MAN'S DOMINION OVER ANIMALS 5 



to the surface and the climate. The air was peopled 

 with busy tribes to wander through its boundless space ; 

 the waters teemed with life ; and myriads of insects danced 

 in the sun. There was no spot or object, however insigni- 

 ficant, upon the surface of the earth that was not peopled 

 with tiny denizens to play their part in the great plan 

 of the Creator. Every leaf from a tree is a whole world, 

 and every drop of water a vast ocean to the mites that 

 inhabit them. 



But the crowning work of creation was only accom^ 

 plished in the production of man, the image of the Creator 

 Himself, the last and most excellent of God's mighty 

 works. Of all beings man is the most highly organised ; 

 he possesses the quality of sentience in the most marked 

 degree. To him was given dominion over the whole of 

 the animal world. ' Every moving thing that liveth shall 

 be meat for you ; even as the green herb have I given 

 you all things,' says the Word of God. 



If animals were able to express themselves in speech, 

 they could assure us that man compels them to con- 

 tribute themselves not only to his larder, but to provide 

 material for numerous of his other wants and comforts, 

 to say nothing of ministering to his amusements and even 

 his pride. There is scarcely anything that possesses life 

 which man does not press into his service for food. So far 

 as the reader is concerned it would not be a difficult matter 

 to enumerate the animal flesh of which he partakes from 

 one year's end to another, but that is only because other 

 animal food does not come within his economic range ; 

 and thus the Englishman does not dine off the flesh of the 

 Polar bear for exactly the same reason that the Eskimo 

 abstains from roast beef. The British liking for beef is 

 a national characteristic, but the Hindu reverences the 

 cow and would not defile himself by eating its flesh ; 

 the Siamese abstain from taking the life of any animal, 

 but there is scarcely any creature that creeps or crawls 

 of which they will not partake, if only it has died a natural 

 death. The horse is par excellence our beast of burden, 

 but though at one time Christianity rejected horseflesh, 

 it is now the common food of some continental nations. 



