INTRODUCTION 



Mr. Garner's book needs no introduction. By this I 

 mean that I think that no intelligent person will open into 

 it without wishing to read more and more. The book is 

 its own introduction. 



I write these lines, not so much to explain what the 

 book is as to introduce Mr. Garner himself to people who 

 do not know him, that they may thank him for the step 

 forward which he has made and is making. 



It is hardly half a century since one of the highest 

 authorities in the Church of England told us that animals 

 have no rights whatever, and that men should be kind to 

 them simply for the reason that it was desirable that men 

 should improve their own characters. If I tied a tin pail 

 to a dog's tail, I injured my character. If I patted the 

 dog on the head, I improved my character. " See all things 

 for my use," — this was really the motto of a book of 

 ethics somewhat famous in its day. 



Happily the world has lived beyond such a crusty self- 

 ishness as this, — happily, perhaps, not for mankind only. 

 Happily for our thought of the universe in which we live, 

 men have found out that they have duties towards animals 

 as they have duties towards each other, — say that in a 

 certain sense we are the gods of animals, to whom they 



