262 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
The Butchers
AMONG those foolish pursuers of pleasure the people of Utopia
reckon all that delight in hunting, or gaming, of whose madness
they have only heard, for they have no such things among them.
But they have asked us : What sort of pleasure is it that men can
find in throwing the dice ? And what pleasure can one find in hearing
the barking and howling of dogs ? Nor can they comprehend the
pleasure of seeing dogs run after a hare, more than seeing one dog
run after another.
But if the pleasure lies in seeing the hare killed and torn by the
dogs this ought rather to sfcir pity that a weak, harmless and fearful
hare should be devoured by strong, fierce, and cruel dogs. Therefore
all this business of hunting is, among the Utopians, turned over to
their butchers, and the butchers are all slaves, and they look on
hunting as one of the basest parts of a butcher's work, for they account
it both more profitable and more decent to kill those beasts that are
more useful to mankind, whereas the killing and tearing of so small
and miserable an animal can only attract the huntsman with a false
show of pleasure, from which he can reap but small advantage.
They look on the desire of the bloodshed, even of beasts, as a mark of
a mind that is corrupted with cruelty, or that at least, by too frequent
returns of so brutal a pleasures must degenerate into it.
Sir Thomas More
Remember Thy Creator
TJ EMEMBER now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the
J[V evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt
say, I have no pleasure in them ;
While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not
darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain :
In the days when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the
strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they
are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened, and the
doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is
low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters
of musick shall be brought low ;
Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall
be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper
shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long
home and the mourners go about the streets :
Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken,
or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at
the cistern, Ecclesiastes