Villain, this pious blow shall cleave thy head;what a bustle she raises in the whole theatre while she raises herself to give the blow, and what a fear they are all in, lest she should prevent the old man that comes to stop her hand, and should wound the youth. Now if another old man should stand by her and say, ‘Strike, it is thy enemy,’ and this, ‘Hold, it is thy son;’ which, think you, would be the greater injustice, to omit the punishing of an enemy for the sake of one's child, or to suffer one's self to be so transported with anger at an enemy as to kill one's child? Since then neither hatred nor wrath nor any revenge nor fear for ourselves carries us to the slaughter of a beast, but the poor sacrifice stands with an inclined neck, only to satisfy thy lust and pleasure, and then one philosopher stands by and tells thee, ‘Cut him down, it is but an unreasonable animal,’ and another cries, ‘Hold, what if there should be the soul of some kinsman or God inclosed in him’—good Gods! is there the like danger if I refuse to eat flesh, as if I for want of faith murder my child or some other friend? [p. 16]
1
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And if what is argued about the return of souls into
bodies is not of force enough to beget faith, yet methinks
the very uncertainty of the thing should fill us with apprehension and fear. Suppose, for instance, one should in
[p. 15]
some night engagement run on with his drawn sword upon
one that had fallen down and covered his body with his
arms, and should in the mean time hear one say, that he
was not very sure, but that he fancied and believed, that
the party lying there was his own son, brother, father, or
tent-companion; which were more advisable, think you,—
to hearken to a false suggestion, and so to let go an enemy
under the notion of a friend, or to slight an authority not
sufficient to beget faith, and to slay a friend instead of a
foe? This you will all say would be insupportable. Do
but consider the famous Merope in the tragedy, who taking
up a hatchet, and lifting it at her son's head, whom she
took for her son's murderer, speaks thus as she was ready
to give the fatal blow,
1 Eurip. Cresphontes, Frag. 457.
Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by. William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company. Cambridge. Press Of John Wilson and son. 1874. 5.
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