their utility, or according to the natural gradations of being._
For, among those beings which exist, and which are not of God
the Creator's essence, those which have life are ranked above
those which have none; those that have the power of generation,
or even of desiring, above those which want this faculty. And,
among things that have life, the sentient are higher than those
which have no sensation, as animals are ranked above trees. And,
among the sentient, the intelligent are above those that have not
intelligence,--men, _e.g._, above cattle. And, among the intelligent,
the immortal, such as the angels, above the mortal, such as men.
These are the gradations according to the order of nature; but
according to the utility each man finds in a thing, there are various
standards of value, so that it comes to pass that we prefer some
things that have no sensation to some sentient beings. And so strong
is this preference, that, had we the power, we would abolish the
latter from nature altogether, whether in ignorance of the place they
hold in nature, or, though we know it, sacrificing them to our own
convenience. Who, _e.g._, would not rather have bread in his house
than mice, gold than fleas? But there is little to wonder at in
this, seeing that even when valued by men themselves (whose nature
is certainly of the highest dignity), more is often given for a
horse than for a slave, for a jewel than for a maid. Thus the reason
of one contemplating nature prompts very different judgments from
those dictated by the necessity of the needy, or the desire of the
voluptuous; for the former considers what value a thing in itself has
in the scale of creation, while necessity considers how it meets its
need; reason looks for what the mental light will judge to be true,
while pleasure looks for what pleasantly titillates the bodily sense.
But of such consequence in rational natures is the weight, so to
speak, of will and of love, that though in the order of nature angels
rank above men, yet, by the scale of justice, good men are of greater
value than bad angels.