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William Hamilton Drummond
1778-1865
1808 | Drummond's Translation of the First Book of Lucretius' [On the Nature of Things] into English Verse [c 99-55 BCE] included the poetic verse of "A Cow Mourning For Her Calf" and as well as Eulogizing Empedocles.
 Humanity to Animals, the Christian's Duty
1830 | William Hamilton Drummond, Humanity to Animals, the Christian's Duty; a Discourse (London, 1830); [partially extracted in The Voice of Humanity: For the Communication and Discussion of all Subjects Relative to the Conduct of Man Towards the Inferior Animal Creation by the Association for Promoting Rational Humanity toward the Animal Creation 1 (1830-Nov) 55-61; Online at Google Books.
Has it not been proved that animals are not unworthy of the regard of Him who reigns enthroned in the highest heavens? Shall they be deemed beneath the regard of those whose duty it is to enforce the laws of heaven's great King; or shall an apology be ever thought necessary for advocating, in the house of God, and cause in which the interest of humanity are even remotely concerned? Would that the subject had been more frequently the theme of pulpit exhortation! Would the clergy of all denominations had sometimes selected this useful topic for discussion, instead of those metaphysical questions of theology which are as unprofitable as they are abstruse.…They could do much more than any legislature for the correction of inhumanity.
Human laws may reach and punish a few of the most atrocious acts of cruelty which are exposed to observation; but there are thousands and tens of thousands of such acts that escape their cognizance and defy their authority. To find a remedy for the evil, we must go to a higher source. We must appeal to the law of God. We must address the moral principles. We must bring the feelings of benevolence to operate on the conduct. We must instil the dews of compassion into the bosoms of our children. Humanity must elevate her voice and inculcate her precepts in the nursery—in the school—in the college—in the lecture-room—in the courts of justice—and the pulpit. She must speak aloud with a hundred tongues by the mouths of orators and poets, philosophers and divines, by mothers to their daughters, and by fathers to their sons, and by masters and mistresses to their male and female servants. She must invoke the gentlemen of the press to stamp her dictates in the indelible characters of ink and type, and give them a passport to the extremities of the world. She must implore them to brand, with a disreputable stigma, every cruel deed. Those who are not to be allured to mercy by high and generous motives, may be deterred from cruelty by the dread of shame.
Some parents may deem it a matter of small consequence how their children are allowed to indulge a disposition to be cruel. They may consider the life of an insect or a bird as a thing of no value, and care not how dogs are lashed, cats hunted, and flies impaled. But these trifles, if such they seem, may lead to serious, and even appalling results; for all evil is progressive, and a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. While a child is permitted to torture a poor animal, he is in training to become an executioner. His senses grow familiar with sufferings. The voice of nature is stifled in his heart. To a mind of common sensibility, the pain of another creature seems to communicate itself by some sympathetic tie: in him it will at length cease to excite any emotion but pleasure. The noise of the scourge and the clank of the chain are as music to his ear. He becomes the terror of his trembling domestics, a stern father, a savage husband, a tyrannical master.
Ye, then, who study the good of your children, and wish to behold them amiable and virtuous, beware how you indulge in them the least propensity to be cruel; for every such propensity tends directly to destroy the best principles of our nature. Charge them, as they fear your displeasure, never to subject a creature in their power to one moment's unnecessary pain. If they cannot feel, from defect of natural sensibility, they can, at least, be brought to act from a sense of duty. The head may prove a kind auxiliary to the heart. Convince them that other creatures are as sensible of harsh treatment as themselves, and that to abuse them is to abuse the power which the Author of all has bestowed. Again, ask them seriously and affectionately how they would like to share the lot of those creatures whose slavery is embittered by the rigid and capricious treatment of their keepers. Make them ashamed of injuring defenceless animals which have no mode of appealing to justice, or seeking redress for their wrongs. Join pious reflections to your admonitions. Tell them, on the authority of Holy Writ, that God regards the life of a sparrow — that the meanest reptile which creeps in the dust, or insect that sports in the breeze, is not beneath his care, but that he beholds and provides for them all, and will not suffer them to be injured with impunity. By such a plan, if you persevere, you can scarcely fail to produce the intended effect.
Humanity must elevate her voice and inculcate her precepts in the nursery—in the school—in the college—in the lecture-room—in the courts of justice—and the pulpit. She must speak aloud with a hundred tongues by the mouths of orators and poets, philosophers and divines, by mothers to their daughters, by fathers to their sons, and by masters and mistresses to their male and female servants. She must invoke the gentlemen of the press to stamp her dictates in the indelible characters of ink and type, and give them a passport to the extremities of the world. She must implore them to brand, with a disreputable stigma, every cruel deed.
Ask them seriously and affectionately how they would like to share the lot of those creatures whose slavery is embittered by the rigid and capricious treatment of their keepers. Make them ashamed of injuring defenceless animals which have no mode of appealing to justice, or seeking redress for their wrongs.
"Those who allow oppression share the crime." If we hear or know of any existing cruelties, are we blameless if we do not endeavour to effect their extinction? Can our kitchens, our larders, our festive boards, testify nothing against us? WE know them not—; we hear them not. No; we take care to shut our from our eyes and our ears whatever would offend. We dread the pain of having our sensibility wounded and hence the evils we should be instrumental in redressing are allowed to grow and multiply.…While we 'eat the fat and drink the sweet," we never, for an instant, reflect on the animal sufferings which precede the banquet:—the barbed hook, the lacerating shot, the shrieks, the groans, and the dying agony. Such reflections would embitter the taste; therefore they are excluded as enemies of our peace, and cruelties continue to be perpetrated, not because we approve of them, but because well allow ourselves to become even unconscious of their existence.
1830-Nov | The Association for Promoting Rational Humanity Toward the Animal Creation, review of "Dissertation on Humanity to Animals the Christian's Duty, by William Hamilton Drummond," The Voice of Humanity: For the Communication and Discussion of all Subjects Relative to the Conduct of Man Towards the Inferior Animal Creation 1 (1830-Nov) 55-61; Digitized by Google, 2007.
We hail with the warmest satisfaction the appearance of this most masterly discourse. A spirit of the purest and sublimest benevolence breathes in every page, emanating from an exhaulted mind, capable of truly appreciating the rank of man in this lower world, as God's vicegerent, to emulate the attributes of his Creator, and diffuse joy and happiness. Dr. Drummond has not laid on the shrine of humanity an offering which has cost him nothing. The discourse is not common-place, but is enhanced in value, by extensive research, true originality of thought, and beauty of language. To such merits is superadded, in an Appendix, the most valuable and choice collection of notes we have ever seen in any work; from which we purpose, from time to time, to enrich our pages.
The Pleasure of Benevolence: A Poem
1835 | William Hamilton Drummond, The Pleasures of Benevolence: A Poem (Boston, 1835); Online at Google Books.
Argument. BENEVOLENT actions attended with happiness — and grateful to the recollection when all the enjoyments of sense and passion are remembered only with pain and disgust — The principle which dictates them, not confined by soil or climate — it extends to all God's creatures — Never indulges a wanton exercise of power, but shews compassion even in the necessary destruction of life — Reprehension of cruelty to the inferior animals — The institution of the Sabbath intended to teach humanity to them — they are not to be wantonly destroyed with impunity — man indebted to them for various arts and enjoyments — cock-fighting and bull-beating censured — acts of barbarity subject to the just judgment of the Almighty, who often employs the feeblest creatures to execute his most awful decrees — Apostrophe to Life — humanity recommended to the lovers of Natural History — the love of mankind an important lesson — pleasure of rescuing the orphan from ignorance and vice — the most exquisite beauty of countenance is found in benevolent expression — EUPHRONIA — eulogy on MRS. FRY — HE " who went about, doing good" — Picture of the happiness which the rich and powerful might diffuse around them, contrasted by the misery and desolation of a once beautiful and flourishing valley.
Ye feathered tribes,
Sing unmolested in your leafy bowers;
Ye finny nations, in your streams and lakes
And pearly grottos play; ye insect swarms
Who would not deem it an offence to heaven
To harm your joys, or from one little nook,
Their heritage from God, your wingless brood
Cruel dislodge? Like man, from God ye spring,
Are God's dependents—ratified as his,
Your rights to share the bounty Nature gives,
Sport in the waves, or on your native rocks
To congregate and clamour as ye will.
Ye too, perchance, as particles detached
Hail, holy day ! the Sabbath of the Lord,
By mercy infinite, of old, ordained
To teach, with other precious lore to man,
The gentle lesson of humanity
For Nature's children all.
Dar'st them profanely, then,
Her beauteous order mar? —The privilege
That heaven confers, to shameless licence turn?
And hark!—that hum which God alone could give
The art to utter ! impious, would'st thou dare
That art extinguish? Will not God avenge
The ruthless murder ? Not in vain his power
Has aught created. E'en the worm and fly,
Emmet and animalcule, tho' unseen,
Compose a link in being's endless chain.
Whose dissolution might, perchance, involve
The ruin of a world:—for greatest things
On least depend, and what to vulgar eye
May monstrous seem, to sage's search profound,
May glow with beauty; and of love divine
Ye giant race,
Fierce sons of earth, dire progeny of blood,
Rise from you fiery beds, and spend on man
Your sanguinary rage! But know that love,
Dwells with Omnipotence;—that justice, truth
And mercy are the attributes of Power.
Let the green monkeys bound from branch to branch
In frolic sport. What cruel right is yours
Their race to slaughter, and with ruthless fires,
Efface the good and beauteous work of God?
Say is it wise, or merciful, or just,
To harm the harmless? — Gentle Samian sage,
Revisit earth ! With transmigration swift,
Pass thro' the heart of potentate and king;—
Teach thy mild lore, and bid obdurate man,
E'en in the reptile to behold the laws
Of kindred feeling, and those laws revere.
And can it be, that in a Christian land,
O tell it not in Gath!—the lordly bull,
Gored by assailing dogs, can yield a joy
To all the village ring? Ye men of God,
Statesmen and judges, haste and interpose
Your holy prohibition. From the field
Disperse th' ungodly crew, and save the land
From foul abomination. Save it, too,
From that nefarious sport, for devils damned
The proper pastime, that with spurs of steel
Arms birds of fiery spirit, consecrate
To homicidal Mars. Oh ! there was one,
Who, when the cock crew, wept; —and still that sound
To solemn thought may move the Christian heart
Ye who the mysteries of Nature scan,
With microscopic vision, O forbear
To purchase knowledge at the price, too dear,
Of violated mercy, nor the fane
Of heaven-taught science, to a den convert
Of reeking slaughter, hung with horrid racks,
And implements of torture ! Spare the pangs
Of the poor victim, whose imploring eye
Beseeches pity.
1838 | William Hamilton Drummond, The Rights of Animals, and Man's Obligation to Treat them with Humanity (Boston, 1838; Digitized by Google, 2007).
The Rights of Animals, and Man's Obligation to Treat them with Humanity
There are many men of true benevolence and humanity to their fellowmen who yet seem unconscious that these virtues should be extended to the animal creation. Their compassionate feelings, which are sensibly touched by a tale of human woe, are never excited for the sufferings and labours of animals whose strength is wasted and life sacrificed in the service of man. This want of sympathy must be the result of inattention to a subject which formed no part of their early education, and which had at no time been properly brought before them as a theme for moral consideration. They have never been led to reflect that many animals are as delicately constituted and as sensible to pain as themselves—that all of them, as well as man, have their rights, which it is both unjust and cruel to violate or infringe.
The Obligation of Man Towards the Inferior and Dependent Creatures
In a country like England, where the duties of morality and religion have such a host of able and eloquent advocates, it seems strange that this duty of humanity to animals has not occupied a much larger portion of their time and advocacy. Is it only now that men are beginning to discover that they have obligations to their fellow-commoners of the earth? Benevolence, pity, mercy, compassion, are all moral virtues taught by reason, inculcated by religion; and surely no one will affirm that they should not be extended to every being susceptible of benefit from their influence. The inferior animals have passions, feelings, sensibilities as well as the lordly creature man.
That cruelty to a fellow-creature is a crime no one will dare to dispute—that cruelty to the inferior animals is also a crime is equally cruel, though it may not be so readily admitted, because it is allowed to pass without due cognizance, and seldom had any penalty been exacted for its atrocities. But the passion is the same whether indulged on a man or an insect; and though the life of an insect is not be be estimated as the life of a human being, the sentence of just history has consigned to merited infamy the imperial tyrant who found a pastime in killing flies, not less that Phalaris, who tortured men in his brazen bull.
Animals writhing under the merciless strokes of the lash or the club, or the dissector's knife, have seldom an advocate to prosecute their wrongs in a court of justice. They cannot utter their complaints in articulate sounds—they can see no lawyer; and laws have been more frequently enacted for their destruction than preservation. For as to the game laws they were framed, not from any principle of mercy to creatures coming under the denomination of game, but to keep them in store for general butchery by the privileged few.
Legislators of the present day have evinced more wisdom and a better spirit. Let us hope that they will use the power with which they are invested, to prevent cruelty—to promote the interests of humanity in every department where its influence is wanted or can be felt—that they will advocate the cause of the oppressed, and spread the aegis of their protection over the defenceless. It is cheering to reflect that many members of the British legislature are zealous in making such a laudable use of their power—who, knowing what they owe to their country as true patriots, would put an end to the cruel practises by which her moral character is degraded—who, knowing what they owe to their God as dependents on his bounty, would extend that mercy in which he delighteth to every order of being. May all who are in authority remember that "he who allows oppression shares the crime," and that governments are responsible for all such sins of the people as they are fully competent to abolish.
Does Christianity Inculcate the Duty of Humanity to Animals?
When we find the Son of God himself breathing mercy and compassion, and illustrating his heavenly doctrine by images and examples taken from the animal kingdom, can we for a moment doubt whether humanity to animals be an evangelical virtue; or whether he who delights in perpetrating acts of cruelty does no forfeit all just pretensions to the name and character of disciple to the meek and benevolent Jesus.
Man's Rights
In Drummond's chapters on "Man's Right to the Flesh of Animals," and "Man's Right to Hunting and Fishing," he discusses the arguments of Seneca, Pythagoras Porphyry, and Plutarch, as well as the sentiments of the poets Ovid, Thomson Cowper and Pope. And although he does not concur "with many friends of humanity," that these practices are "altogether inconsistent with the character of christian benevolence" are "exceedingly cruel," and "indefensible by any sound principle of religion or philosophy" does conclude in "Man's Right to the Use of Animals Limited"—
No idea can be more erroneous than this, that all animals were created for the sole purpose of being subservient to the uses of man; and in nothing are his arrogance and self-conceit so obnoxious as in upholding such a belief, though maintained by philosophers, and sanctioned by divines. They were formed for their own enjoyment of life, and from a principle of benevolence in the Deity.
On the Use of Animals in the Designs of Providence
The author is of opinion, that a forcible argument for humanity to animals may be founded on the single circumstance, that they occupy so much of the attention of the sacred writers, and are so often spoken of in immediate connexion with the divine attributes. Job exhalts them into the office of teachers, and admonishes us to attend to their instruction. "Ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee; or the reptiles of the earth, and they will inform thee; who among all these knoweth not that Jehovah made them; in whose hand is the breath of every living thing?"
The Benefits Derived from Animals, their Docility, Obedience, and Affection for Man, an Argument for Treating them with Humanity
How cold and dead would the landscape appear, if destitute of living creatures; did no herds or flocks browse on the lawn, nor goats hang over the precipice, to supply the painter and the poet with picturesque images; nor birds carol in the grove, nor fishes dimple the pool, nor insects unfurl their iridescent wings in the sun, and send forth a hum redolent of life and joy? Animals are often a happy substitute for the companionship of beings like ourselves; often have they cheered the loneliness of solitude, dissipated the gloom of confinement, and rendered less tedious the lingering hours of exile, or of absence from beloved friends.
The animals, engaged in the service, and for the use and benefit of man, are entitled to protection, to security from abuse, and to all the kind treatment necessary to their comfort, appears so self-evident a proposition as to require no argument for its support. …They are well fed, well housed, and judiciously treated, when attacked by disease; from the strongest of all motives in selfish minds, the fear of a reduction or loss of profit when they are maltreated or neglected. But we could have them well treated from a higher motive—from a feeling of gratitude for their services—from sympathy in their pains, when they suffer—and finally, from considering them as creatures of God, formed by the same Almighty hand that forms ourselves, and though subject to man's dominion, still retaining their peculiar rights.
Causes of Cruelty to Animals
Drummond, in this chapter, elaborates on the "Causes of Cruelty to Animals," 1. Gambling and the Love of Gain, 2. Brutal Passions and the Love of Sport, 3. Luxury and Gluttony, 4. Ignorance and False Pretences, 5. Antipathies, 6. Love of Science Perverted—Vivisection & 7. Natural History.
Gambling and the Love of Gain
Such is a sin is the practice of cock-fighting, of all low and vulgar sports, the most cruel and demoralizing. No scene can be more shocking to a mind of any feeling and refinement than a cock-pit, around which one may think he sees, without any great effort of imagination, every evil passion of the human heart personified; such aspects of cut-throat villains as cause an involuntary shudder. Then to see those noble birds so shorn of their beautiful plumage, so deformed, so armed with spurs of steel, brought into the bloody arena, and slaughtered by mutual wounds, amidst the curses and blasphemies of the ruthless dastardly ruffians, who seem to want the power more than the inclination, to have men and beasts instead of birds revive the gladiatorial games! Of all species of gambling, this is the most detestable it call loudly for the strong arm of the law to put it down summarily and effectually. That is should receive any countenance from men pretending to the name of gentlemen, not to say Christians, may seem incredible. Christians ! no; Christianity loathes and denounces such practices as sinful abominations, meriting the severity of divine chastisement.
Luxury and Gluttony
Many, it will be feared, who are among the last to who cruelty in any form can be imputed directly, must, notwithstanding, be implicated in the charge of blamable inattention to a subject of such importance as this. if we hear or know of any existing cruelties, are we blameless if we do not endeavour to effect their extinction Can our kitchens our larders, our festive boards testify nothing against us? We know them not—we hear them not. No; we take care to shut out from our eyes and our ears whatever would offend. We dread the pain of having our sensibility wounded, and hence the evils we should be instrumental in redressing are allowed to grow and multiply…While we "eat the fat and drink the sweet," we never, for an instant reflect on the animal sufferings which precede the banquet;—the barbed hook, the lacerating shot, the shrieks, the groans, and the dying agony. Such reflections would embitter the taste, therefore they are excluded as enemies of our peace; and cruelties continue to be perpetrated not because we approve of them, but because we allow ourselves to become even unconscious of their existence.
Ignorance and False Pretences
Whenever a man affirms that that any production of nature is good for nothing, he not only makes a clear confession of his ignorance, but he impugns the wisdom of the Creator.…It is entertaining to see some of these gentlemen pluming themselves on their superiority, and at the same time distressing to see how they abuse it. It might have a salutary effect, were any one who is a chief among them seriously to consider in how many respects animals are superior to himself. Most of them can live more independently, and fulfil the design of their creation much better than he. Of what can he boast, to place him above rivalship or competition? Can he match the elephant in strength, the horse in fleetness, the lynx or the eagle in vision, the spider in delicacy of touch, or the hound in scent? Can he elaborate any article like the honey of a bee, or concoct a poison like the rattle-snake's? Even in intelligence he is excelled by them, for they make use of that portion of understanding which God has given them, as God designed, and "know and reason not contemptibly;" but he abuses his intellect and the gifts of God, and reasons, if reasoning it may be called, in a way which even they, if they could speak, would call contemptable.
It is monstrous to hear an unfeathered brute, in the shape of a man, boasting of his superiority on account of his shape, and because he has the power, alleging that he has the right, to maim, wound, and slaughter God's creatures, for sport, whim, or savage curiosity. Superior ! no; the least of his victims is better than he; for it obeys better the laws of its constitution and cannot be taxed with the guilt of their violation. It is as valuable too in the sphere where God has places it, as he in his; and when he dies, his loss will be as little felt as that of the guat or the fly which he crushes between his fingers. To die, indeed, it may be said, is the only thing he is good for, since it may afford some pleasure to "boys and women" to think he is for ever gone, and that the world is disburthened of a monster.
The cruelties perpetrated upon animals, for only following those instincts which and all-wise Creator has given for their preservation, are of a most truculent description, and demand not only the severest reprehension of the moralist, but the castigation of the laws.…To injure and destroy animals for obeying the instincts of their nature, is not only a violation of their rights, and a demonstration of ignorance and barbarism, but an act of rebellion against God.
Antipathies
Some animals have a mutual dislike, which we call Antipathy, to each other; as the dog and the cat, the elephant and the rhinoceros the horse and the ass, until they become reconciled by custom. Man it seems to partake of these feelings, as is evident from the dislike he manifests for certain creatures, and his eagerness to destroy them wherever they are to be found. Many, so far from thinking it an inhuman act, make it their pride and boast to tell how they have killed ear-wigs, spiders, beetles, caterpillars, and rats, not because these creatures are injurious to them or their property, but simply from an unaccountable dislike.…Why animals that are formidable for their strength and ferocity, their poisonous fangs and retractile claws, should be dreaded, may be easily understood. Few would chose to hug a porcupine or hedgehog, or suffer a scorpion to nestle in their bosom. But wherefore should the most harmless and timid of creature excite apprehension and disgust?
The humane man, who should venture to say a word in behalf of a rat, would encounter the sneers and the scoffs of the little world around him; and yet at the hazard of this, though without invoking the powers of son, and saying with Grainger, "Muse, sing of rats;" one may dare to affirm that it is an act of gratuitous cruelty to take the life of even a rat, when it is doing us no wrong.
Love of Science Perverted—Vivisection
If we can imagine some unfortunate animal, when brought to the dissecting-room for experiment, to be for the occasion endowed with speech and "sanctity of reason," we might farther imagine it to address the sacrificer in terms like these: " Your power, I admit, is not to be resisted. The Almighty has given you dominion over me; but it is a dominion of justice and mercy, not of cruelty and wrong.…Suppose yourself, for a moment, in the power of a being as much superior to you, as you to me, and that he was preparing to subject you to the same process of investigation as you have prepared for me, what would be your feelings? You are filled with indignation and horror when you read of the cruelties sometimes practised by men on each other; for you think them more sensibly alive to pain than other creatures, and your sympathies are more strongly excited for beings like yourself. Notwithstanding, it is happy for them that you dare not dissect living men with impunity, since the step from one degree of wickedness to another is not always difficult. But are not the inferior creatures, as you call them, capable of acute sensation? Are they not composed of the same materials as man? Do they not exhibit as much delicacy of construction; are not their muscles as tender; their nerves as finely strung? And do not their writhings and contortions under the knife and the saw, the hammer and chisel, their lamentable cries, and groans, and shrieks, which send a shudder even to the demonstrator's iron heart, declare their sufferings in language sufficiently intelligible ? You hope to make some new discovery, forsooth, and you care not at what expense. Egregious vanity ! You would penetrate into the secret things which belong only to Jehovah; you would force your way into the Holy of Holies, which the law of God prohibits. Beware lest you perish in the attempt. But how are you qualified for this ambitious enterprize? Have you learned all that has been already taught ? Have you so thoroughly investigated and found all that inanimate frame is capable of unfolding, that nothing remains to be achieved; and to gratify a preposterous ambition, and a criminal curiosity, must you commence a course of diabolical experiments on living creatures, in hope of discovering something new? And suppose this as yet undiscovered something to be found, what will be its real use in the medical profession, and what will atone for the guilt you must incur in prosecuting the inquiry? You are desirous of celebrity. Well, let it be an honest celebrity, and pursue it in such paths as virtue will approve. Never let the genius of evil be your conductor to the temple of fame. Though all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, were to be the reward of your falling down and worshipping the enemy of God and man, what would you be profited ? You are now preparing to immolate me, by horrible tortures, on the blood-stained altar that he loves; and what will you gain by the sacrifice, but the harrowing reflection of having perpetrated an enormous atrocity, against which I protest, and make my final appeal to heaven?"
Love of Science Perverted—Natural History
No doubt, the fear of death is one of the greatest pains with which it is often accompanied; and from this fear most animals are happily exempt. The humane mind rejoices in a belief so accordant to her ideas of the divine benevolence that creatures destined for the support of each other, insects especially that are subject to so many casualties, have a less acute sense of pain than reasoning man. But the least degree of pain is still an evil, and therefore we should be exceedingly cautious how we inflict it; cautious how we act on the presumption that any animated being can be injured or put out of its natural state without suffering. …We have no pathomether by which we can measure the degrees of any creature's sufferings. Analogy would lead us to conclude that in parallel cases they cannot differ much in intensity from our own; the cries and groans uttered by them when maimed or wounded are not less expressive of agony. And if some creatures, udders such inflictions, have no faculty of giving similar indications of suffering, it would be wrong thence to conclude that none is undergone. Because the green monkeys did not screech while being massacred by Adanson, did they suffer nothing? They were too much overcome by terror to give utterance to what they felt. Extremes of grief and pain take away all power of expression even from rational beings. We are too ready to transfer our own apathy to the tortured animal, merely because it can utter no complaint. But is it to be imagined possible for joints to be dislocated, members dissevered, viscera laid open, in any animated being without excruciating pangs? The more delicate the structure the more susceptible of injury, and the more acute may be the perception of pain. The very silence of a dumb animal seems to reproach the barbarity of its destroyer, and "the voice of its blood crying from the ground," though unheard by the gross organs of man, is audible to the Eternal.
Humanity to Animals Considered as a Subject of Education
Humanity, mercy, compassion, are virtues especially required and insisted on by Christianity, and their influence is not limited to the human race. It extends to the whole worlds of reason, life and sense; to the worm on the ground and the shell-fish on the rock, as well as to the wounded traveller, the widow, and the orphan. How much good might the clergy of all denominations effect, were they sometimes to insist on these truths? how much more than any legislature for the correction of inhumanity? Human laws may reach and punish a few of the most atrocious acts of cruelty which are exposed to observation; but there are thousands and then of thousands of such acts that escape their cognizance and defy their authority. To find a remedy for the evil, we must go to a higher source. We must appeal to the law of God. We must address the moral principles. We must bring the feelings of benevolence to operate on the conduct. We must instil the dews of compassion into the bosoms of our children. Humanity must elevate her voice and inculcate her percepts in the nursery—in the school—in the college—in the lecture-room—in the courts of justice—in the pulpit. She must speak aloud with a hundred tongues, by the mouths of orators and poets, philosophers and divines, by mothers to their daughters, and by fathers to their sons, and by masters and mistresses to their male and female servants. She must invoke THE PRESS to stamp her dictates in the indelible characters of ink an type, and give them a passport to the extremities of the world. She must implore it to brand, with a disreputable stigma, every cruel deed; that those who are not to be allured to mercy by high and generous motive, may be deterred from cruelty by the dread of shame.
The criminality of the parent who tolerates cruelty in his children will appear more flagrant, when we reflect how easy and pleasing a task it is to render them gentle and humane. It is no difficult matter to make them understand that all living creatures are as sensible of pain as themselves, and that it is impossible to wound, mutilate, or crush the tiniest insect, without causing it an agony similar to what they would themselves experience from the extraction of a tooth, the tearing of their hair, or the dislocation or fracture of a limb.
Shall Animals Exist Hereafter
Some who are proud of their reason wan their dignity in the scale of creation, but who are assuredly neither philosophers nor Christians, look down on animals with infinite scorn, and treat them as if they were automata or self-moving machines, and seen scarcely willing to admit that they are composed of nerve and muscle like themselves. The endeavour, too, to justify their violations on much the same principles, and with the same regard to good feeling, that a slave-dealer endeavours to justify his brutality to negroes, by pleading the inferiority of their intellect; as if that very inferiority, admitting it to exist, did not establish a claim to protection, instead of affording a plea for injury and abuse.
If they are short-lived by nature, should we render their lives shorter by injurious treatment? An argument for showing them kindness had been founded on their short and fleeting existence. This life is their all; they have no "bright reversion in the skies." Their condition, therefore, should be rendered as comfortable as possible, and no injury offered them by which it can be curtailed.
If as religion teaches, every man must hereafter give an account of the deeds done in the body, cruelty to animals is a crime that will not escape dues chastisement; and whether reason be granted or refused to brutes, it will scarcely be denied that they can feel: for feeling does not depend on intellect, nor is the intensity of man's sensations to be estimated by the strength his reasoning powers.
Man is the enemy of them all. Even the gentle creatures do not escape his fury. The ocean shark gives paint to the creatures he devours from sheer necessity; the human shark give gratuitous torment till death signs their release. But the day is approaching when they shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into glorious liberty; even in measure, according to their capacity, of the liberty of the children of God.
Cruelty to Animals Admits of No Defence
Animals, it must be reiterated again and again, have their rights—rights chartered to them by their Creator, and not to be violated with impunity.
In a word, then, Cruelty admits of no defence. It is opposed to the laws of God, and the interests of man; it is the worst passion of the breast; the perpetrator of the most detestable crimes; the darling attribute of the great adversary of Him whose name is love. As benevolence delights in doing good, and participates in the enjoyment of all God's creatures; cruelty, on the other hand, rejoices in the infliction of pain and misery, and in the destruction of all that gratifies the gentle and amiable feelings of our nature.
1839-Jan | Christian Reformer, review of "The Rights of Animals, and Man's Obligation to treat them with Humanity [1838], by William H. Drummond" Christian Reformer; or, Unitarian Magazine and Review 6 (1839-Jan) 51-2.
1839-Apr | Bible Christian, review of "The Rights of Animals, and Man's Obligation to Treat them with Humanity [1838], by William H. Drummond" Bible Christian 1 (1839-Apr) 91-96.
1839-Jun | Christian Pioneer, review of "The Rights of Animals, and Man's Obligation to treat them with Humanity [1838], by William H. Drummond" Christian Pioneer 8(1839-Jun) 236-40.
The volume is rich to overflowing with the kindly and enlightened spirit of humanity.—GLASGOW ARGUS. This book is beautifully written. The author is an able advocate of humanity, and we wish his learned and philanthropise work the utmost circulation possible—BELFAST NEWS LETTER. Throughout this volume Dr. Drummond evinces extensive reading and a humane and highly cultivated mind.—SCOTSMAN. A sober and sensible appeal to the bar of human justice, in behalf of persecuted beings, supported by cogent arguments, and the still sterner evidence of irrefragable facts.—DUBLIN WEEKLY HERALD. A more entertaining or morally instructive volume cannot be put into the hands of young persons.—CHRISTIAN REFORMER. This is a book which it does one's head and heart good to read. It evinces extensive scholarship, highly cultivated taste, and enlightened philosophy, and it is running over with the spirit of the purest Christian benevolence. —CHRISTIAN PIONEER. This is an admirable book. Its design is excellent, and the execution such as might have been anticipated; the subject is discussed with clearness and discrimination, with convincing logic and the eloquence of nature and truth.—BIBLE CHRISTIAN. (Advertisement for The Pleasures of Benevolence and The Rights of Animals, by William Drummond [in various books by the author.)
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