56), that irrational beings (that is, animals) are things, and should therefore be treated simply as means, which are not at the same time ends. In harmony with this, it is expressly declared in the Metaphysische Anfanggr�nde der Tugendlehre, � 16: “A man can have no duties towards any being, except towards his fellow-men;” and then, � 17, we read: “To treat animals cruelly runs counter to the duty of man towards himself; because it deadens the feeling of sympathy for them in their sufferings, and thus weakens a natural tendency which is very serviceable to morality in relation to other men.” So one is only to have compassion on animals for the sake of practice, and they are as it were the pathological phantom on which to train one's sympathy with men!

In common with the whole of Asia