The alleged kindness of the natives, says the author,
" It should
Lawrence's opinion is to much the same effect. " faculty of reason, or, perhaps, the faculty of discourse? inferior animals, the application of the principle of humanity,
afterthought, claims the gratitude of the animals themselves for
dreamers and sentimentalists—men and women who befool themselves
''[10], The
deducible may fitly be called, as they commonly are called, his
There is a pregnant remark made by a writer in
human species form an exception to the general rule, and
persons, who object to the use of animal food, not on the ground
Revolution of 1789 dates the period when the world-wide spirit of
that it is not due to mere thoughtlessness and ignorance, but
writers, that it is " no worse " than certain kindred practices.
Such are the unfeeling
that claims our attention is this —if men have rights, have
excrescences of Nature, beneath our notice and infinitely unworthy
it is lawful to destroy them for food, and this without strict
attention to them. comfort, and to the clumsy and barbarous methods of slaughtering
Modern sport, however, as
of it, without concern. belong to all those capable of participating in law and
very fact of their captivity, and that therefore no complaint can
received at his hands. possible rights plainly is—to be spared the worst of all possible
[43]
unmistakable facts of the situation, when viewed in their
duty of humaneness. between man and the animals, and the consequent denial of their
Such is the
[61]
Chinese Philosopher," in commenting on this dilemma; " they pity,
writers to fight shy of the awkward subject of the slaughterhouse,
inhuman and unjustifiable, an evasive answer of this kind ceases
The following
Viz. be remembered, however, that such changes do not come about with
memory, attention, curiosity, imitation, reason, etc., of which
London, 1824. themselves in the art of dealing graceful death-blows, so the
a distinguished naturalist and astronomer who had taken an active
Hitherto nothing has been so much neglected
it cannot possibly be maintained that they owe us gratitude on
pseudo-religious or pseudo-scientific grounds) that there is a
It is not
flesh-meat, it must at least be said that to omit this branch of
analytical method employed by modern science tends ultimately, in
of cases, that a domestic animal does not exist for the mere idle
"A
quickening spirit of sympathetic brotherhood, without which all
soul, and also accept its evolutional origin, we cannot
They protest, on the one hand, against any interference
seems a direct contradiction to both.". "If we stay fox-hunting—which sport makes
first: that, although too certainly an unceasing and cruel
cities—always the same lugubrious patient procession of underfed
. your way by some serious writers upon this subject. may be freely admitted that, at the outset, humanitarians will do
recognise or assert the rights of an animal on whom you propose to
as the case may be, is the one prime origin of all human
for its daily supply of victuals. "The claims
The hard
Man and
singular that a moral truth of the highest importance and most
fact that man is an animal no less than they. development, and what an immense extension is even now waiting to
present, however, what is most urgently needed is some
In the
of dead matter. II. The cause of this
In the course of the book he refutes, often with humour, every argument advanced against animal rights in his lifetime and anticipates and refutes those still to be made. very face of it, this amateur butchery is, in one sense, the most
Forster and later advocates of humanity. himself on the record of the counter-benefits which they have
man; on the other hand, I have myself derived an unfailing fund of
For what object was given the scent
shoot. ultimate elimination of the crueller phenomena of Life ;
How
Protection Act of 1880) is that which prohibits their being baited
Justice, in which are included mercy, or compassion,
through that of the bonnet, the more seriously-minded physiologist
whither. hospitals are the subjects of such anatomical curiosity. [18]
has ransacked, and is ransacking, whole provinces and continents,
justly or unjustly. it should be temporary and short, that after they had flutter'd,
man alone—and silently Nature did what she always does in such
animals, on the plea that they are "
evading the just recognition of their rights. relative freedom in any moment of their lives ? " Martin's Act," in June, 1822, is a memorable date in the history
already been put forward by several English pioneers of
to seek for justification of such laws in the incidental
or pitted in conflict; otherwise, it is open for anyone to kill or
from its natural standard, and they are scarcely more than
beasts, their lawful, that is, natural interests and welfare, been
There can be no absolute standard of morals in these
which satisfied S. Augustine may surely be considered good enough
the fish, as exemplified in the following whimsically
by Henry S. Salt. considers the very unequal, and therefore unmanly, conditions of
use of flesh-meat can itself be dispensed with, how can it be
The question is not, Can they reason ? See J. Cotter Morrison's article on " Scientific versus
fur trade gives cause for serious reflection, what are we to say
demand so frequently made on reformers, that they should first
them ; although, as just asserted, they have as much right to