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Pythagoras : The Vegetarian
109
Ungrateful, unworthy indeed of the gift of corn is the man who has the heart to slay the cultivator of his fields, to hit with his axe the neck of the confiding creature, from which the burden of the plough has just been removed, the same neck that has become worn by the repeated labour of turning up its owner's hard soil, and of securing his harvest !
‘Nor is it enough that such crimes were committed ! But people even made the Gods responsible for their atrocities, and believe the divine power to rejoice in the murder of the toiling bullock.
"The sacrificial animal, void of the least blemish, distinguished by beautiful shape (for it is dangerous to be found pleasing ), and adorned with fillets and gold, is placed before the altar. Unsuspecting, it hears the incantations, and sees its forehead between the horns marked with the same corn it once helped to cultivate ! And then the death blow stretches it to the ground, and its blood stains the knife which it perchance beheld reflected in the clear water of the sacrificial basin !
Then they tear the entrails from the still living body to examine them, and pretend thus to find out the will of the Gods.
*And of such flesh ( I wonder whence comes such a greed for impure food in man!) you dare to make a meal, Oh human race !
'Oh I implore you, don't do it ! Listen to my warning ! Be bold and realize that whenever you gratify the appetite of your palate, by tasting the flesh of cattle, you feast on your own fieldlabourers !
“And now, since a God inspires my lips, I will duly obey the inspiring deity, and throw open my Delphi. Yea throw open heaven itself, and disclose the oracles of the sublime mind. Great truths will I sing, which the intelligence of our forefathers never fathomed, and which have long remained hidden. For it is a joy to move high up
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