Note 85 — IX. PORPHYRY. 233–306 (?) A.D.
Reading edition
That unreasoning arrogance of human selfishness, which pretends that all other living beings have come into existence for the sole pleasure and benefit of man, has often been exposed by the wiser, and therefore more humble, thinkers of our race. Pope has well rebuked this sort of monstrous arrogance:—
“Has God, thou fool, worked solely for thy good, Thy joy, thy pastime, thy attire, thy food? * * * * * * * Know, Nature’s children all divide her care, The fur that warms a monarch, warmed a bear. While man exclaims: ‘See, all things for my use!’ ‘See, man for mine,’ replies a pampered goose. And just as short of reason he must fall, Who thinks all made for one, not one for all.” Essay on Man, III.
And, as a commentary upon these truly philosophic verses, we may quote the words of a recent able writer, answering the objection, “Why were sheep and oxen created, if not for the use of man? replies to the same effect as Porphyry 1600 years ago:” It is only pride and imbecility in man to imagine all things made for his sole use. There exist millions of suns and their revolving orbs which the eye of man has never perceived. Myriads of animals enjoy their pastime unheeded and unseen by him—many are injurious and destructive to him. All exist for purposes but partially known. Yet we must believe, in general, that all were created for their own enjoyment, for mutual advantage, and for the preservation of universal harmony in Nature. If, merely because we can eat sheep pleasantly, we are to believe that they exist only to supply us with food, we may as well say that man was created solely for various parasitical animals to feed on, “because they do feed on him.”—(Fruits and Farinacea: the Proper Food of Man. By J. Smith. Edited by Professor Newman. Heywood, Manchester; Pitman, London.) See, also, amongst other philosophic writers, the remarks of Joseph Ritson in his “Essay on Abstinence from Animal Food a Moral Duty”—(Phillips, London, 1802). As to Oxen and Sheep, it must be further remarked that they have been made what they are by the intervention of man alone. The original and wild stocks (especially that of sheep) are very different from the metamorphosed and almost helpless domesticated varieties. Naturam violant, pacem appellant.