DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS 29 



emigrant trains across the boundless prairies, through the 

 bottomless "sloughs" and over the Great Divide. " Westward 

 the course of empire takes its way " would never have had its 

 full meaning for us, except for the thousands of cattle that 

 dropped by the wayside and left their bones bleaching on the 

 prairies beside those of the buffalo relative, as tribute to the 

 march of civilization westward. 1 



The development of South Africa is yet almost unwritten 

 history. 2 Here no animal but the ox can endure the endless 

 toil of the treeless plain, and he has been the constant attendant 

 of the Boer from the Great Trek till the present, as he is 

 likely to be for a considerable time to come. 

 y Nothing is more common than for people that have become 

 prosperous to forget, even perhaps to despise, the very means 

 by which their prosperity came about, — to overlook the means 

 in the enjoyment of results. These animals literally give their 

 lives to our service, with no returns but feed and care, a fact 

 which raises the question of our natural obligation in exacting 

 this service. We are practicing upon them the " law of the 

 wild " even yet. Doubtless the end justifies the means, and 

 without a doubt it is right to use our animals to our own ad- 

 vantage, but every law, both human and divine, forbids that 

 we abuse them. 



In a large measure life in any form is a sacred thing. A 

 man's horse or cow belongs to him only in the restricted sense 

 that he is entitled to the service, and if necessary the life, only 

 when he provides generously for the needs of the animal and 

 surrounds it by as much comfort as possible. At best our ani- 

 mals are bits of God's creation which we are entitled to appro- 

 priate and use only under terms which we can justify before 

 Him who is the judge of all. 



1 Even the first material for the Union Pacific was hauled by oxen, so that 

 the ox gave his labor as the buffalo gave his flesh, and both gave their lives to 

 this first connection between the East and the West. 



2 See James Bryce's " Impressions of South Africa," an excellent book 

 dealing with primitive conditions. 



