250 THE IMMORTALITY OF ANIMALS 



which sympathy and hope are fitted to in- 

 spire. 



When men are called to endure agonizing tor- 

 ture it is seldom that they have not some one to 

 sympathize with their sorrows, and to do all that 

 tenderness and pity can do to alleviate their distress. 



But the animals unsupported, unsoothed, solitary 

 and silent must bear their heaviest burdens and en- 

 dure their greatest agony. There is no one to be- 

 stow upon them a word or look of pity. 



It is impossible to estimate the obligations under 

 which we are laid to the animals, for the numerous 

 ways in which they minister to our happiness ; and 

 what I contend for is that these ministrations 

 should be secured with the least possible expense of 

 suffering. Animals doomed to slaughter should 

 be slain by the least painful and the least pro- 

 tracted process of dying ; those subject to us 

 for labor should be treated with gentleness and 

 nourished with care ; noxious animals and those 

 that men have found it necessary to destroy, should 

 be destroyed without any uncalled for suffering ; 

 while the insects which flutter in the air should be 

 exempt from cruelty, and treated with mercy. All 

 living things are objects of God's peculiar care. If 



