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Animal Rights History Timeline » [1837-1901] Victorian » Animal Rights Quotes » Christian Pioneer

Animal Rights Quotes » Christian Pioneer

References to "Rights" of Animals in Historical Literature

If all men and women, we have said to ourselves, were like the author of "The Rights of Animals," what a present heaven would not earth become! Knowledge and benevolence would be co-extensive with humanity—the rights of each would be respected by all—each would do all as he or she would wish to be done by—the most insignificant or unsightly thing that creeps or crawls would be regarded, not in words, but in reality, as the workmanship of the same great Being who made man erect in his own image, not that he might in the wantonness of power, and for the sake of a spurious sport, being "even the sparrow" to the ground—but that he might be a co-worker with Himself, with Him whose holiest name is Love, and whose tender mercies are over all his works, in the diffusion of happiness amongst all the creatures which live, move, and have their being in Divine beneficence. But all men, unfortunately, are not like the Poet of Benevolence; and hence the necessity of such works as his present one, on "The Rights of Animals," being written, printed, and widely circulated. (237)