p. 87 | Man and Animals by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 22, 1883

Man and Animals.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

ONE notable fact in the make-up of man is that certain traits of character definitely marked in an individual, indicate the existence of certain other traits in the same person. For instance, the man who is cruel either to man or beast (and if he is cruel to one he surely will be to the other) is a coward. Mark it where you will; the man who has not a soul to be touched by suffering, even of the lowest of the brute creation, has not the courage to brave danger. I have had opportunity to observe this, and I know that the bravest soldiers have the tenderest hearts and are the most easily touched by the sufferings of man or beast. Adopt this rule in selecting men for their bravery, and you will never make a mistake. The cruel man is also mean, stingy, and selfish. My opportunity for observation in reference to this fact has not been so great, yet I am convinced from what I have observed that it is true.

Animals have a nervous system as regularly developed and as accurately adjusted as men. Many of them are as sensitive to pain as we are. Some animals show other than physical suffering when abused and ill-treated. A disposition to be cruel to animals has not been universal. Most men are inclined to treat animals in their care kindly; the opposite is the exception, and it is doubtless this fact that has caused such tardiness in making laws to restrain those of our race who have so little humanity in their make-up as not to be touched with the sufferings of others, either of their own race or of the brute creation. As the four-leafed clover is but a part of two sets of leaves of three each, and the twin apple should have been two perfect apples, so he who has a tendency to be cruel to animals is only a part of a man. He is devoid, in part at least, of a great soul element God has planted in our nature, not only for the protection of the helpless brute, but for the preservation of our own race. He is not guiltless, however, for the continuance of this natural defect; he is capable of cultivation, and grace has been provided by which he may be elevated to the standard of a perfect man.—D. B. W., in New York Tribune.