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Universal Magazine

1755 Feb | A. B. C. "Inhuman Cruelty to Animals," Universal Magazine 16 (1755 Feb) 58-9; Digitized by Google, Online at Google Books.

Inhuman Cruelty to Animals

A. B. C.

Universal Magazine

To the Proprietors of the Universal Magazine

Gentlemen,

You are desired, by several of your constant Readers and Well-wishers, to insert the following Reflections on the inhuman Practice of treating Animals with Cruelty, in your useful and entertaining Magazine Yours, &c. A. B. C.

Heav'n's Attribute was universal Care,
And Man's Prerogative to rule, but spare. POPE.

If we reflect on the infinite number of beings that surround us, we shall find, that each acts and performs the operations incident to its nature, and the instinct it has received from the great Creator of the universe. Upon what principle of reason and justice, therefore, have mankind founded their right over the lives of every creatures, that is placed in a subordinate rank beneath themselves? And, whatever claim they may have, in right of food and self-defence, they, surely, ought to extend their privilege no farther, than those articles would reasonably carry them; and then numberless beings might enjoy their lives in peace, who are not hurried out of them by the most wanton and unnecessary cruelties. I cannot, indeed, discover why it should be thought less inhuman to crush to death a harmless insect, whose only offence is, that he eats that food which nature has prepared for his sustenance, than it would be, were I to kill any more bulky creature for the same reason. There are few tempers so hardened to the impressions of humanity, as not to shudder at the thought of the latter; and yet the former is universally practised, without the least cheek of compassion. Theirs seems to arise from the gross error of supposing, that every creature is really in itself contemptible, which happens to be cloathed with a body infinitely disproportionate to our own; not considering, that 'great' and 'little' are merely relative terms. But the inimitable Shakespear would teach us, that

—The poor beetle, that we tread upon,
In corporal suff'rence, feels a pang a great
As when a giant dies—

And this is not thrown out in the latitude of poetical imagination, but supported by the discoveries of the most improved philosophy: For there is every reason to believe, that the sensations of many insects are as exquisite as those of creatures of far more enlarged dimensions; perhaps, even more so. The millipedes, for instance, rolls itself round upon the slightest touch, and the snail gathers in her hors upon the least approach of your hand. Are not these the strongest indications of their sensibility? And is it an evidence of ours, that we are not therefore induced to treat them with a more sympathizing tenderness?

I was extremely pleased with a sentiment I met with, the other day, in honest Montaigne: That good-natured remarks, That there is a certain general claim of kindness and benevolence , which every species of creatures has a right to from us. It is to be regretted, that this generous maxim is not more attended to, in the affair of education, and pressed home upon tender minds in its full extent and latitude. I am far indeed from thinking, that the early delight, which children discover in torment flies, &c. is a mark of an innate cruelty of temper; because this turn may be accounted on other principles, and it is entertaining unworthy notions of the Deity, to suppose he forms mankind with a propensity to the most detestable to all dispositions. But, most certainly, by being unrestrained in sports of this kind, they may acquire, by habit, what they never would have learned from nature, and grow up into a confirmed inattention to every kind of suffering, but their own. Accordingly, the supreme Court of Judicature at Athens thought an instance of this sort not below its cognisance, and punished a boy for putting out the eyes of a poor bird, that had unhappily fallen into his hands.

It might be of service, therefore, in order to awaken as early as possible in children to an extensive sense of humanity, to give them a view of several sorts of insects, as they may be magnified by the assistance of glasses; and to shew them, that the same evident marks of wisdom and goodness prevail in the formation of the minutest insect, as in that of the most enormous leviathan: That they are equally furnished with whatever is necessary not only to the preservation, but the happiness of their beings, in that class of existence to which Providence has assigned the: IN a word, that the whole construction of their respective organs distinctly proclaims them the object of the divine benevolence, and therefore that they ought to be so of ours.