634 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ETHICAL RELATIONS BETWEEN MAN AND BEAST. 



BY PROF. E. P. EVANS. 



imTHNOCENTRIC geography, which caused each petty tribe 

 -11^ to regard itself as the center of the earth, and geocentric 

 astronomy, which caused mankind to regard the earth as the cen- 

 ter of the universe, are conceptions that have been gradually out- 

 grown and generally discarded not, however, without leaving 

 distinct and indelible traces of themselves in human speech and 

 conduct. But this is not the case with anthropocentric psychol- 

 ogy and ethics, which treat man as a being essentially different 

 and inseparably set apart from all other sentient creatures, to 

 which he is bound by no ties of mental affinity or moral obli- 

 gation. Nevertheless, all these notions spring from the same 

 root, having their origin in man's false and overweening conceit 

 of himself as the member of a tribe, the inhabitant of a planet, or 

 the lord of creation. 



It was upon this sort of anthropocentric assumption that tele- 

 ologists used to build their arguments in proof of the existence 

 and goodness of God as shown by the evidences of beneficent de- 

 sign in the world. All their reasonings in support of this doctrine 

 were based upon the theory that the final purpose of every created 

 thing is the promotion of human happiness. Take away this an- 

 thropocentric postulate, and the whole logical structure tumbles 

 into a heap of unfounded and irrelevant assertions leading to lame 

 and impotent conclusions. 



Thus Bernardin de Saint-Pierre states that garlic, being a 

 specific for maladies caused by marshy exhalations, grows in 

 swampy places, in order that the antidote may be easily accessible 

 to man when he becomes infected with malarious disease. Also 

 the fruits of spring and summer, he adds, are peculiarly juicy, 

 because man needs them for his refreshment in hot weather ; on 

 the other hand, autumn fruits, like nuts, are oily, because oil gen- 

 erates heat and keeps men warm in winter. It is for man's sake, 

 too, that in lands where it seldom or never rains there is always 

 a heavy deposition of dew. If we can show that any product or 

 phenomenon of Nature is useful to us, we think we have dis- 

 covered its sufficient raison d'etre, and extol the wisdom and 

 kindness of the Creator ; but if anything is harmful to us we can 

 not imagine why it should exist. How much intellectual acute- 

 ness and learning have been expended to reconcile the fact that 

 the moon is visible only a very small part of the time, with the 

 theory that it was intended to illuminate the earth in the absence 

 of the sun, for the benefit of its inhabitants ! 



Gennadius, a Greek presbyter, who nourished at Constantino- 



