deny that.

SOCRATES--And there are no living things except the gods, mankind, the
lower animals, and plants.

PHAEDO--I agree to that.

SOCRATES--And it is plain that the gods did not build the earth for
themselves, for they do not live upon it, except on Olympus, and nowhere
does the earth produce ambrosia and nectar, which are the food of the
gods.

PHAEDO--That is true, for the gods live in the heavens and in the nether
world, and not upon the earth.

SOCRATES--And the plants do not use the earth, or enjoy it, although
they live upon it, but they are themselves used and enjoyed by man and
beasts.

PHAEDO--Certainly the earth was not made for the plants.

SOCRATES--And surely as between man and the lower animals, the earth was
intended for man.

PHAEDO--Certainly, that is what we think, but I do not know what the
lion and the horse and the ox might say, for they certainly use the
earth and enjoy it.

SOCRATES--But man is superior to the lower animals, and the superior
cannot be subordinate to the inferior.

PHAEDO--I do not know how we can tell which is superior. The primordial
cell in differentiating out of homogeneity into heterogeneity developed
different qualities in different beings, and of the organs integrated
from the heterogeneous elements each has its use and many are essential
to life. In man the brain is more powerful than in the ox, but in the ox
the stomach is more powerful than the brain, and while both stomach and
brain are necessary, yet is one with a weak brain and strong stomach
doubtless happier than one with a weak stomach and strong brain. Is it
not, then, true that the stomach is nobler than the brain, and if so,
then the pig and the lion and the goat, which have strong stomachs,
nobler than man, whose stomach could in nowise digest carrion, or
alfalfa, or tin cans, and therefore may it not be that the earth was
made for the lower animals, who can use more of its products than man?

SOCRATES--That is a deep thought, O Phaedo, which shows that you are
well up in your Spencer, although shy in your surgery, for it is true
that the stomach has been removed from a man who lived happy ever after,
while neither man nor beast ever lived a minute after his brains were
knocked out; but, is it not true that it is by the function of the brain
that man makes his powers more effective than those of animals stronger
than he, so that he is able to bear rule over all the lower animals and
either