eath.

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