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Why did they not extinguish a lamp, but
suffered it to go out of itself?1
Did they reverence it as akin and closely related
to the inextinguishable and undying fire, or is this
also a symbolic indication that we should not destroy
[p. 115]
nor do away with any living thing, if it does us no
harm, since fire is like a living thing? For it needs
sustenance, it moves of itself, and when it is extinguished it gives out a sound as if it were being
slain.
Or does this custom teach us that we should not
destroy fire, water, or any other necessity when we
have enough and to spare, but should allow those
who have need of these things to use them, and
should leave them for others when we ourselves no
longer have any use for them?
1 Cf. Moralia, 702 d ff.
Plutarch. Moralia. with an English Translation by. Frank Cole Babbitt. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1936. 4.
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