ANIMALS' RIGHTS. 
That there is pain and evil, is no rule 
That I should make it greater, like a fool. —Leigh Hunt. 
Never to blend our pleasure or our pride 
With sorrow of the meanest thing that feels. — Wordsworth. 
" TT GOOD man," said Plutarch, 
l\ "will take care of his Horses 
± \_ and Dogs, not only while they 
are young, but when old and 
past service." 
The organs of sense, and conse- 
quently feeling itself, are the same as 
they are in human creatures. I can't 
imagine how a man not hardened in 
blood and massacre is able to see a 
violent death, and the pangs of it, 
without concern. — Bernard de Mande- 
ville, 1723. 
However we may differ as to specu- 
lative points of religion, justice is a 
rule of universal extent and invariable 
obligation. See that no brute of any 
kind, whether intrusted to thy care or 
coming in thy way, suffer through thy 
neglect or abuse. Let no views of 
profit, no compliance with custom, and 
no fear of the ridicule of the world, even 
tempt thee to the least act of cruelty 
or injustice to any creature whatsoever. 
But let this be your invariable rule 
everywhere, and at all times, to do 
unto others as, in their condition, you 
would be done unto. — Humphry Pri- 
matt, D. D., 1776. 
But a full-grown Horse or Dog is, 
beyond comparison, a more rational, 
as well as more conversable animal 
than an infant of a day, a week, or even 
a month old. But suppose the case 
were otherwise, what would it avail? 
The question is not, Can they reason? 
nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer? 
— Jeremy Bentham, 1780. 
Animals are endued with a capa- 
bility of perceiving pleasure and pain; 
and from the abundant provision which 
we perceive in the world for the grati- 
fication of their several senses, we must 
conclude that the Creator wills the 
happiness of these his creatures, and 
consequently that humanity towards 
them is agreeable to him, and cruelty 
the contrary. This, I take it, is the 
foundation of the rights of animals, as 
far as they can be traced independ- 
ently of scripture, and is, even by 
itself, decisive on the subject, being the 
same sort of argument as that on which 
moralists found the Rights of Man- 
kind, as deduced from the Lights of 
Nature. — Thomas Young, 1798. 
The claims of the lower animals to 
humane treatment, or at least to ex- 
emption from abuse, are as good as 
any that man can urge upon man. 
Although less intelligent, and not im- 
mortal, they are susceptible of pain; 
but because they cannot remonstrate, 
nor associate with their fellows in de- 
fense of their rights, our best theolo- 
gians and philosophers have not con- 
descended to plead their cause, nor 
even to make mention of them; al- 
though, as just asserted, they have as 
much right to protection from ill-usage 
as the best of their masters have. — W. 
Youatt, 1839. 
There is a moral as well as a physical 
character to all animal life, however 
humble it may be — enveloped in- 
deed in obscurity, and with a mysteri- 
ous solemnity which must ever belong 
to the secrets of the Eternal. Let us 
then approach with caution the un- 
known character of the brute, as being 
an emanation from Himself; and treat 
with tenderness and respect the help- 
less creatures derived from such a 
source. — Ralph Fletcher, 1848. 
>R "25 w 
225 
