A sentimental view of vivisection / by Mona Caird.

  • Caird, Mona.
Date:
[1894?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A sentimental view of vivisection / by Mona Caird. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    would, assuredly, have been the feeling of the mortified parent, whose very daughters witnessed, with delight, the combats of the amphitheatre, and turned down their thumbs, when the wounded gladiators looked up to them, in a last hope of mercy, in a manner worthy of their iron-hearted race. “ Everybody ” went to the amphitheatre, and, obviously, “ everybody ” could not be barbarous and inhuman. The Christians never were more useful in their lives than when providing amusement to the assembled city. Unjustifiable to use them as fodder for lions ? Stuff and nonsense ; the Gods had provided them for the purpose ; besides they were a tiresome, agitating people, and most irreligious; so un¬ orthodox ! Their attitude towards the Gods was simply shocking. And they disturbed the peace of the Empire. One really had no patience with this young upstart who presumed to set himself up as a judge of the conduct of all Rome. Who was he forsooth, that he should object to in¬ stitutions which the wisest men approved and supported ? Besides it was such “bad form.” And well-bred Rome arranged its toga with an approved gesture, and ordered its chariot for the next performance at the amphitheatre. Since this ill-starred youth was sufficiently sensitive to feel disgusted at sights that all his world approved, he must have suffered keenly from the lack of sympathy and the scorn that he would meet on every hand ; and when he saw the generous and humane Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, among the supporters of the fashionable barbarities, one may suppose that he felt solitary indeed in his conviction, and ready, at times, to doubt his own sanity, or at any rate, to fear that he must be lacking in manly qualities, since everyone whom he most respected, sneered at his scruples and tried to shake him out of his hyper-sensitiveness. And probably his mentors succeeded. If our hypothetical youth ever existed, (as in all likelihood, he did exist and suffer, in obscurity and soli¬ tude), he was probably convinced, as he grew older and more accustomed to the standards and sentiments of his time, that