CRUELTY TO ANIMALS 



if that understanding compels us to recognize that 

 they have not our human consciousness is to 

 sympathize with their struggles and difficulties; 

 and the idea of being cruel to them, should you 

 entertain it for a moment, would betray to your 

 own mind your unfitness to regard yourself as a 

 civilized being. It would make you contemptible 

 in your own sight. 



When the true knowledge of nature is universal, 

 there will be no cruelty. 



Many people seem to think that this desirable ; - 

 state of things can be hurried on at once, and that/^<* fa 

 cruelty to animals can be suppressed by constant / \JL*e 

 appeals to sentiment. They therefore hold that it A, 

 is bad policy to reveal the truth that animals 

 other than man are not self-conscious because it' 

 will give the cruel an excuse to continue in their 

 cruelty. I have received numbers of letters saying/ 

 in effect : " No doubt your argument is perfectly 

 sound; but why publish it? Think of the harm 

 it will do ! " 



But all this is a mistake. No great cause can 

 be won on sentiment, which is matter of opinion ; 

 because human opinions must always vary. Logic 

 and truth, however, are arguments which no human 

 mind can resist: and when the truth has been uni- 

 versally understood and acknowledged that our 

 human consciousness is that in which we bear the 



[169] 



