204 THE IMMORTALITY OF ANIMALS 



Lower animals suffered with man in the fall. 

 They have perished with him in deluges, in confla- 

 grations, in famines, in pestilence, in destruction of 

 wars and have been his constant companion from 

 the day of his and their creation. As they have 

 attended man through all his history they will also 

 attend him in his final deliverance and be restored 

 when he is restored, and have a place in those 

 happy regions, where nature shall reassume the 

 splendor and elegance of primeval beauty, in the new 

 world which God has prepared for all His creatures. 



The attributes of God point out a continuation of 

 that mighty chain of living beings, which is the 

 astonishment of all contemplative minds. And 

 must there not be a huge chasm, and a vast defect 

 in the great cosmos, if all nature is to be radically 

 destroyed below man ? Must there not be want- 

 ing, on this hypothesis, myriads of creatures to 

 testify the excellence of the Creator ? What can 

 exhibit the perfection of infinite life, but the com- 

 munication of all possible degree of it ; of infinite 

 goodness, but the gift of all possible degree of hap- 

 piness ; and of infinite power, but all possible 

 varieties of beings, which can be conceived or 

 imagined ? 



