PREFATORY 



Is it not strange that neither religion nor the lack of it, 

 neither that which holds out hopes of immortality to man, 

 nor that which steals the last star from the night surround- 

 ing him, should concern itself at all with the future o 

 animal life ? 



But is it not still more strange that we, to whom the 

 kindly companionship and help of animals is a present 

 necessity, should be content in that possible future to accept 

 winged beasts and pale white horses as equivalents for our 

 dear familiar friends ? 



Strange indeed ! And to the mind of one fellow mortal 

 so ungrateful that before Death comes to her, bringing that 

 perfect equality which belongs to all mortals in the moment 

 of their dying at any rate, she sets down here no collection 

 of animal stories told to provoke tears or laughter from man, 

 woman, or child, but a fair and square record of the many 

 benefits which humanity has taken thoughtlessly, thanklessly, 

 from the " lower animals." 



Such a record also of the virtues and vices they have 

 displayed in this servitude as will be admitted for com- 

 parative evidence in the great trial of "Immortal Man" 

 versus " The Beasts that Perish," which quite surely will 

 come before the Great Assize. 



