The Book of Montaigne 4 · Written in his tower, from his Essays
This man wrote his own book, so nothing here is another man’s record of him. He differs from the rest of this scripture: the others set down what they believed, and he sets down what he is. Where he contradicts himself he did not strike it out, and neither does this scripture.
4.1I hold cruelty to be the ugliest of all the vices.
4.2For the others I might find something to say. For this one I can find nothing.
4.3In our own age men make war, and killing is not enough — they must watch a man die slowly, and invite others to watch.
4.4I cannot bear to watch even a chicken killed.
4.5Some laugh at me for softness. I do not argue.
4.6I say only this: a man who can watch suffering with an itch of pleasure in him has something worse in him than any single act he has done.
4.7I am the same about animals.
4.8A stag run to exhaustion turns and pleads with the men hunting it, by the only means it has — its tears.
4.9I will not take that quarry.
4.10Someone says: animals are not men.
4.11I say: between us and them one thing is held in common — we all feel pain.
4.12I set this down not to establish a great principle. I cannot establish one.
4.13I simply will not watch. I write it so that you know there is a man who will not watch.
4.14If a principle requires me to watch another die slowly before it makes sense, I do not want that principle.