“Dispositions sanguinary in regard to other animals testify a natural inclination to cruelty towards their own kind. After they had accustomed themselves at Rome to the spectacle of the murders [_meurtres_] of other animals, they proceeded to those of men and gladiators. Nature has, I fear, herself attached some instinct of inhumanity to man’s disposition. No one derives any amusement from seeing other animals enjoy themselves and caressing one another; and no one fails to take pleasure in seeing them torn in pieces and dismembered. That I may not [he is cautious enough to add] be ridiculed for this sympathy which I have for them, even theology enjoins some respect for them,[112] and considering that one and the same Master has lodged us in this palatial world for his service, and that they are, as we, members of His family, it is right that it should enjoin some respect and affection towards them.” Quoting instances of the extreme respect in which some of the non-human races were held by people in Antiquity,[113] and Plutarch’s interpretation of the meaning of the divine honours sometimes paid to them--that they adored certain qualities in them as types of divine faculties--Montaigne declares for himself that:-- “When I meet, amongst the more moderate opinions, arguments which go to prove our close resemblance to other animals, and how much they share in our greatest privileges, and with how much of probability they are compared to us, of a truth I abate much from our common presumption, and willingly abdicate that _imaginary_ royalty which they assign us over other beings.” Wiser than the majority in later times, Montaigne well rebukes the arrogant presumption of the human animal who affects to hold all other life to be brought into being for his sole use and pleasure:--