214 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



and unassociated to any great extent with the large fears and 

 anticipations which in the case of man form so considerable a 

 part of his torment when in face of death. 



The question of vivisection is but a part, indeed a very 

 small part, of the much larger problem as to the relation of 

 men to the lower life which is about them in their fields and 

 in the wilderness. An approximate census of the species 

 now on the earth shows that the number is between two and 

 three million. In the presence of this host, we have to rec- 

 ognize that each of the innumerable individuals in its lifetime 

 is a record of toil and pain the history of which .extends 

 backward to the beginnings of life. In this wonderful living 

 world man has trodden ruthlessly, for the reason that he has 

 no sense as to the dignity of the field. In the manner of a 

 vandal, he has slain for profit or sport. He has been so 

 effectual a destroyer that species, genera, and even families 

 of animals have been ruthlessly swept away. The revelation 

 of natural science, of the men of the knife who are so hated 

 by some well-meaning but misdirected people, have now and 

 only in our day brought us to a point where the sense of 

 nature in its organic aspect begins to penetrate the minds 

 of men. The revelation is so vast in its contents and its 

 imports, the conceptions which rest upon it are so greatly 

 enlarging to the. human soul, that we may be sure of the 

 wide and swift extension of the new light. It cannot be 

 questioned that the clearer insight will rapidly change the 

 attitude of men toward all living beings. We can in a way 

 discern some of the conceptions as to the rights of the other 

 life which will be enforced on mankind. 



It is likely that the first step into the new field of human 

 duty, due to our better understanding as to our place in 



