Animal Rights Quotes • Law • Humane Education • Historical Literature eBook Library: Free Full-Text eBooks • Primary Sources
Activists Against Cruelty to Animals: A » B » C » D » E » F » G » H » I » J » K » L » M » N » O » P » Q » R » S » T » U » V » W » X » Y » Z

Animal Rights History Timeline » [1660-1785] Enlightenment: » Thomas Percival

Thomas Percival

A Father's Instructions

Moral Tales: Cruelty in Experiments

[1775] Thomas Percival, "Moral Tales: Cruelty in Experiments," in A Father's Instructions; Consisting of Moral Tales, Fables, and Reflections; Designed to Promote the Love of Virtue, A Taste for Knowledge, and an Early Acquaintance with the Works of Nature (1775; London, 1781; Google Books: Online Library of Free eBooks).

Beware, my son ! said Euphronius, of observing spectacles of pain and misery with delight. Cruelty, by insensible degrees, will steal into you heart; and every generous principle of your nature will then be subverted. The Philosopher, who has in contemplation the establishment of some important truth; or the discovery of what will tend to the advancement of real science, and to the good and happiness of mankind; may perhaps be justified, if he sacrifice to his pursuits the life or enjoyment of an inferior animal. But the emotions of humanity should never be stifled in his breast; his trials should be made with tenderness, repeated with reluctance, and carried no farther than the object in view unavoidably requires. Wanton experiments on living creatures, and even those which are merely subservient to the gratification of curiosity, merit the severest censure. They degrade the man of letters into a brute. (63-4)