238 THE IMMORTALITY OF ANIMALS 



on them unnecessary pain. It is inhuman and bar- 

 barous to prolong their suffering by carelessness, or 

 for selfish purposes, or for amusement. Though 

 man claims the right to destroy certain noxious an- 

 imals, yet pity is due them also. To torture is un- 

 manly ; to tyrannize where there can be no resist- 

 ance, is the extreme of baseness. 



There is no sin so heinous, or one that has been 

 so little noticed and condemned by good people, as 

 that of cruelty to animals. It is true that the legis- 

 latures of some States, and the corporations of some 

 cities have taken the matter in hand, and have 

 made laws to prohibit some of the most prominent 

 exhibitions of wanton cruelty ; and societies for the 

 same purpose have been organized and supported by 

 some of the greatest and best men of our nation ; 

 yet this great and much needed reform is only in 

 its infancy. "We could recall the names of many 

 who have given the better part of their lives to 

 mitigate the cruelties practiced on animals. Is it 

 not a brave and noble thing upon their part to 

 have stood so many years between the oppressors 

 and their quivering victims and to have borne so 

 long the contempt and ridicule of a great majority of 

 people who claim to belong to a Christian country ? 



