OF THE OX. 317 



As for us, we gladly believe that man, created 

 to be the sovereign lord of the earth, did not 

 originally receive the principle of every organic 

 disease with which we see him affected. It 

 seems to us probable that he was created sound 

 in body and in mind, but unequal in his vital 

 powers, and in his faculties and talents, the 

 social functions being various and dissimilar, 

 and subject to physical and moral infirmities. 

 We think it likely that plants and animals, 

 from which, in course of time, man's sub- 

 stance is formed, have transmitted the first 

 causes, the germs of some organic diseases with 

 which they were themselves affected. We see 

 in this transmission of animal diseases to man, 

 a connecting link, which appears to us to be a 

 condition of harmony, order, peace, and hap- 

 piness among all living beings. It seems to 

 us that the first injunction of a legislator 

 should be love other animals like yourselves ; 

 for if man had practised this maxim, he would 

 have logically applied the same to his fellow- 

 creatures ; and no doubt, with such principles 

 to guide them, past generations would not 

 have bequeathed to us the innumerable cala- 

 mities we have had to deplore. 



