ANTHROPOCENTRIC ETHICS 315 



the convenience and delight of his children. The 

 stars were perforations in the overarching concave 

 through which eavesdropping prophets peered into 

 celestial secrets, and errand-angels came and went 

 with messages between gods and men. Not only 

 the spheres in space, but the earth and all it 

 contained — the rivers, seas, and seasons, all the 

 plants that grow, and all the flowers that blow, 

 and all the millions that swim and suffer in the 

 waters and skies — were, according to this remorse- 

 less notion, the soulless adjuncts of man. In- 

 trinsically they were meaningless. They had sig- 

 nificance only as they served the human species. 

 The hues and perfumes of flowers, the songs of 

 birds, the dews, the breezes, the rains, the rocks, 

 the * beasts of the field and the fowls of the air,' 

 the great forests, the mighty mountains, the 

 fearful solitudes, even famine and pestilence, were 

 all made for the being with the reinless imagination. 

 Luther believed that the fly — festive little Musca 

 domesttca, who inhabits our homes, and sometimes 

 unwittingly wanders over our tender places — was 

 a pestiferous invention of the devil, maliciously 

 sent to annoy him in his meditations. Garlic 

 grew on the swamp brim as a handy antidote for 

 human malaria. Fruits ripened in the summer- 

 time because the acids and juices which they 

 contained were believed to be necessary for man's 

 health and refreshment. The great muscles of 

 the ox were made to provide men with delicacies 

 and leisure. The cloak of the ewe was made 

 without any special thought, or without any 



