“Considering,” he said, “that the same Master hath given us lodging in this palace for his service, and that they belong, like us, to his family, Nature hath good reason to enjoin upon us some kind of esteem and affection towards them. ...
“Indeed, when all is said, there existeth a common human duty, a certain respect the which attacheth us not only to the beasts who have life and sentiment, but even to the trees and plants. We owe justice to men, and grace and benignity to the other creatures, who are not capable of justice. There is a sort of intercourse between them and us, and a sort of mutual obligation.”*
Seven centuries before Montaigne, an Irish monk driven onto the Continent by Viking raiders had written of his own feline companion: see .