THE RIGHTS OF ANIMALS 205 



carefully into the intellectual and moral steps which have 

 at length brought us to the consideration of the question. 

 First let us note that while the rights of their fellows have 

 been impressed on men by the precepts of religions, particu- 

 larly by those of Christianity, the rules of conduct which 

 guide us in our contacts with beings below the level of our 

 species have never been determined by the canons of our 

 faith, for the reason that they are the product of very modern 

 conditions ; they are the thought of our own time. New as are 

 these tenets, however, they may fairly be received as but the 

 last though not the final expression of that most interesting 

 of all natural series — the succession in the development of 

 sympathy which, step by step in the progress of organic life, 

 has led from the original dull insensitiveness of the lower 

 animals upwards to the outgoing spirit of man. 



In the lower stages of animal life we find no traces of 

 appreciation of the neighbor except those which necessarily 

 relate to the selection and capture of food and perhaps to 

 the selection of mates. Further on in the process of de- 

 velopment we note the love of offspring, and, as a conse- 

 quence of that love, the growth of the family sense, which 

 rarely is maintained beyond the time when the young can 

 shift for themselves. Among the species of the higher 

 groups — certain insects, the greater part of the birds, and 

 the nobler of the mammals — the instinct of the family is 

 extended until it includes the tribe, or perhaps goes yet further 

 and leads to a certain kindliness to all the individuals of 

 the race. Thus it comes about that the individuals of many 

 species below the level of man will respond to the cries of 

 their kindred though they may never have had a chance to 

 know them. There is in these cases a sympathetic bond that 



