suffering, for then the pleasure they talk of would have 

 vanished in the memory of those quivering visions of the 

 unhappiness or torture of dumb creatures. Out of sheer 

 sluggishness of imagination, out of mere laziness of 

 mind, then, is made that truly pitiable plea — our pleasure 

 is greater than their suffering. 



Yes! Nearly all the suffering we inflict, whether on 

 human beings or on animals, comes from our not 

 thinking. I know, of course, that many people gravely 

 distrust that practice. For all that, I venture to suggest 

 that a little more thought will do no harm to any of us. 



Friends, we pass this way but once, but once tread 

 this world, but once live in communion with these furred 

 and feathered things, many of them so beautiful, in a 

 thousand ways so like ourselves, often so friendly if we 

 would let them be, and yet who, one and all, are so 

 simple and so helpless in the face of our force and 

 ingenuity. Shall we, as, each one of us, we pass out, 

 say : '* I have lived my life as a true lord of creation, 

 taking toll from the captivities and sufferings of every 

 creature that had not my strength and cunning ! '' 

 Or shall we pass out with the thought : ** God forgive 

 me, if I have given more pain than I could help to any 

 sentient thing ! " 



JOHN GALSWORTHY. 



