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Untitled Article
There may be some mortal antipathies , instincts which have their use , but they are exceptions . Were it not so , which does it become man to followthe unthinking brute , or the intelligent Creator , whose tender mercies are over all his works ? Let him even consult his own nature . Cruelty is not natural to him . We may ever trace it to corruption and perversion . It is the abuse of coascious power , and nothing is more corrupting than
power : it corrupts governments , it corrupts religions , it corrupts man . The temptation is greatest with those unused to it , and who possess a much smaller share than those about them . Children often shew a propensity to hurt insects . Original sin , say the orthodox . There is no need for that solution . The suffering is not thought of ; is certainly not the source of the little tyrant ' s enjoyment . But this is perhaps the only case in whicb they have a living creature in their power , while they continually feel themselves
in the power of others . In this country the most offensive sights of this sort are the treatment of horses , &c , by servants and drivers . They flow from the same source , though not with the same excuse of ignorance . It is a libel on beasts to call this brutality ; we might as well call murder humanity . These are the only creatures which they command ; and they visit with interest the harshness of their superiors . « ' He my Neger , " said the black , as a triumphant vindication of the stripes he was showering on his ass . Example had made him regard this as a necessary demonstration of his " little brief authority . "
Interest is another common source of the mal-treatment of animals , especially in a commercial country . They are property , and the great question is how to make them the most valuable property . They are considered not merely as capable of being useful to man ( and generally with most enjoyment in that utility ) , sensible of pain and pleasure , and sent into the world by its Maker , their and our Maker , to have their measure of enjoyment , but as so much money ' s worth ; and if , even by agony , they can become so much more money ' s worth , why avarice promptly makes them so , and boasts of the increase .
Man ' s pleasure is often their pain . He plays on their antipathies ; and as their blood flows , and their limbs are mangled , he enjoys the excitement of the contest . Some species are only to be killed by amateur butchers . The enjoyment of the chase is about in proportion to the prolongation of the animal ' s suffering . Some are tortured to deal h to pamper the appetite by the flavour which their agonies impart . So far can pleasure blind and stifle to , all considerations but its own gratification . In warfare that generous animal , the horse , is doomed to exertions , toil , wounds , and slaughter , together with his master . But battles are the sacrifices of the evol principle , and groans the music of his worship , and it is fitjting $ at all shoukj correspond . We Yp £ ed not wonder that thes ^ motives should produce cruelty to animals when w ( e remettifrer . lha ^ tbsy h # ve had the same result as to our fellow-men . Often , haye ^ they t > e , efv maimed , sai ^ d slai n by the caprice of power , and
apparently , o ^ iy t , p shewi ^ s , extent . Tbey too have been property , their bones and sinejvs valued , audti ^ i f ^ a ^ ks -wor n by the lash , a . ndtpejr blood coine / J into gold . In the kojaan amphitheatres they were the vjctjini : to pleasure ; gladiators perished by thousands to make sport for the shouting multitude . In the Maroon war the runaway ^ and rebellious slaves were chased by bloodhounds , and there was the excitement of hunting men . What else indeed have wars often been but the mighty hunts of the Nimrods of the eartlfr ? The righteous man , according to the Jewish code , but who , with the
Untitled Article
322 Humanity to Animals .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1830, page 322, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2584/page/34/
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