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» A Vindication of the Rights of Brutes, "That God Has Made All Things Equal"

[Thomas Taylor], A Vindication of the Rights of Brutes (London, 1792; Gainesville, Florida: Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, 1966; Online at Animal Rights History, 2003).

A

VINDICATION

OF THE

RIGHTS OF BRUTES

Chap. I

That God has made all Things equal.

IT appears at first sight somewhat singular, that a moral truth of the highest importance, and most illustrious evidence, should have been utterly unknown to the ancients, and not yet fully perceived, and universally acknowledged, even in such an enlightened age as the present. The truth I allude to is, the equality of some all things, with respect to their intrinsic and real dignity and worth. But indeed, a little consideration will soon enable us to account for the ignorance of mankind in this interesting particular; and will teach us, that it solely arises from those baneful habits of perverse reasoning, which have from time to time immemorial taken root in the minds of men, and have at last sunk so deep, as to render their final and general extirpation, an immensely laborious, if not ridiculous, attempt.

I perceive however, with no small delight, that this sublime doctrine is daily gaining ground amongst the thinking part of mankind. Mr. Payne has already convinced thousands of the equality of men to each other; and Mrs. Woolstonecraft has indisputably proved, that women are in every respect naturally equal to men, no only in mental abilities, but likewise in bodily strength, boldness, and the like.

But all this, however, is only an approximation to the great truth, which this Essay is designed to promulgate and prove, that there is no such thing in the universe, as superiority of nature (the first cause being excepted); and that any thing, when minutely and accurately examined, however vile and contemptible it may falsely appear, will be found to be of inestimable value, and intrinsically equal to a thing of the greatest magnitude and worth.

To be convinced of this, we need only consider, that the Deity, according to the common conceptions of all men, is a being of perfect equity and impartiality; that his goodness is immense, and that he is no less powerful than good. Now in consequence of this, all his productions must be equally good and excellent; since otherwise he would be partial and unjust. Should it be said, that according to this doctrine the vilest natures must be as similar to the Deity as the most excellent, I reply, that this is only begging the question; as we are contend that the merit of all things, is in all thing perfectly equal and the same.

But this will appear more evident, from the following induction:—On comparing the nature of a lion with that of a man, we find that bodily strength is the apparent characteristic of the one, and reason of the other. I say apparent; for, as will shortly be proved, brutes possess reason in common with men, though not in quite so exquisite a degree; and hence, the deficiency of reason, combined with superiority of strength, renders the lion an animal equally excellent with man; in like manner, the swiftness of a hare untied with hare-like reason, puts the hare upon an equality both with the lion and the man; the advantages of flying in a bird, united with the reason of a bird; the subtilty of spinning in a spider, with spider-like reason; and the microscopic eye of a fly, with the reason of a fly, will severally be found to be equal to each other, and of equal dignity with the reason and bodily advantages of man.

This theory will perhaps appear to many too abstracted an refined, and as having a tendency to destroy those distinctions of society, which seem to have been pointed out by nature herself, and to have commenced with the creation to the world. There appears indeed to be some weight in the first part of the objection, with respect to the abstractedness of this theory; for not long since Mr. Payne, who may be considered as the father of this system, was so lost in contemplation of its sublimity, that he suffered himself to be insulted in a company of two hundred persons, without attempting to revenge the affront (the who two hundred likewise experiencing the same abstracted effects); Mrs. Woolstoncraft, who though a virgin, is the mother of this theory, of ten, as I am told, eats beef for mutton; and I myself am frequently so lost, as when reading the best productions of the moderns, to imagine they are nonsensical, when at the same time they are the progeny of the most consummate wisdom and wit. But consequence like these, which are in reality but trifling, ought not to be objected to a system, which is founded on truth, and intimately interwoven with the nature of things. And, as to its being urged, that such a system tends to destroy the necessary distinctions of society, I answer, that it must first be proved that such distinctions are necessary and natural; for there is great reason to suspect, that they are, and always have been, nothing more than tyrannical invasions of certain wicked and designing men, who wished (and have unfortunately succeeded in their wish), to destroy that equality, which the Author of the universe has benevolently inserted in all things. These distinctions indeed are so far from being natural, that the very words by which they are expressed, are evidently corruptions of more common, and less arbitrary appellations. Thus, for instance, the Greek word for a king, [Greek Omitted], is doubtless a corruption of [Greek Omitted] a basilisk; and the English word nobility, is in like manner a corruption of the word mobility; just as praying, when it becomes social, is beyond all controversy a corruption of braying; as I doubt not will be readily acknowledged by the ingenious and learned Mr. Wakefield.