Zoology as Related to Evolution. 229 



whole energy to perform the task put upon him. I am not ashamed 

 to say, then, and you will not be surprised to hear me say, that when 

 in later life the burden has been great, the road long, and the lash of 

 brutality has seemed about to strike, I have sometimes thought of 

 that noble horse, his great endurance, his unconquerable pride, his 

 spirit and his fidelity, as supplying examples not unworthy to be 

 cherished and followed. Indeed, I presume the question must have 

 arisen in the minds of most of us : Would not the state of the world 

 be greatly better than it is if men had lived and done r.s nearly up to 

 their capacity and duty as some animals constantly do I 



My own early experiences, then, join with evolution in teaching me 

 that character is a common possession of men and animals ; and also, 

 possibly in rudimentary form, of vegetal life as well. I should say that 

 all three belong not to the " Kingdom," but to the Republic of Nature, 

 if evolution and its necessary implications are true. In that republic 

 equal justice to all is the ruling principle, as in all other republics. 

 The essayist has suggested that in the " good time coming " animals 

 will not be slaughtered for food as they now are. It is by no means 

 the least function of applied evolution to effect the accomplishment of 

 this result, and also to transfix and overthrow the Malthusian dragon 

 that in so many other directions blocks the way not only of human 

 life, but of all life and societary progress. 



I thoroughly believe, with the essayist, that when the time shall 

 have come in which justice shall in universal practice be done to ani- 

 mal and plant life, the vegetal world will furnish, and best furnish, 

 the necessary foods for men of the highest possible development, and 

 that not till then shall we have " Peace on sarth, good will to men," and 

 to every living thing, in the most complete sense of the word " living." 

 In fact, it is one of the lessons of the gospel of evolution that if man 

 had been as true to the law and the opportunity of his being as ani- 

 mals and plants have been to theirs, we should now be approaching 

 that better and possible Eden which is already disclosed as we look 

 steadily and carefully along the evolutionary vista. Indeed, it is my 

 own firm belief that it was along a similar vista the incomparable 

 man was looking when he said, ages ago, " The kingdom of Heaven is 

 at hand." 



It seems to me, however, that the animal belongs to a class the 

 future of which may be said to be in the main behind it. Wild ani- 

 mals certainly disappear before advancing civilization, and they re- 

 appear again before retreating civilization. They have even disap- 

 peared before it already to some extent, and apparently must do so in 

 the evolutionary civilization we ought to have ; and so do domestic 

 animals in proportion as, through invention, machines and other prod- 



