INFELICITY OF ANIMALS 20Q 



Neither man nor lower animals are immortal by 

 any choice or knowledge they may have on the 

 subject. It is a direct gift from the Creator to His 

 creatures, and lie cannot give it to one without 

 giving to all, unless He is partial in His beneficence. 

 It is certain that the future life of animals cannot 

 be absolutely denied without impeaching the attri- 

 butes of God. It reflects upon His goodness to 

 suppose that He gave to animals their sensitive 

 nervous systems ; intellectual capacities for love, 

 devotion, and happiness and then subjected them to 

 pain and sorrow without recompense. It reflects 

 upon His wisdom that He should form them for the 

 miserable duration of a moment, without leaving 

 Himself the power to extend their existence, or 

 to better their condition. It reflects upon His 

 love, that He should expose them to the horrible 

 evils of nature, and the cruel treatment of superior 

 beings, which a tender disposition would be con- 

 cerned to remedy or prevent. It reflects upon His 

 justice, to suppose that He would destroy without a 

 recompense, creatures that He had brought into a 

 state of infelicity and capacitated for everlasting 

 happiness. All of these conditions would reflect 

 upon God's attributes did He not place all His 



