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John Oswald

d. 1793

1791 | John Oswald, The Cry of Nature, or an Appeal to Mercy and to Justice, on Behalf of the Persecuted Animals (London, 1791); Online at Animal Rights History, 2006.

The Cry of Nature, or an Appeal to Mercy and to Justice, on Behalf of the Persecuted Animals

And ye, when he considers the natural bias of the human heart to the side of mercy, and observes on all hands the barbarous governments of Europe giving way to a better system of thing, he is inclined to hope that the day is beginning to approach when the growing sentiment of peace and good-will towards men will also embrace, in a wide circle of benevolence, the lower orders of life.

Sovereign despot of the world, lord of the life and death of every creature,—man, with the slaves of his tyranny, disclaims the ties of kindred. Howe'er attuned to the feelings of the human heart, their affections are the mere result of mechanic impulse; howe'er they may verge on human wisdom, their actions have only the semblance of sagacity: enlightened by the ray of reason, man is immensely removed from animals who have only instinct for their guide, and born to mortality, he scorns with the brutes that perish, a social bond to acknowledge. Such are the unfeeling dogmas, which, early instilled into the mind, induce a callous insensibility, foreign to the native texture of the heart; such the cruel speculations which prepare us for the practice of that remorseless tyranny, and which palliate the foul oppression that, over inferior but fellow-creatures we delight to exercise.

The dumb creatures, say they, were sent by God into the world, to exercise our charity; and, by calling forth our affections, to contribute to our happiness. We consider them as mute brethren, whose wants it becomes us to interpret, whose defects it is our duty to supply. The benevolence which on them we bestow, is amply repaid by the benefits which they bring; and the pleasing return for our kindness is, that endearing gratitude which renders the care of providing for them rather a pleasing occupation than a painful task.

And innocently mayest thou indulge the desires which Nature so potently provokes; for see ! the trees are overcharged with fruit; the bending branches seem to supplicate for relief; the mature orange, the ripe apple, the mellow peach invoke thee, as it were, to save them from falling to the ground, from dropping into corruption. They will smile in thy hand; and, blooming as the rosy witchcraft of thy bride, they will sue thee to press them to thy lips; in thy mouth they will melt not inferior to the famed ambrosia of the gods.

But of animals far other is the fare: for, alas ! when they from the tree of life are pluck'd, sudden shrink to the chilly hand of death the withered blossoms of their beauty; quenched in his cold cold grasp expires the lamp of their loveliness ; and, struck by the livid blast of putrefaction loathed, their every comely limb in ghastly horror is involved.

On the carcase we feed, without remorse, because the dying struggles of the butchered creature are secluded from our sight; because his cries pierce not our ear; because his agonizing shrieks sink not into our soul: but were we forced, with our own hands, to assassinate the animals whom we devour, who is there amongst us that would not throw down, with detestation, the knife; and, rather than embrue his hands in the murder of the lamb, consent, for ever, to forego the favorite repast?

But come, ye men of scientific subtlity, approach and examine with attention this dead body. It was late a playful fawn, which, skipping and bounding on the bosom of parent earth, awoke, in the soul of the feeling observer, a thousand tender emotions. But the butcher's knife hath laid low the delight of a fond dam, and the darling of nature is now stretched in gore upon the ground. Approach, I say, ye men of scientific subtlity, and tell me, tell me, does this ghastly spectacle whet your appetite? Delights your eyes the sight of blood? Is the steam of gore grateful to your nostrils, or pleasing to the touch, the icy ribs of death ? But why turn ye with abhorrence? Do you then yield to the combined evidence of your senses, to the testimony of conscience and common sense; or with a species of rhetoric, pitiful as it is perverse, will you still persist in your endeavour to persuade us, that to murder and innocent animal, is not cruel nor unjust; and that to feed upon a corpse, is neither filthy nor unfit?

Good God! Is it so heinous an offence against society, to respect in other animals that principle of life which they have received, no less than man himself, at the hand of Nature? O, mother of every living thing! O, thou eternal fountain of beneficence; shall I then be persecuted as a monster, for having listened to thy sacred voice? to that voice of mercy which speaks from the bottom of my heart; while other men, with impunity, torment and massacre the unoffending animals, while they fill the air with the cries of innocence, and deluge thy maternal bosom with the blood of the most amiable of thy creatures!