210 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 





least, be merciful unto his beasts. With this limitation the 

 rights of domesticated animals began to exist. 



At first sight it may seem unreasonable to found the 

 rights of dumb beasts on the embodiment of public opinion 

 in the law, and this for the reasons that many persons have 

 held, that rights have an establishment in the ultimate moral 

 constitution of the world. It may be granted that even 

 before man or even life existed in the universe there were 

 certain 'logical moral principles which were destined to take 

 shape when the creatures to which they were adapted came 

 to be ; but such speculations are fanciful and do not much 

 concern those who are dealing with the problems of the 

 barnyard. We may, to bring the matter nearer, say that 

 the slave of half a century ago had a right to be free ; but 

 this right, in all practical senses, meant only that certain 

 people very much disliked to see him enthralled. 



So far, by successive stages, first by accumulated public 

 opinion and then by its embodiment in statutes, we have won 

 a measure of protection to subjugated animals which tends 

 to save them from the extremer forms of cruelty. The ques- 

 tion now is as to the advances which may be made in the 

 time to come. It is evident that these advances, so far as the 

 domesticated species are concerned, will have to be limited 

 by the needs of man. We cannot ever expect to have the 

 reverence of the Hindoo for the lower animals, for the reason 

 that his state of mind is based on the preposterous supposi- 

 tion that the beast contains the spirit of a man on its way 

 through the cycles towards perfection. We must continue 

 to burthen, tax, and slay ; but we may fairly be required to 

 inflict no unnecessary suffering. In this process of amend- 

 ment we shall undoubtedly before long come to the point 



