ot mercy only, but justice, is due to the brute.
Your horse, your ox, your kine, your dog, are not mere chattels, but
sentient souls. They are not your own so proper as to make your will the
true and only measure of their lot. Beware of contravening their nature's
law, of taxing unduly their nature's strength. Their powers and gifts are a
sacred trust. The gift of the horse is his fleetness, but when that gift is
strained to excess and put to wager for exorbitant tasks, murderous
injustice is done to the beast. They have their rights, which every
right-minded owner will respect. We owe them return for the service they
yield, all needful comfort, kind usage, rest in old age, and an easy death.

REV. DR. HEDGE.

* * * * *

CAN THEY SUFFER?

The day may come when the rest of the animal creation may acquire those
rights which never could have been withheld from them but by the hand of
tyranny. It may come one day to be recognized that the number of legs, or
the villosity of the skin, are reasons insufficient for abandoning a
sensitive being to the caprice of a tormentor. What else is it that should
trace the insuperable line? Is it the faculty of reason, or perhaps the
faculty of discourse? But a full-grown horse or dog is beyond comparison a
more rational as well as a more conversable animal than an infant of a day,
a week, or even a month old. But suppose the case were otherwise, what
could it avail? The question is not "Can they reason?" nor "Can they
speak?" but "Can they suffer?"

BENTHAM.

* * * * *

GROWTH OF HUMANE IDEAS.

The disposition to raise the fallen, to befriend the friendless, is now one
of the governing powers of the world. Every year its dominion widens, and
even now a strong and growing public opinion is enlisted in its support.
Many men still spend lives that are merely selfish. But such lives are
already regarded with general disapproval. The man on whom public opinion,
anticipating the award of the highest tribunal, bestows its approbation, is
the man who labors that he may leave other men better and happier than he
found them. With the noblest spirits of our race this disposition to be
useful grows into a passion. With an increasing number it is becoming at
least an agreeable and interesting employment. On the monument to John
Howard in St. Paul's, it is said that the man who devotes himself to the
good of mankind treads "an