The translated extract in the preceding Chapter from the most eloquent
of the Portuguese preachers, _el mismissimo Vieyra, en su mesma
mesmedad_, as he is called in Fray Gerundio, brings to my mind the
most eloquent and the most popular of the Spanish divines, P. M. Luis
de Granada. He held an opinion wherein, (as will appear hereafter) the
Philosopher of Doncaster did not agree with him, that every thing
under the sky was created for man directly or indirectly, either for
his own use, or for the use of those creatures which minister to it;
for says the Spaniard if he does not eat mosquitoes he eats the birds
that eat them; if he does not eat the grass of the field, the cattle
graze there that are necessary for his use.
I have a very particular reason for giving the famous and Venerable
Dominican's opinion in his own words.
_Todo quanto ay debaxo del Cielo, ò es para el hombre, ò para cosas de
que se ha de servir el hombre; porque si el no come el mosquito que
buela por el ayre, come lo el pajaro de que el se mantiene; y si el no
pace la yerva del campo, pacela el ganado, de que el tiene
necessidad._
My reason for transcribing this sentence in its original language, is
that by so doing I might confer a great act of kindness upon every
Roman Catholick who reads the present Chapter. For be it known unto
every such reader, that by perusing it, he becomes entitled to an
indulgence of an hundred days, granted by D. Pasqual Aragon, Cardinal
by the Title of Santa Balbina, and Archbishop of Toledo; and moreover
to eighteen several indulgences of forty days each, granted by
eighteen most illustrious and most reverend Lords Archbishops and
Bishops; such indulgences having been proclaimed, _para los que
leyeren, ò oyeren leer qualquier capitulo, parrafo, ò periodo de lo
que escrivio el dicho V. P. M. Fray Luis de Granada._
It might be a question for the casuists whether a good papist reading
the paragraph here presented to him, and not assenting to the opinion
expressed therein would be entitled to this discount of eight hundred
and twenty days from his time due in Purgatory. But if he accords with
the Venerable Dominican, he can no more doubt his own right to
participate in the Episcopal and Archiepiscopal grants, than he can
call in question the validity of the grants themselves.
CHAPTER CLXIV.
AN ENQUIRY, IN THE POULTRY-YARD, INTO THE TRUTH OF AN OPINION
EXPRESSED BY ARISTOTLE.
This is some liquor poured out of his bottle;
A deadly draught for those of Aristotle.
J. C. sometime of M. H. Oxon.
Aristotle was of opinion that those animals which have been tamed, or
are capable of being so, are of a better nature, or higher grade, than
wild ones, and that it is advantageous for them that they should be
brought into subjection by man, because under his protection they are
safe.
_Τὰ μὲν γὰρ ἣμερα τῶν αγριων βελτίω την φυσιν, τούτοις δε πασι βέλτιον
αρχεσθαι ὐπ᾿ ανθρωπου, τυγχάνει γαρ σωτηρίας οὕτως._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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