customhimself.^31 Rousseau,too, seemstohaverecognized
the strength of the arguments for vegetarianism without
actually adopting the practice; his treatise on education,
Emile, containsa long and mostly irrelevantpassage from
Plutarchthatattackstheuseofanimalsforfoodasunnatural,
unnecessary, bloody murder.^32
TheEnlightenmentdidnotaffectallthinkersequallyintheir
attitudestowardanimals.ImmanuelKant,inhislectureson
ethics, still told his students:
Sofarasanimals areconcerned,wehavenodirect duties.
Animals arenot self-conscious, and arethere merely as a
means to an end. That end is man.^33
But in the same year that Kant gave these
lectures—1780—JeremyBenthamcompletedhisIntroduction
tothePrinciples ofMoralsandLegislation,and init,ina
passageIhavealreadyquotedinthefirstchapterofthisbook,
hegavethedefinitiveanswertoKant:“Thequestionisnot,
Cantheyreason?norCantheytalk?but,Cantheysuffer?”In
comparingthepositionofanimalswiththatofblackslaves,
andlookingforwardtotheday“whentherestoftheanimal
creation may acquire those
rightswhichnevercouldhavebeenwithholdenfromthembut
bythehand oftyranny,”Benthamwasperhaps thefirstto
denounce“man’sdominion”astyrannyratherthanlegitimate
government.
Theintellectualprogressmadeintheeighteenthcenturywas
followed, in the nineteenth century, by some practical
improvementsintheconditions ofanimals.Thesetook the
form of laws against wanton cruelty to animals. Thefirst