INTRODUCTION. 3 



The first writer of the Christian era who troubled himself 

 about animals, and combatted their more and more strongly 

 emphasised inferiority to man, was Celsus, who lived in the 

 second century after Christ, and who followed the material- 

 istic philosophy of the Epicureans as adapted by the 

 Platonists. He fought with wit and acuteness against 

 Christianity, and also against the Judreo-Christian theory 

 that everything was created for the sake of man, and that 

 he was the final cause of the universe. He maintained, as 

 regards animals, that their bodies differed in no important 

 respect from those of men, and that in intellectual qualities 

 they were in many things higher rather than lower than 

 men, since they had a kind of intelligible government, and 

 observed justice and love. His proofs in support of this 

 argument he draws from the life of bees and ants and with 

 what justice the reader of this book will find abundant 

 evidence. 



" If men," proceeds Celsus, " want to separate themselves 

 from animals because they inhabit towns, make laws, and 

 set up a government, yet all this proves nothing ; bees and 

 ants do the same. Bees have their king, whom they ac- 

 company and obey ; they have their wars, their victories, 

 their massacres of the conquered ; they have towns and 

 suburbs, regular hours of work, penalties for the lazy and 

 the bad ; they hunt and punish hornets . . . ." He 

 awards the same praise to the ants and to their prudence 

 and care for the future. They help each other to carry 

 heavy loads. " Out of the seeds and fruits which they 

 collect they put on one side those which have begun to sprout, 

 so that they may not affect the others, and that they may 

 serve as food for the winter." They speak to each other 

 when they meet, and do not mistake their road. Celsus 

 even thinks that they have their own burying grounds. 

 " If anyone were able to look down upon the earth from 

 heaven, what difference would he see between the works of 

 men and those of ants and of bees ? " 



The Christian Middle Ages, enemy of all natural investi- 

 gation, could evidently make no peace with such theories. 

 In spite of the vigorous opposition of Rorarius, the learned 

 nuncio of Clement VII. to the Court of the Emperor 

 Ferdinand in Hungary, who brought forward a mass of 

 facts in support of the reasoning powers of animals, and 



