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"Mercy to the Dumb Animals.
"`I would give nothing for that man's religion whose cat and dog are not
the better for it.'--_Dr Norman McLeod_.
"`We are living in an enlightened age.' This is a remark which we hear
made almost every day, a remark which contains just one golden grain of
truth. Mankind is not yet enlightened in the broad sense of the term.
From the night of the past, from the darkness of bygone times, we are
but groping our way, as it were, in the morning-glome, towards a great
and a glorious light.
"It is an age of advancement, and a thousand facts might be adduced in
proof of this. I need point to only one: the evident but gradual
surcease of needless cruelty to animals. Among all classes of the
community far greater love and kindness is now manifested towards the
creatures under our charge than ever was in days gone by. We take
greater care of them, we think more of their comfort when well, we tend
them more gently when sick, and we even take a justifiable pride in
their appearance and beauty. All this only shows that there is a spirit
of good abroad in the land, a something that tends to elevate, not
depress, the soul of man. I see a spark of this goodness even in the
breast of the felon who in his prison cell tames a humble mouse, and who
weeps when it is cruelly taken from him; in the ignorant costermonger
who strokes the sleek sides of his fat donkey, or the rough and unkempt
drover-boy, who shares the remains of a meagre meal with his faithful
collie.
"Religion and kindness to animals go hand in hand, and have done so for
ages, for we cannot truly worship the Creator unless we love and admire
His works.
"The heavenly teaching of the Mosaic law inculcates mercy to the beasts.
It is even commanded that the ox and the ass should have rest on one
day of the week--namely, the Sabbath; that the ox that treadeth out the
corn is not to be muzzled; that the disparity in strength of the ass and
ox is to be considered, and that they should not be yoked together in
one plough. Even the wild birds of the field and woods are not
forgotten, as may be seen by reading the following passage from the Book
of Deuteronomy:--`If a bird's nest be before thee in any tree, or on the
ground, whether they be young ones or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the
young or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the young: but
thou shalt in any way let the dam go.'
"The Jews were commanded to be merciful and kind to an animal, even if
it belonged to a person unfriendly to them.
"`If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden,
and wouldest forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him.'
"That is, they were to assist even an enemy to do good to a fallen
brute. It is as if a man, passing along the street, saw the horse or
ass of a neighbour, who bore deadly hatred to him, stumble and fall
under his load, and said to himself--
"`Oh! yonder is So-and-so's beast come down; I'll go and lend a hand.
So-and-so is no friend of mine, but the poor animal can't help that.
_He_ never did me any harm.'
"And a greater than even Moses reminds us we are to show mercy to the
animals even on the sacred day of the week.
"But it is not so very many years ago--in the time when our grandfathers
were young, for instance--since roughness and cruelty towards animals
were in a manner studied, and even encouraged in the young by their
elders. It was thought manly to domineer over helpless brutes, to pull
horses on their haunches, to goad oxen along the road, though they were
moving to death in the shambles, to stone or beat poor fallen sheep, to
hunt cats with dogs, and to attend bull-baitings and dog and cock
fights. And there are people even yet who talk of these days as the
good old times when `a man was a man.' But such people have only to
visit some low-class haunt of `the fancy,' when `business' is being
transacted, to learn how depraving are the effects of familiarity with
scenes of cruelty towards the lower animals. Even around a rat-pit they
would see faces more revolting in appearance than those of Dore's
demons, and listen to jests and language so ribald and coarse as
positively to pain and torture the ear and senses. Goodness be praised
that such scenes are every day getting more rare, and that the men who
attend them have a wholesome terror of the majesty of human laws at
least.
"Other religions besides the Christian impress upon their followers
rules relating to kindness to the inferior animals. Notably, perhaps,
that of Buddha, under the teachings of which about five hundred millions
of human beings live and die. The doctrines of Gautama are sublimely
beautiful; they are akin to those of our own religion, and I never yet
met any one who had studied them who did not confess himself the better
and happier for having done so. One may read in prose sketches of the
life and teachings of Gautama the Buddha, in a book published by the
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, or he may read them in verse
in that splendid poem by Edwin Arnold called `The Light of Asia.'
Gautama sees good in all things, and all nature working together for
good; he speaks of--
"`That fixed decree at silent work which will
Evolve the dark to light, the dead to life,
To fulness void, to form the yet unformed,
Good unto better, better unto best,
By wordless edict; having none to bid,
None to forbid; for this is past all gods
Immutable, unspeakable, supreme,
A Power which builds, unbuilds, and builds again,
Ruling all things accordant to the rule
Of virtue, which is beauty, truth, and use.
So that all things do well which serve the Power
And ill which hinder; nay, the worm does well [Note 1]
Obedient to its kind; the hawk does well
Which carries bleeding quarries to its young;
The dewdrop and the star shine sisterly,
Globing together in the common work;
And man who lives to die, dies to live well,
So if he guide his ways by blamelessness
And earnest will to hinder not, but help
All things both great and small which suffer life.'
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"Those among us who have tender hearts towards the lower animals cannot
help day after day witnessing acts of cruelty to them which give us
great pain. We are naturally inclined to feel anger against the
perpetrators of such cruelty, and to express that anger in wrathful
language. By so doing I am convinced we do more harm than good to the
creatures we try to serve. Calmness, not heat or hurry, should guide us
in defending the brute creation against those who oppress and injure it.
Let me illustrate my meaning by one or two further extracts from
Arnold's poem.
"It is noontide, and Gautama, engrossed in thought and study, is
journeying onwards--
"`Gentle and slow,
Radiant with heavenly pity, lost in care
For those he knew not, save as fellow-lives.'
"When,--
"`Blew down the mount the dust of pattering feet,
White goats, and black sheep, winding slow their way,
With many a lingering nibble at the tufts,
And wanderings from the path where water gleamed,
Or wild figs hung.
But always as they strayed
The herdsman cried, or slung his sling, and kept
The silly crowd still moving to the plain.
A ewe with couplets in the flock there was,
Some hurt had lamed one lamb, which toiled behind
Bleeding, while in the front its fellow skipped.
And the vexed dam hither and thither ran,
Fearful to lose this little one or that.
Which, when our Lord did mark, full tenderly
He took the limping lamb upon his neck,
Saying: "Poor woolly mother, be at peace!
Whither thou goest, I will bear thy care;
'Twere all as good to ease one beast of grief,
As sit and watch the sorrows of the world
In yonder caverns with the priests who pray."
So paced he patiently, bearing the lamb.
Beside the herdsman in the dust and sun,
The wistful ewe low-bleating at his feet.'
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"Sorely this was a lesson which the herdsman, ignorant though he no
doubt was, never forgot; farther comment on the passage is needless.
Precept calmly given does much good, example does far more."
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Note 1. A fact which Darwin in his treatise on earthworms has recently
proved.