“Gentleusage”is,indeed,aphrase thatnicely sumsupthe
attitudethatbegantospreadinthisperiod:wewereentitled
touseanimals,butweoughttodosogently.Thetendencyof
the age was for greater refinement and civility, more
benevolenceand less brutality,andanimals benefitedfrom
this tendency along with humans.
The eighteenth century was also the period in which we
rediscovered “Nature”: Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s noble
savage,strollingnakedthroughthewoods,pickingfruitsand
nuts as he
went,wastheculminationofthisidealizationofnature.By
seeingourselves as partofnature, weregained a sense of
kinshipwith“thebeasts.”Thiskinship,however,wasinno
sense egalitarian. At best, man was seen in the role of
benevolent father of the family of animals.
Religiousideasofthespecialstatusofhumanbeingsdidnot
disappear. They were interwoven with the newer, more
benevolentattitude. AlexanderPope, forexample, opposed
thepracticeofcuttingopenfullyconsciousdogsbyarguing
thatalthough“theinferiorcreation”hasbeen“submittedto
ourpower”weareanswerableforthe“mismanagement”of
it.^30
Finally,andespeciallyin France,thegrowthofanticlerical
feelingwasfavorabletothestatusofanimals.Voltaire,who
delightedinfightingdogmasofallkinds,comparedChristian
practices unfavorably with those of the Hindu. He went
further than the contemporary English advocates of kind
treatment when he referred to the barbarous custom of
supportingourselvesuponthefleshandbloodofbeingslike
ourselves,”althoughapparentlyhecontinuedtopracticethis