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XLVII. GRAHAM. 1794–1851.

XLVII. GRAHAM. 1794–1851.

A S an exponent of the physiological basis of the Vegetarian theory of diet, in the most elaborate minuteness, the author of Lectures on the Science of Human Life has always had great repute amongst food reformers both in the United States and in this country. Collaterally connected with the ducal house of Montrose, his father, a graduate of Oxford, emigrated to Boston, U.S., in the year 1718. He must have attained an advanced age when his seventeenth child, Sylvester, was born at Suffield, in C

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XLVIII. STRUVE. 1805–1870.

XLVIII. STRUVE. 1805–1870.

G ERMANY , at the present day able to boast so many earnest apostles of humanitarianism, until the nineteenth century was some way advanced, had contributed little, definitely, to the literature of Humane Dietetics . A Haller or a Hufeland, indeed, had, with more or less boldness, raised the banner of partial revolt from orthodox medicine and orthodox living, but their heterodoxy was rather hygienic than humane. In the history of humanitarianism in Germany the honour of the first place, in order

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XLIX. DAUMER. 1800–1875.

XLIX. DAUMER. 1800–1875.

O NE of the earliest pioneers of the New Reformation in Germany, chiefly from what may be termed the religious-philosophical standpoint, and one whose useful learning was equalled only by his true conception of the significance of the religious sentiment, was born at Nürnberg, in the last year of the eighteenth century. Of a naturally feeble constitution, unable to mix in the ordinary amusements of school-life, he found ample leisure for literature and for music, to which especially he was devot

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L. SCHOPENHAUER. 1788–1860.

L. SCHOPENHAUER. 1788–1860.

T HE chief interpreter of Buddhistic ideas in Europe, and whose bias in this direction is exercising so remarkable an influence upon contemporaneous thought, in Germany in particular, was born at Dantzig, the son of a wealthy merchant of that city. His mother, herself distinguished in literature, was often the centre of the most eminent persons of the day at Weimar. At a very early age devoted to the philosophies of Plato and of Kant, Arthur Schopenhauer studied at the Universities of Göttingen

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I. HESIOD.

I. HESIOD.

T HE original of the English version, given in the beginning of this work, is as follows:—...

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II.

II.

Extracts from “The Golden Verses” (Χρυσᾶ Ἔπη). An Exposition of Pythagorean Doctrine, of the Third Century, B.C., in Hexameters. (See pages 21 , 22 .)...

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III.

III.

I N Texts from the Buddhist Canon , Love or Compassion for all living beings is thus inculcated by Buddha, in a sermon addressed to a number of women (belonging to a class of hunters) whose husbands were then engaged on one of their predatory excursions:— “He who is humane does not kill; he is ever able to preserve [his own?] life. This principle is imperishable. Whosoever observes it, no calamity shall betide that man. Politeness, indifference to worldly things, hurting no one, without place fo

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IV. OVID.

IV. OVID.

T HE original (the peculiar beauties of which cannot easily be represented in a modern idiom) of the English version already given in this work, with the concluding verses omitted in that translation, is here subjoined:— Nor is this the only passage in his writings in which the Pagan poet proves himself to have been not without that humaneness and feeling so rare alike in non-Christian and in Christian poetry. In the charming story of the visit of the disguised and incarnate Celestials to the co

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V. MUSONIUS (1ST CENTURY, A.D.),

V. MUSONIUS (1ST CENTURY, A.D.),

A S TOIC writer of great repute with his contemporaries, son of a Roman Eques, was born at Volsinii (Bolsena), in Etruria, at the end of the reign of Augustus. He was banished by Nero, who especially hated the professors of the Porch ; but by Vespasian he was held in extraordinary honour when the rest of the philosophers were expelled from Rome. The time of his death is uncertain. He was the author of various philosophical works which are characterised by Suïdas as “distinguished writings of a h

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VI. LESSIO. 1554–1623,

VI. LESSIO. 1554–1623,

B ORN at Brechten, a town in Brabant, of influential family, this noted Hygeist, at a very early age, exhibited so exceptional a disposition as to be known among his school-fellows as the “prophet.” His ardour for learning was so intense as to cause him to forget the hours of meals, and to reduce his time for sleep to the shortest period possible. Having obtained a scholarship at the Arras College in Louvain, Lessio pursued the course of studies there with the greatest success, and by his fellow

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VII. COWLEY. 1620–1667.

VII. COWLEY. 1620–1667.

A MONG the poets of the age second only to Milton and to Dryden. The Garden , from which we extract the following just sentiments, is prefixed by way of dedication to the Kalendarium Hortense of John Evelyn, his personal and political friend. The Gardener’s Almanac , it is worthy of note, is one of the earliest prototypes of the numerous more modern treatises of the kind. It had reached a tenth edition in 1706....

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VIII. TRYON. 1634–1703.

VIII. TRYON. 1634–1703.

O NE of the best known of the seventeenth century humane Hygeists, was born at Bibury, a village in Gloucestershire. His father was a tiler and plasterer, who by stress of poverty was forced to remove his son, when no more than six years of age, from the village school, and to set him at the work of spinning and carding, (the woollen manufacture being then extensively carried on in Gloucestershire). At eight years of age he became so expert, he tells us, as to be able to spin four pounds a day,

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IX. HECQUET. 1661–1737.

IX. HECQUET. 1661–1737.

T HIS meritorious medical reformer, at first intended for the Church, happily (in the event) adopted the profession which he has so truly adorned, by his virtues, as well as by his enlightened labours. After a long and severe course of Anatomy and Physiology, in 1684 he was admitted as “Doctor” at Reims, and as Fellow ( Agrégé ) in the College of Physicians in his native town. He then returned to Paris to perfect himself in physiological science. Disgusted with the tricasseries which were excite

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X. POPE. 1688–1744.

X. POPE. 1688–1744.

“I cannot think it extravagant to imagine that mankind are no less, in proportion, accountable for the ill use of their dominion over the lower ranks of Beings, than for the exercise of tyranny over their own species. The more entirely the inferior creation is submitted to our power, the more answerable we should seem for the mismanagement of it; and the rather, as the very condition of Nature renders these beings incapable of receiving any recompense in another life, for their ill-treatment in

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XI. CHESTERFIELD. 1694–1773.

XI. CHESTERFIELD. 1694–1773.

T O the expression of the opinion or feeling of Lord Chesterfield on butchering, given, in its place, in the body of this work (page 140), is here subjoined the remainder of his paper in The World . The value of such testimony may be deemed proportionate to the extreme rarity of any protests of this sort from those who, by their influential position, are the most bound to make them:— “Although this reflection [the fact of the preying of the stronger upon the weaker throughout Nature] had force e

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XII. JENYNS. 1704–1787.

XII. JENYNS. 1704–1787.

A S UPPORTER of the Walpole Administration, he represented the county of Cambridge, and during twenty-five years held the office of Commissioner of the Board of Trade. He wrote papers in The World and other periodicals, and published two volumes of Poems. His principal book is the Free Enquiry into the Origin of Evil , in which he seeks to reconcile the obvious evils in the constitution of things with his optimistic creed. Johnson, who, with all his orthodoxy, was pessimistic, severely criticise

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XIII. PRESSAVIN. 1750.

XIII. PRESSAVIN. 1750.

A N eminent Surgeon of Lyon, in the Medical and Surgical College of which city he held a professorship, and where he collected an extensive Anatomical Museum. At the Revolution of 1789 he embraced its principles with ardour, and filled the posts of Municipal Officer and of Procureur de la Commune. On the day of the Lyon executions, under the direction of the revolutionary tribunals, Sept. 9, 1792, Pressavin intervened, and attempted to save several of the condemned. In the Convention Nationale,

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XIV. SCHILLER. 1759–1805.

XIV. SCHILLER. 1759–1805.

A FTER Goethe the greatest of German Poets, began life as a surgeon in the army. In his twenty-second year he produced his first drama, Die Räuber (“The Robbers”). Some passages in it betrayed the “cloven hoof” of revolutionary, or at least democratic, bias, and he brought upon himself the displeasure of the sovereign Duke of Würtemberg, in consequence of which he was forced to leave Stuttgart. His principal dramas are Wallenstein , Wilhelm Tell , Die Jungfrau von Orleans , Maria Stuart , and Do

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XV. BENTHAM. 1749–1832.

XV. BENTHAM. 1749–1832.

T HIS great legal reformer was educated at Westminster, and at the age of thirteen proceeded to Queen’s College, Oxford. At the age of sixteen he took his first degree in Arts. The mental uneasiness with which he signed the obligatory test of the “Thirty-nine Articles” he vividly recorded in after years. At the Bar, which he soon afterwards entered, his prospects were unusually promising; but unable to reconcile his standard of ethics with the recognised morality of the Profession, he soon withd

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XVI. SINCLAIR. 1754–1835.

XVI. SINCLAIR. 1754–1835.

T HIS celebrated Agricultural Reformer and active promoter of various beneficent enterprises was a most voluminous writer. During sixty years he was almost constantly employed in producing more or less useful books. He was born at Thurso Castle, in Caithness, and received his education at the Edinburgh High School, and at the Universities of Glasgow and Oxford. In 1775 he was admitted a member of the Faculty of Advocates, and afterwards was called to the English Bar. Five years later he was elec

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XVII. BYRON. 1788–1824.

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 con

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