SOME PROMINENT EVILS 289 



assertion : " The present condition of the more 

 highly organized domestic animals is in many ways 

 very analogous to that of the slaves of a hundred 

 years ago. Look back, and you will find in their case 

 precisely the same exclusion ; and, as a consequence, 

 the same deliberate stubborn denial of their social 

 rights. Look back, for it is well to do so; and then 

 look forward, and the moral can hardly be mis- 

 taken." 



The whole structure of society is based on the 

 fact of human responsibility. If men are not ac- 

 countable for their actions, then there can be no 

 justice, no law, no assurance of the rights of the op- 

 pressed and suffering. Hence the necessity for laws 

 to punish those who cannot be persuaded by gentle 

 means. "Without the prevalence of laws to restrain 

 the vicious, civil government could not exist. 



Some persons may try to evade the moral re- 

 sponsibility portrayed in this unpretending volume ; 

 but a guilty conscience will not allow them to do 

 so. No person can see intense suffering with the 

 power to relieve it, and not do so, unless his con- 

 science is seared with the blackest of crimes and 

 the most dissolute cruelties. 



In conclusion, and with direct reference to the 



