484 Life and Immortality. 



are indestructible, as far as we know, it is difficult to believe 

 that the span which gives to their union life, memory, 

 affection, intelligence and fidelity is evanescent. 



" Every atom in the human frame, as well as in that of ani- 

 mals, undergoes a periodical change by continual waste and 

 renovation : the abode is changed, not its inhabitant. If 

 animals have no future, the existence of many is most wretched. 

 Multitudes are starved, cruelly beaten, and loaded during 

 life ; many die under a barbarous vivisection. 



*' I cannot believe that any creature was created for 

 uncompensated misery : it would be contrary to the attri- 

 butes of God's mercy and justice. I am sincerely happy to 

 find that I am not the only believer in the immortality of the 

 lower animals." 



To have given the many opinions that have been expressed 

 by the good and wise of the past in favor of the belief that 

 animals received, in common with man, a particle of the 

 divine essence, and hence became immortal, would have 

 extended this chapter beyond intended limits. We have 

 room for just another witness. No one is better known for 

 his convictions upon this subject than the late Dr. Wood, 

 whose contributions to natural history are known the world 

 over. Speaking of the death of his dog Rory, a creature 

 that manifested in the flesh the strongest affection for his 

 keeper, the Doctor says : 



" I could not believe that an animal which would die of 

 grief, as he died, for the absence of his master, would have his 

 existence limited to this present world, and that such inten- 

 sity of love should terminate at the same moment that the 

 material heart ceased to beat." 



When we think of the apparent inequality that is every- 

 where to be seen in the lives both of man and beast, we can- 

 not believe, as Mrs. Somerville has remarked, that any being 

 was " created for uncompensated misery." Some human 

 beings are endowed with everything that a man can desire 

 health, strength, riches, accomplishments and capacity for 



