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Animal Rights History Timeline » [1785-1837] Romantic Age » Rev. William Bingley

William Bingley

Animal Biography: On the Study of Nature

[1803] Rev. William Bingley, "On the Study of Nature," in Quadrupeds, vol. 1 of Animal Biography; Or, Anecdotes of the Lives, Manners, and Economy, of the Animal Creation, Arranged According to the System of Linnaeus, 3 vols. (London, 1803; Google Books: Online Library of Free eBooks).

That thoughtless cruelty which we now so frequently observe toward the inferior orders of created beings, would scarcely be know, could we but teach mankind that the same God "who gives its lustre to an insects's wing" ordains with it a right to life and happiness as well as ourselves; and that wantonly to deprive it of these is an offence against His works who formed nothing in vain.— An attention to Nature from childhood would also contribute greatly to the happiness of mankind in general, and to that of females in particular, be enabling them to overcome all those fears and vulgar prejudices which have commonly attached to some of the smaller quadrupeds, and to the reptile and insect tribes. They would then possess no greater repugnance towards handling a Lizard, a Beetle, or a Spider, than they now do in that of a Bird, or a Flower. (24)