On Abstinence from Animal Food

...[living] beings, he treats it not so much in a Pythagorean Referring to the followers of Pythagoras, who were famous for their vegetarianism and belief in the transmigration of souls manner, as in a Platonic and, finally, a theological way. For although he pursues many points concerning the injustice done to animals and the power of unclean demons daemones: in Neoplatonic thought, these are intermediary spirits that could be influenced by physical substances; here, meat-eating is said to attract lower, "impure" spirits (which is secretly attracted by such bloody feasts), based on the decrees of the Pythagorean and Platonic schools and several others of this sort, all these things nevertheless point toward one purpose. As he himself also seems to interpret it, by diminishing our nourishment, the bond of the soul—which is the body—is thinned and weakened. In this way, the mind, released from the disturbances of the emotions, is able to ascend more freely to contemplate and enjoy divine things. Furthermore, by setting aside more luxurious feasts, a more easily obtained diet does not distract our attention from more serious matters, and every occasion for gluttony is cut away. This serves no other purpose than to demonstrate that the principle of fasting and abstinence is validated not only by divine law but also by natural law. To make everything more clearly understood, we thought it would be worthwhile to also translate the "Life of the Author" written by Eunapius Eunapius (c. 347 – after 414 AD) was a Greek historian whose "Lives of the Philosophers" is a primary source for the biographies of Neoplatonists like Porphyry and place it before the work itself.