law was done, there remained the larger and more difficult task of
continuing the development of the sympathetic motives with a
corresponding amplification of customs and statutes so that the steps of
advance should be duly embodied in these rules of conduct. The stages of
this purely human attainment have been slowly taken, the onward way has
been effectively won but by few peoples. A part of the slowness in
advance in the enlargement of the sympathetic motives beyond the stage
which has been attained in the life below the human grade is to be
accounted for in the fact that no sooner are laws formed than they
become in a way sacred. If they be cast in the religious mould their
sanctity may be such that they are almost beyond the reach of
modification; even when they are secular the reverence for the wisdom of
the forefathers naturally leads men to regard them as the ark of safety.
Thus it has come about that the codification of the ancient sympathies,
won by experience in the pre-human time and in the early life of man,
has led to the institution of a barrier which makes further advance a
matter of difficulty--one which, in the case of most peoples, binds them
firmly to the past, arresting their sympathetic development at a point
which it had attained when their laws were framed. This is, indeed, the
position of nearly all the peoples except those of our own Aryan race.
When the conditions of a people are fortunately such that they may
continue their sympathetic growth, they proceed to carry onward the
process of sympathetic enlargement, modifying their laws to suit the
gains in understanding which come with this growth. It may be noticed
that the development takes place most readily where the rules of
conduct are embodied in statute law; for this law, being the evident
result of human action, is manifestly alterable in a way that cannot be
taken when the prescriptions are supposed to rest on divine commands.
Under such conditions of statute law men are freer to advance than they
can possibly be where the rules of action are in the form of revered
precepts, such as guide the peoples who are accustomed to base their
action on the books which they esteem as sacred. Endowed with this
element of freedom, the peoples of our own Aryan race--and,
fortunately, the most advanced of all its varieties, the
English-speaking part of the folk--have, by the divine impulse towards
moral advancement, been led to make a great extension of the
sympathetic motives. The first step in this direction seems to have
been towards the mitigation of the horrors of war, which of old meant
the slavery or slaughter of the prisoners. Under the dictates of the
developing spirit of mercy and without written law, these brutal
actions have been limited until the dogs of war are allowed to rend
only in the hour of battle. In this day the man who slays the wounded
or robs the dead is esteemed an outlaw. The same beneficent motive was
next extended towards human slaves. In this matter English people led;
and to them it was almost altogether due that this evil has come nearly
to an end except among the Mohammedans, who are bound as in chains to
their sacred books and cannot win their way to progress through
statutes. In a like manner, in the care of the poor, of prisoners for
debt, and even of malefactors, our English folk on both sides of the
Atlantic have led in the ongoing towards a higher moral estate.
The last great excursion of sympathy which has characterized the
English Aryans--one dating its beginning to this century--is that
relating to the rights of our domesticated animals. This has come
about, like the other movements, in a way unconsciously. Prophetic
spirits have seen beyond the vision of their fellows; they have given
their messages, which have found an echo in the souls of men. The
motive originated in the recognition of the essential likeness of the
minds of the lower animals to our own. But it has been greatly
reenforced by the teachings of the naturalists to the effect that all
the life of this sphere is akin in its origin and that our subjects are
not very far away from our own ancestral line.
It is characteristic of sympathetic movements that, while they are
slowly prepared for, their final development is very rapid. Thus it has
come about that within one hundred years the conception of the rights of
animals has advanced with almost startling rapidity. No other moral gain
has been made with such speed or has so rapidly become a part of the
property of civilized man. The steps are those which have been taken in
all the other great moral advances: at first there were but a few who,
in the manner of the skirmishers of armies, set the standards far on in
the new ground; gradually the less ardent win their way to them, only to
be led the further by their natural guides. As the great advance is
still making, it is difficult to see how far it may attain; it is,
however, easy to recognize some of the important gains and to foretell
the path if not the field of full accomplishment of the conquest. A
century ago a man, so far as the law was concerned, owned his living
chattels as he did the inanimate things of his property. He could
torture or slay them as whim or malice might dictate; there were no
limitations by statute, and public opinion, where it might reprobate,
was too weak to influence his conduct. Now the statute books of all
countries which are moving in the path of moral advance show that public
opinion has attained the point where it begins to formulate itself in
statutes which restrict the relations of men to their domesticated
animals--or, in other words, endow them with definite rights. He may, of
course, force them to do him their fit service; he may at his need slay
them; but he must exercise his authority without brutality; he must, in
form at least, be merciful unto his beasts. With this limitation the
rights of domesticated animals began to exist.
At first sight it may seem unreasonable to found the rights of dumb
beasts on the embodiment of public opinion in the law, and this for
the reasons that many persons have held, that rights have an
establishment in the ultimate moral constitution of the world. It may
be granted that even before man or even life existed in the universe
there were certain logical moral principles which were destined to
take shape when the creatures to which they were adapted came to be;
but such speculations are fanciful and do not much concern those who
are dealing with the problems of the barnyard. We may, to bring the
matter nearer, say that the slave of half a century ago had a right to
be free; but this right, in all practical senses, meant only that
certain people very much disliked to see him enthralled.
So far, by successive stages, first by accumulated public opinion and
then by its embodiment in statutes, we have won a measure of protection
to subjugated animals which tends to save them from the extremer forms
of cruelty. The question now is as to the advances which may be made in
the time to come. It is evident that these advances, so far as the
domesticated species are concerned, will have to be limited by the needs
of man. We cannot ever expect to have the reverence of the Hindoo for
the lower animals, for the reason that his state of mind is based on the
preposterous supposition that the beast contains the spirit of a man on
its way through the cycles towards perfection. We must continue to
burthen, tax, and slay; but we may fairly be required to inflict no
unnecessary suffering. In this process of amendment we shall undoubtedly
before long come to the point where we shall demand that these animals
shall be lodged in a wholesome manner and so fed that they may be fit
for their tasks. We may, in a word, consider their well being so far as
it is consistent with the well being of mankind, and in so doing we
shall demand some personal sacrifice from the owner where such is
clearly demanded to maintain the principle of the law.
As in all other great sympathetic movements, the leaders of the advance
in the matter of the humane treatment of animals are occasionally
unreasonable in their demands--it may well be held that the prophet has
to be unreasonable in order to attain his goal; hence it has come about
that the demands of these admirable people are often beyond the bounds
of things that are practicable. Fire-horses, however ill, should be
made to do their duty, even if it costs them any amount of suffering;
even as the artillerymen should, if the occasion calls for it, rush
their teams, though they know that the poor beasts are to die at the
goal. In a word, the only and supreme test of our relations to these
subjects is the well being of man considered from the higher point of
view. This principle we apply to our own kind; we are justified in like
action in case of the brutes. In this consideration, the offence to the
feelings of man which is caused by any act of cruelty, however
necessary, deserves its due weight.
The most serious matter connected with the question of the rights of
animals which is now under discussion relates to the use of these
creatures in the investigative work of the naturalist, or in the
repetition of the processes and results of those inquiries before
students. Although all judicious people are likely to welcome the
exceeding reprobation with which many philanthropists visit the
vivisectionists, and this for the reason that the state of mind
shows a rapid advance of the sympathetic motive, they are likely to
question the sound foundation of the objections that are raised to
experiments with animals, made for the purpose of discovering of
displaying the truths of nature.
So far as the work of research into the phenomena of life is
concerned, there can be no question as to its importance or as to the
fitness of sacrificing the lives of the lowlier creatures in any way
that may be necessary for the advancement of knowledge. In the last
half century there has been an improvement in the treatment and
prevention of diseases so great as almost to defy adequate
description. To take only the last of these precious gains, that in
relation to the treatment of diphtheria, the gain has been such that
although the process is not past its experimental stage the reduction
of the mortality in hospitals where the remedy is used has lowered
the death rate from above fifty to about fifteen per cent. of the
cases. Yet this result rests upon a vast amount of experiment which
has cost suffering and life to the lower animals; and to produce the
remedy which is used, horses have to be innoculated with the disease,
and thereby much pain is inflicted upon them. Weighed as against the
life of a human being, a host of the lower creatures must count as
nothing. As all human advancement depends upon the dissemination of
knowledge, it is difficult to see any objection, from the point of view
of justice, to the use of the lower creatures to accomplish this end.
The only real point in the matter is as to the effect of such scenes on
the minds of young people; yet they have to be accustomed to behold the
processes of destruction of life which are everywhere going on about
them. The gardener maintains his work by endless slaying. Our tables
bear the products of the slaughter-houses. While the anatomist's work
may be revolting, it is only so because his tasks are done deliberately
and for a purpose that is not yet properly appreciated.
It is a curious fact that many a person who enjoys hunting or fishing,
and who slays or maims with much pleasure and to no substantial profit,
is horrified to see a student dissecting a living frog, guinea-pig, or
cat, in order that he may learn new truths or himself behold what others
have discovered. Of the two aims, momentary pleasure or intellectual
profit, which is the nobler? In which work is the mind the most likely
to become careless as to the rights of the dumb beast? To my
understanding, the present turn of sympathetic people against
vivisection indicates that the movement of the emotions has, as is often
the case, been diverted from the fittest path. So far from natural
science tending in any way towards cruelty, it has been the very guide
in the development of the modern affection for living beings. By showing
something of the marvels of their structure and history, it has
increased in a way no other influence has ever done the conception which
we form as to their dignity and the wonderful nature of their history.
It is in the true interest of mercy to disseminate in every way we can
knowledge as to the real nature of animals, leaving this knowledge to
bring forth the good fruit which it ever bears. In this connection it
should moreover be said that the naturalist, like the surgeon,
instinctively seeks to make his work as little painful as may be to the
subjects of his experiments. In almost all cases, the animal is made
unconscious. Moreover, all we know of the life of the lower animals
leads us to suppose that while they suffer much as we do, their pains
are of a physical sort, and unassociated to any great extent with the
large fears and anticipations which in the case of man form so
considerable a part of his torment when in face of death.
The question of vivisection is but a part, indeed a very small part, of
the much larger problem as to the relation of men to the lower life
which is about them in their fields and in the wilderness. An
approximate census of the species now on the earth shows that the number
is between two and three million. In the presence of this host, we have
to recognize that each of the innumerable individuals in its lifetime is
a record of toil and pain the history of which extends backward to the
beginnings of life. In this wonderful living world man has trodden
ruthlessly, for the reason that he has no sense as to the dignity of the
field. In the manner of a vandal, he has slain for profit or sport. He
has been so effectual a destroyer that species, genera, and even
families of animals have been ruthlessly swept away. The revelation of
natural science, of the men of the knife who are so hated by some
well-meaning but misdirected people, have now and only in our day
brought us to a point where the sense of nature in its organic aspect
begins to penetrate the minds of men. The revelation is so vast in its
contents and its imports, the conceptions which rest upon it are so
greatly enlarging to the human soul, that we may be sure of the wide and
swift extension of the new light. It cannot be questioned that the
clearer insight will rapidly change the attitude of men toward all
living beings. We can in a way discern some of the conceptions as to the
rights of the other life which will be enforced on mankind.
It is likely that the first step into the new field of human duty, due
to our better understanding as to our place in nature, will be in the
direction of a greater care as to our domesticated forms. While we must
continue to make their lives subserve our own, we may well insist that
they should be properly housed, and have what it may be possible to
afford them in the way of their primitive joys, which come from the sun,
the air, and their natural food. No one who has seen a long-stabled
horse made free of a field can have failed to note the intense pleasure
which he takes in returning to something like his natural conditions.
Many a cow stable with its foul conditions inflicts more and more
enduring torments than all the vivisectionists that some misguided
philanthropists are fighting; yet because of the novelty of the
naturalist's work these attend to the new scene and neglect the ancient
abuse. Among these evils which are to be corrected we may also account
that which arises from the unguided development of what are called fancy
breeds. Thus among our horned cattle, the Jerseys have been brought to a
point where, from the iniquitous inbreeding, which is against what may
be called the morality of nature, they are fearfully subjected to
tuberculosis. The punishment for this insensate performance comes back
upon mankind in the dissemination of consumption; but unhappily it does
not visit the people who are responsible for the development of this
breed. A like, though less considerable, evil is shown in the fancy
breeds of dogs, pigeons, and some other petted animals, where for
amusement and as an indication of his power man has raised up many
decrepit and sickly varieties, which are not likely to have a fair share
in the pleasure of life which their natural breeding insured them.
The observant naturalist of the field has the sense--at least he has it
if he be endowed with a little imagination--of the immense pleasure
which life gives to most wild animals. That instinctive, and in its
foundations utterly irrational and animal joy which men have, or should
have, in their day, is part of the birthright of all sentient beings. As
yet we have not recognized that this privilege of enjoyment should be
confessed. We do not hesitate to slay or maim for mere sport. It is true
that some of the ancient forms of this sport, such as bull-baiting and
cock-fighting, have been condemned, but the best of men go afield with
the gun to slay for pleasure. In a measure they keep up the pretence
that they are in some way contributing to the needs of the larder, but
so far as needs are concerned the pretence is mostly idle. It seems to
me clear that in shaping our sympathetic relations towards animals in
the light of our present knowledge, the huntsman will soon become
unknown in civilized life. So long as men looked upon animals in the
childish, ignorant way, viewing them as utterly commonplace things,
hunting or fishing, for the reason that they rested on a foundation of
ancient emotions, might well be indulged in. But to the man who knows
what science has to teach him, and who discerns the marvels which the
animal form enfolds, the destruction of such objects, except for need's
sake, is sure to be painful. I judge this from my individual experience.
In my youth I was very fond of hunting, and could even wring the necks
of wounded birds without trouble of mind. A better sense of what life
means, a sense which is no better than that to which all educated men
are soon to attain, has made such work very repulsive to me.
When the knowledge of our time is so brought down among the masses of
men that it may afford the foundations for appropriate enlargement of
the sympathies, the result will doubtless be a great movement towards
enlargement in public opinion which credits the lower life with what we
term rights. The most important result of this movement will be the
creation of a sense of duty by this life. It is said of Mohammedans
that they hesitate to tread upon a bit of paper lest it bear the name
of God. We know now full well that every living creature in this world
bears the stamp of a Providence which has acted from all time, and that
we, so far as our own advancement will permit, are morally bound to
allow this life to go forward on the appointed way.
THE PROBLEM OF DOMESTICATION
The Conditions of Domestication; Effects on Society; Share of the
Races of Men in the Work.--Evils of Non-Intercourse with
Domesticated Animals as in Cities; Remedies.--Scientific Position
of Domestication; Future of the Art.--List of Species which may
Advantageously be Domesticated.--Peculiar Value of the Birds and
Mammals.--Importance of Groups which tenant High Latitudes.--Plan
for Wilderness Reservations; Relation to National Parks.--Project
for International System of Reservations.--Nature of Organic
Provinces; Harm done to them by Civilized Men.--Way in which
Reservations would Serve to Maintain Types of the Life of the
Earth; how they may be Founded.--Summary and Conclusions.
The advance of mankind from the primitive savagery has been
accomplished in many ways. Among the various paths of onward and upward
going, however, we trace three which have served greatly to secure the
elevation of our estate. First of all, culture came through the use of
the hands in the development of the simpler arts. Next, these arts led
men to search the stores of the wilderness and of the under earth for
materials which could serve them in their advancing crafts. The third
important stage in their ongoing was attained when they began to
subjugate the animals and plants of the wilds, bringing the creatures
to abide in and about the households. Although in general this was the
last great step to be taken in the beginnings of civilization, it was
on many accounts the most important.
Until men began to domesticate the forms of the wilderness, it was
impossible for them to rise above the grade of savages. Their supply of
food was necessarily in such a measure limited that their societies had
to remain small and they were given to much wandering to and fro over
the earth. Moreover, they had only the strength of their own hands for
all the work of life. It was not until our kind began to form a society
of other species about their homes that the foundations of civilizations
were firmly established. The home, indeed, may fairly be said to be the
product of the conditions which the process of domestication brought
about. As distinguished from the temporary hut of primitive men, it
represented the stability which was induced by the care of the plants
and animals which man had domiciled about him.
With every step upward in the organization of society we find that
the number and efficiency of these subjugated creatures increases.
Our American aborigines in their primitive state commanded only the
dog and three or four plants, yet with this scant help they had
already won beyond the lowest savagery and were at the threshold of
barbarism. In our more civilized societies of to-day we find the
products of near a hundred animals and about a thousand plants as
elements of commerce, and each year sees some gain in the number of
creatures which we make tributary to our desires.
So far as we can discern, the relations of primitive savages to the
animal life about them is on the whole more friendly than is that of
cultivated men. It is true that the savage looks to the creatures of
the wilderness for the greater part of his needs. He slays them, not
at all in sport, but for the profit they may afford. Moreover, in most
cases, his imagination endows these wild creatures with a spirit like
his own. He often adopts them, in his religious worship, placing his
tribe under the protection of one or another, as some of our own
people do themselves under the protection of particular saints. The
effect of domestication when man comes to have his own separate
estate in animal life is to separate men from the creatures of the
wilderness. "Wild" and "tame" come to be terms having a meaning which
the savage does not recognize, and this meaning has with the advance
of culture become intensified, until to most men the only creatures
entitled to protection are those which have been made subject to man.
At first the process of domestication concerned only useful animals or
plants, those which would take a part in our industries. Rapidly,
however, these creatures have been adopted with the view to the aesthetic
satisfaction which they might afford. Quite half of the number of
species which have come under human control have been tamed mainly if
not altogether because of the charms which they possess. If we reckon
flowering plants in the category, by far the greater number of our
captives have been brought to us because of their beauty.
The work of domestication has in the main been effected by our own
Aryan race. Out of the total number of animals and plants which have
been made captives, probably more than two-thirds have been brought
into subjection by the European Aryans or by the folk whom they have
profoundly affected with their civilizing motives. The disposition to
win goods from the wilderness is in effect a fair test of those
qualities in a people which give them dominance: we may indeed
roughly measure the qualities of diverse folk by a variety of
conquests of this kind, which they have made. The reason for this
relation is plain. Success, whether it be of the individual or of the
race, depends in large measure upon forethoughtfulness, on a
disposition to study as to where profit may be had, and intelligently
to seek accessions of strength by experiments in domestication. Each
of these winnings from the wilderness represented by our domesticated
animals or plants has been painfully and laboriously gained. The men
who did the tasks were not creatures of the day, but foresightful
beyond the average of mortals.