I
have consulted the higher power by whom you know that I am inspired, and
he has assured me that this conclusion is irrefragable.
"Now it cannot be denied that sheep, cattle, deer, birds, and fishes are
our fellow-creatures. They differ from us in some respects, but those in
which they differ are few and secondary, while those that they have in
common with us are many and essential. My friends, if it was wrong of
you to kill and eat your fellow-men, it is wrong also to kill and eat
fish, flesh, and fowl. Birds, beasts, and fishes, have as full a right
to live as long as they can unmolested by man, as man has to live
unmolested by his neighbours. These words, let me again assure you, are
not mine, but those of the higher power which inspires me.
"I grant," he continued, "that animals molest one another, and that some
of them go so far as to molest man, but I have yet to learn that we
should model our conduct on that of the lower animals. We should
endeavour, rather, to instruct them, and bring them to a better mind. To
kill a tiger, for example, who has lived on the flesh of men and women
whom he has killed, is to reduce ourselves to the level of the tiger, and
is unworthy of people who seek to be guided by the highest principles in
all, both their thoughts and actions.
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