Future Life. 489 



Concluding, then, let me say, I claim not for the lower 

 animals the slightest equality with man. What I claim for 

 them is a higher status in creation than is generally attributed 

 to them. I claim for them a future life, where they will 

 receive a just compensation for the sufferings which so 

 many of them have to undergo in this world. Most of the 

 cruelties which are perpetrated upon animals are due to the 

 habit which man has, in his exalted opinion of self, of con- 

 sidering them as mere automata, without susceptibilities, 

 without reason and without the capacity of a future. That 

 I have achieved the purpose, with which I set out, of proving 

 that all life is immortal, or that soul exists in plants and 

 animals, I think must be admitted. If this doctrine of 

 immortality shall have the effect of bringing about a more 

 humane treatment of the animals over which man has been 

 given dominion, and thus contribute, be it ever so little, 

 to their well-being and happiness, even in this life, then the 

 object attained will be felt to be a just and worthy recom- 

 pense for the thought and labor which have been expended 

 in its support and defence. Not alone are we of the upper 

 walks of being made the possessors of the inner life, but all 

 nature shares it in common with us, and love is its expres- 

 sion and the method of its action. 



THE END. 



