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larger allowance of our laws , must be merciful , has too keen a perception of suffering to enter into these pleasures . His palate has no relish for the delicacies of torture ; and he can take wholesome exercise without making it the flight for life of a harmless creature . He knows that man is the lord of all ; but that mercy is the charter of his sovereignty , and its exercise essential to his title to dominion . To clear so much money is not with
him an incontrovertible vindication of causing so much pain . He has pleasure in seeing pleasure . His heart gladdens within him as he walks forth and sees earth , air , and sea , all full of life , and full of joy . He says with Paley , " It is a happy world after all . " And be is happy that it is so . He would make it more so . As the Celts passed not without throwing their stone to increase the monumental pile of the dead , so he casts his benevolent contribution to the mass of living joy . He bows to the necessity of pain and
slaughter , but thinks there is an equal necessity for life and pleasure . The humanity of the Jewish law is not with him one of the beggarly elements to pass away . He obeys its spirit without a penalty ; perhaps pays for his observance the penalty of a little ridicule from the less scrupulous . —Now this is humanity , viz . human nature . It is merely acting up to what our hearts teach us , when they are unperverted by passion within or the world without . We cannot agree with the philosophers who resolve all acts of
kindness into selfishness , who say that man only relieves a beggar because he may himself become one , or that beggar be of service to him . The foundation is deeper than this . There is a provision for benevolence in our frame . There is a mechanical provision for it . The sight of torture produces sensations in some measure corresponding with those of the sufferer . The screams of a dying animal are no natural music , though habit may make
them not shocking . We have seen that cruelty may be traced to the mightiest motives that operate on man . The formidable array of the triumphant army shews the resistance it had to overcome . Unless nature had been the enemy , the feeblest inducements would have claimed their place in the enumeration . In human nature , then , considered absolutely , we find one reason of the fact that " the righteous man regardeth the life of his beast . "
We find another , in human nature considered relatively to inferior natures . Man is a God to them . He may not have the swiftness of one , or the strength of another , but he can check that swiftness and command that strength . Knowledge is his power , and reason the basis of his throne . Like others , he has the consciousness of superiority ; he aims at his own interest ; he loves pleasure , and he can strive in the contest which he deems honourable ; but in him all these are modified by the genuine dictates of his nature
and his princi p les , i . e . by benevolence : and hence , instead of inciting to cruelty , they dispose him to compassion and care . They make him a benefactor even of brutes . He feels that he has power ; that they are comparatively helpless ; and therefore he protects instead of injuring . Their very feebleness is a safeguard . The general horror at any one who would hurt an infant is an : Emanation from this principle . The child is strong in its
weakness , and secure in its defencelessness . ' Its inability to resist is an appeal which ( with the etception of the most depraVed ) paralyzes all hands and softens alf liearts . He feels this appeal from ten thousand creatures , whose sengatioris , through all their extent , he ' could annihilate . With him ' tis excellent to have a giant ' s strength , but tyrannous to use it like a erant . And i f his power can be put forth for good , nothing lives too mean For its
. As to his interest , he thinks it not merely his interest to amass rjehes , but to
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Humanity to Animals . 323
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1830, page 323, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2584/page/35/
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