Imagine that you are creating a fabric of human destiny with the object of making men happy in the end, giving them peace and rest at last, but that It was essential and inevitable to torture to death only one tiny creature. . . and to found that edifice on its unavenged tears, would you consent to be the architect on those conditions?
For my own part I would as soon be descended from that heroic little monkey, who braved his dreaded enemy in order to save the life of his keeper; or from that old baboon, who, descending from the mountains, carried away in triumph his young comrade from a crowd of astonished dogs – as from a savage who delights to torture his enemies, offers up bloody sacrifices, practices infanticide without remorse, treats his wives like slaves, knows no decency, and is haunted by the grossest superstitions.