Library of Animal Rights History » Animal Welfare-Animal Rights Activists-Advocates-Quotes Against Cruelty to Animals

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

1772-1834

1796 [1794] | Samuel Taylor Coleridge, To A Young Ass [Written: 1794] in Poems [First Edition: London, 1796] 3rd Ed. (London, 1803); Online at Google Books.

To a Young Ass

Poor little Foal of an oppressed Race!
I love the languid Patience of thy face:
And oft with gentle hand I give thee bread,
And clap thy ragged Coat, and pat thy head.
But what thy dulled Spirits hath dismay'd,
That never thou dost sport along the glade?
And (most unlike the nature of things young)
That earth-ward still thy moveless head is hung!
Do thy prophetic Fears anticipate,
Meek Child of Misery ! thy future fate?—
The starving meal, and all the thousand aches
"Which patient Merit of the Unworthy takes?
Or is thy sad heart thrill'd with filial pain
To see thy wretched MOTHER'S shorten'd Chain?
And truly, very piteous is her Lot
Chain'd to a Log within a narrow spot
Where the close-eaten Grass is scarcely seen,
While sweet around her waves the tempting Green!
Poor Ass ! thy Master should have learnt to shew
Pity—best taught by fellowship of Woe!
For much I fear me, that He lives, like thee,
Half-famish'd in a land of Luxury!
How askingly its footsteps hither bend?
It seems to say, "And have I then one Friend?"
Innocent Foal! thou poor despis'd Forlorn!
I hail thee BROTHER—spite of the fool's scorn!
And fain would take thee with me, in the Dell
Of Peace and mild Equality to dwell,
Where TOIL shall call the charmer HEALTH his Bride,
And LAUGHTER tickle PLENTY'S ribless side!

1797-1798 | Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, [First Published in Lyrical Ballads, and Other Poems, (London, 1798) in Sibylline Leaves, A Collection of Poems (London, 1817) [Marginal notes included above in italics, added by Coleridge were first included in this 1817 edition online at The Samuel Taylor Coleridge Archive].

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

A Great Sea-Bird

Till a great sea-bird, called the Albatross, came through the snow-fog, and was received with great joy and hospitality.

At length did cross an Albatross,
Thorough the fog it came;
As if it had been a Christian soul,
We hailed it in God's name.…

And lo ! the Albatross proveth a bird of good omen, and followeth the ship as it returned northward through fog and floating ice.

And a good south wind sprung up behind;
The Albatross did follow,
And every day, for food or play,
Came to the mariner's hollo!…

The ancient Mariner inhospitably killeth the pious bird of good omen.

…And the good south wind still blew behind,
But no sweet bird did follow,
Nor any day for food or play
Came to the mariners' hollo!

By the Light of the Moon

By the light of the Moon he beholdeth God's creatures of the great calm.…Their beauty and their happiness. He blesseth them in his heart.

O happy living things ! no tongue
Their beauty might declare:

A spring of love gushed from my heart,
And I blessed them unaware:

To Teach Love and Reverence

And to teach, by his own example, love and reverence to all things that God made and loveth.

He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.

He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.

1817 | Samuel Taylor Coleridge, A Lay Sermon, [First Published as a Pamphlet: London, 1817] in Lay Sermons 3rd Ed. (London, 1852); Online at Google Books.

A Lay Sermon

Unitarian Creed

But if it should be asked, why this resurrection, or re-creation is confined to the human animal, the answer must be,—that more than this has not been revealed. And so far all Christians will join assent. But some have added, and in my opinion much to their credit, that they hope it may be the case with the brutes likewise, as they see no sufficient reason to the contrary. And truly, upon their scheme, I agree with them. For if man be no other or nobler creature essentially, than he is represented in their system, the meanest reptile, that maps out its path on the earth by lines of slime, must be of equal worth and respectability, not only in the sight of the Holy One, but by a strange contradiction even before man's own reason. For remove all the sources of esteem and the love founded on esteem, and whatever else pre-supposes a will and therein a possible transcendence to the material world; mankind, as far as my experience has extended, (and I am less than the least of many whom I could cite as having formed the very same judgment) are on the whole distinguished from the other beasts incomparably more to their disadvantage, by lying, treachery, ingratitude, massacre, thirst of blood, and by sensualities which both in sort and degree it would be libelling their brother-beasts to call bestial, than to their advantage by a greater extent of intellect. And what indeed, abstracted from the free-will, could this intellect be but a more showy instinct of more various application indeed, but far less secure, useful, or adapted to its purposes, than the instinct of Birds, insects, and the like.