FUTURE LIFE.
That the Scriptures, contrary to popular tradition, do not deny a future life to the lower animals has already been conclusively shown. But do they declare anything in favor of another world for beast as well as for man? This is a question which we shall now endeavor to answer. As to man’s immortality, the Old Testament Scriptures teach the doctrine by inference rather than by direct assertion, for the reason, as has been presumed, that the writers of the several books, which were selected at a comparatively late period from among many others and formed into the volume popularly designated the Bible, assumed as a matter of course that man was immortal, and therefore did not concern themselves about a matter which they supposed everybody knew. But as far as the Old Testament goes, inference tells more strongly in favor of the beast’s immortality than that of man. Although in either case there does not appear to be any definite assertion of a futurity of existence, yet there is no such denial of the immortality of the beast as has already been shown in the case of the man.
Beasts, as readers of the Old Testament only too well know, were included in the merciful provision of the Sabbath, which, in its essence, was a spiritual and not simply a physical ordinance. And, again, we find many provisions in the ancient Scriptures against maltreating the lower animals, or giving them unnecessary pain, and these provisions stand side by side in the Divine Law with those which apply to man. All are familiar with the prohibition of “seething a kid in its mother’s milk,” and the non-muzzling of the ox in treading out the corn lest he should suffer the pangs of hunger in the presence of the food which he may not eat. Even bird’s nesting was regulated by Divine Law. “If a bird’s nest chance to be before thee in the way in any tree, or on the ground, whether they be young ones, or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the young, or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the young: But thou shalt in any wise let the dam go, and take the young to thee; that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days.” Moreover, as many animals must be killed daily, some for sacrifice and others solely for food, the strictest regulations were enjoined that their death should be sharp and quick, and that the whole of their blood should be poured out upon the ground lest they suffer lingering pain.
In keeping with the same consideration felt by Deity towards the kid and ox and bird, as expressed in the Law, we would refer to the few concluding sentences of the Book of Jonah:—
“Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not labored, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night.
“And should I not spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?”
“Every beast of the forest is mine,” saith the Lord, “and the cattle upon a thousand hills.” And again, “I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine.” Similar passages, in which God announces himself as the protector of the beast as well as of man, could be given, for the Scriptures are full of them. Who does not recall the well-known saying of our Lord respecting the lives of the sparrows: “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without the notice of your Father.”
Cowper in his “Task,” makes allusion to this branch of our subject in the following lines:—
“Man may dismiss compassion from his heart,
But God will never. When He charged the Jew
To assist his foe’s down-fallen beast to rise;
And when the bush-exploring boy, that seized
The young, to let the parent-bird go free;
Proved He not plainly that His meaner works,
Are yet His care, and have an interest all—
All in the universal Father’s love?”
One passage there is which certainly does point to a future for the beast as well as for man, and which places them both on the very same plane. It is found in Genesis, ninth chapter and fifth verse, and constitutes a part of the law which was delivered to Noah, and which was subsequently incorporated in the fuller law given through Moses. “And surely your blood of your lives will I require,” said God to Noah and his sons, “at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of every man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man.” In Exodus, chapter twenty-one and twenty-eighth verse, we read, “If an ox gore a man or a woman, that they die: then the ox shall be surely stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall be quit.”
While there are no passages of Scripture, as has been seen, which deny immortality of life to the lower animals, yet there are certainly some which tend to show it by inference. But the Scriptures were written for human beings, and not for the lower animals, and therefore it could hardly be expected that any information could be gained therefrom on the subject. As we find so few direct references to the future state of man, it is not at all to be expected that we should receive direct instruction upon the after-life of the beast.
But just as man has had within himself for untold ages an intuitive witness to his own immortality, yet there are those, lovers and friends of the so-called brute, who have an instinctive sense that animals, some of whom surpass in love, unselfishness, generosity, conscience and self-sacrifice many of their human brethren, must share with him in addition to these virtues an immortal spirit in which they take their rise. No more eminent personage than Bishop Butler was a believer in this idea. Substantially he asserts that the Scriptures give no reasons why the lower animals should not possess immortal souls. Similar sentiments have been voiced by equally distinguished writers.
Southey, writing of the death of a favorite spaniel that had been the companion of his boyhood, says:—
“Ah, poor companion! when thou followedst last
Thy master’s parting footsteps to the gate
Which closed forever on him, thou didst lose
Thy best friend, and none was left to plead
For the old age of brute fidelity.
But fare thee well. Mine is no narrowed creed;
And He who gave thee being did not frame
The mystery of Life to be the sport
Of merciless man. There is another world
For all that live and move—a better one!
Where the proud bipeds, who would fain confine
Infinite Goodness to the little bounds
Of their own charity, may envy thee.”
Thus does Lamartine, in “Jocelyn’s Episode,” beautifully express himself in addressing a faithful and affectionate canine by the name of Fido:—
“I cannot, will not, deem thee a deceiving,
Illusive mockery of human feeling,
A body organized, by fond caress
Warmed into seeming tenderness;
A mere automaton, on which our love
Plays, as on puppets, when their wires we move.
No! when that feeling quits thy glazing eye,
’Twill live in some blest world beyond the sky.”
Not by man alone have these higher qualities been accorded to the brute. Women have praised the good within the lower animals, and been quite as willing to share with them the benefits of an immortal life. Eugenie de Guérin, a woman distinguished for her devotional piety, and an author of no mean repute, was, like the most of her sex, quite passionately fond of pets. Hers was a turtle-dove. Its voice was the first to greet her in the morning. There was a pleasure in its soft, gentle cooings, as they fell upon her ear, that sent a sweet consolation to her busy, thinking soul. But the time came at last when she must part with her treasure. The morn dawned bright, an August morning, and the bird was well and happy, but, with the falling of the shadows at even-tide, its little life went out. A bitter trial it was for the mistress, who loved with a perfect love her feathered friend. While wrestling with her intense sorrow, and after she had sincerely placed its mortal remains in a dainty cavity beneath the roses, it was that she wrote: “I have a tolerably strong belief in the souls of animals, and I should even like there to be a little paradise for the good and gentle, like turtle-doves, dogs and lambs. But what to do with wolves and other wicked animals? To damn them?—that embarrasses me.”
Less devotional, perhaps, and looking rather to logic than to intuition, was the mind of Mrs. Somerville. With such a difference in constitution between the two women, we would naturally look for the greatest divergence of opinion upon a matter of this kind, but, astonishing to relate, there is noticeable a marked unanimity. Speaking of death, and the accompanying change of environing objects, this gifted writer, in her eighty-ninth year, says in her “Memoirs”:—
“I shall regret the sky, the sea, with all their beautiful coloring; the earth, with its verdure and flowers; but far more shall I grieve to leave animals that have followed our steps affectionately for years, without knowing for certainty their ultimate fate, though I firmly believe that the living principle is never extinguished. Since the atoms of matter are indestructible, as far as we know, it is difficult to believe that the span which gives to their union life, memory, affection, intelligence and fidelity is evanescent.
“Every atom in the human frame, as well as in that of animals, undergoes a periodical change by continual waste and renovation: the abode is changed, not its inhabitant. If animals have no future, the existence of many is most wretched. Multitudes are starved, cruelly beaten, and loaded during life; many die under a barbarous vivisection.
“I cannot believe that any creature was created for uncompensated misery: it would be contrary to the attributes of God’s mercy and justice. I am sincerely happy to find that I am not the only believer in the immortality of the lower animals.”
To have given the many opinions that have been expressed by the good and wise of the past in favor of the belief that animals received, in common with man, a particle of the divine essence, and hence became immortal, would have extended this chapter beyond intended limits. We have room for just another witness. No one is better known for his convictions upon this subject than the late Dr. Wood, whose contributions to natural history are known the world over. Speaking of the death of his dog Rory, a creature that manifested in the flesh the strongest affection for his keeper, the Doctor says:—
“I could not believe that an animal which would die of grief, as he died, for the absence of his master, would have his existence limited to this present world, and that such intensity of love should terminate at the same moment that the material heart ceased to beat.”
When we think of the apparent inequality that is everywhere to be seen in the lives both of man and beast, we cannot believe, as Mrs. Somerville has remarked, that any being was “created for uncompensated misery.” Some human beings are endowed with everything that a man can desire—health, strength, riches, accomplishments and capacity for enjoyment—while others are destitute of all these accessories to happiness. Putting aside the fact that those whose lots seem to be the most enviable are the least to be envied, we cannot help acknowledging that this disparity does exist, and that the earthly lot of some is very hard, while that of others is very easy. But we must remember that there is taught in the New Testament the grand doctrine of Compensation. Paul alludes to this when he remarks that the sufferings of this world are not to be compared with the glories of the world to come, and that the troubles, trials and tribulations of this life are but the precursor of that glorified existence where all these things will be utterly unknown. That some such arrangement would be nothing more than justice there can be no question, and that some principle of Divine Justice must exist was instinctively known long before it was explicitly declared by the inspired apostle, for references to such compensation are found throughout the Psalms. Even Job himself, sunk as he was in the very depth of afflictions, could say: “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him; but I will maintain my own ways before Him. He also shall be my salvation; for an hypocrite shall not come before Him.” So far, then, as man is concerned, this problem of apparent inequality is not so difficult of solution, for he knows only too well that in spite of his hard and bitter earth-life that Divine Justice will be more than vindicated in the life beyond the grave to which he aspires. But in the case of the lower animals, granting that they have no future existence, what, I ask, becomes of Divine Justice? In this land of enlightenment we meet with many animals that are treated with the greatest kindness by their masters, and others, endowed with capacities that are not a whit inferior to their more fortunate brethren, that are treated with the utmost cruelty. While one is petted and pampered, another is abused and given over to the pangs of hunger and starvation. If there is a future life for these animals, it is simply impossible to recognize in their Maker that justice which sensible, reasoning man should expect. Such an injustice, as shown by the lives which we have contrasted, would be too flagrant for any human being to perpetrate, unless such a being was wholly deficient in the ideas of right and wrong. But on the supposition that these animals possess immortal souls, and that there is for them a future life in which these souls shall be developed to their fullest capacities, then these apparent discrepancies can be reconciled with Absolute Justice and Perfect Love. In His dealings with the lower animals, as with ourselves, God looks to the spiritual rather than the material world, and by the means of the one instructs and prepares his pupils for the other. With Paul I firmly believe that suffering in the present world has for its object a preparation for and an introduction to a future life, and therefore am thoroughly convinced that any creature capable of suffering has in that capacity its passport to an eternal world.
Another step, that is, the possession of Individuality, as connected with Immortality, now presses forward for consideration. As for man, did he not possess Individuality, no diverseness of management would be needed, for all would be treated in a similar manner. No two faces in man are precisely alike, for the very simple reason that no two souls, of which the countenance is an indication, are alike. The same rule, no matter what may be affirmed to the contrary, holds good among the lower animals. To the casual observer no apparent difference can be detected between any two individuals of a flock of sheep, a portrait of one equally resembling that of any other. But a shepherd, who understands his business, will readily distinguish every sheep of his flock, as well as describe the mental peculiarities of each individual. One ordinary yellow canary looks just like another yellow canary to the ordinary vision, while in reality the mental character of each bird is impressed just as strongly upon its countenance as are human qualities upon that of man. This quality it is, both in man and beast, that implies a separate treatment for each individual, and becomes a plea for an immortality of life. I am not alone in this idea. It is simply astounding how Individuality in the lower animals is ignored by man. The generality of grooms treat all horses as though they were just so many machines turned out of the same mould, and to be treated just like machines. There is in every species a double kind of Individuality. One kind there is that is common to the entire species, and then there is in addition to this common characteristic another that distinguishes each separate being from its fellows. It is the former that makes a species what it is, and there can be no doubt that each will exist in the future life, and that both may be capable of development. The dog, the horse, the lion and the elephant, and in truth all animals that may be fitted to survive, will be in the other world what they are in this. They will be better animals in that world, just as we hope to be better men, but they will not approach us any nearer than they do in the earth-life.
Man does not, as some are foolish enough to claim, lower the condition of humanity the least by granting immortality to the lower animals. If they be immortal, as the evidence adduces most strongly shows, there is not the slightest use of denial. We cannot shirk a fact, and even if we could, we ought not to do it. Such an argument, which seeks to elevate man by depreciating his lower fellow-creatures, is not very creditable to humanity. In announcing the belief that the lower animals share immortality with man in the higher world, as they share mortality in this, does not claim for them the slightest equality. Man will be man and beast will be beast, and insect will be insect, in the next world as they are in this. They are living exponents of Divine Ideas, as is evident from the Scriptures and the teachings of science, and will be wanted to continue in the world of spirit the work which they have begun in the world of matter. True it is, as has been asserted, that because a man can transmit his ideas to the lower animals, there is evidence that they possess a spirit which is able to communicate with the spirit of man. When a man gives an order to his dog, and is obeyed, there is proof that both possess spirits, similar in quality, though differing in degree. We know that to give an order to a plant would be useless and absurd, because the plant has not the spirit that can respond to the spirit of the man in the same manner that a dog’s or a horse’s spirit can, but the inability so to respond does not prove that the plant is devoid of a spirit. That the spirit of the plant does respond to the spirit of the man, when it adapts itself to the conditions which the spirit of the man has imposed upon it, there can be no question, or the many hundred plants which have been reclaimed from a state of wildness by a judicious and careful management upon the part of man would have been among the impossibilities of modern civilization. The spirit of man must have entered into the spirit of the plant, and held communion therewith, or the world to-day would not have been blessed with its manifold cereals, fruits and vegetables, all of which have been rendered possible for use by the spirit of man entering into an understanding with the nature, wants and peculiar dispositions of the plants about him. No less are plants living exponents of Divine Ideas than worms, insects, beasts and men are, and as such living exponents, they are as much needed in the future existence, at least such as are fitted to continue in the spirit-world the work begun in the world of matter, as are the higher forms of animal beings. As plants go a great ways towards making this earth-life a paradise of beauty and delight, and have ever been associated through the ages with animal life, each of the two great kingdoms of life from simple beginnings attaining to higher and still higher development up to the present period—the Era of Mind—it cannot be possible that the two will have become suddenly divorced when the temporal or earth-life is about to pass into the eternal or spirit-life. Heaven would not be Heaven without the plants that we have cultured, and tended, and admired.
Concluding, then, let me say, I claim not for the lower animals the slightest equality with man. What I claim for them is a higher status in creation than is generally attributed to them. I claim for them a future life, where they will receive a just compensation for the sufferings which so many of them have to undergo in this world. Most of the cruelties which are perpetrated upon animals are due to the habit which man has, in his exalted opinion of self, of considering them as mere automata, without susceptibilities, without reason and without the capacity of a future. That I have achieved the purpose, with which I set out, of proving that all life is immortal, or that soul exists in plants and animals, I think must be admitted. If this doctrine of immortality shall have the effect of bringing about a more humane treatment of the animals over which man has been given dominion, and thus contribute, be it ever so little, to their well-being and happiness, even in this life, then the object attained will be felt to be a just and worthy recompense for the thought and labor which have been expended in its support and defence. Not alone are we of the upper walks of being made the possessors of the inner life, but all nature shares it in common with us, and love is its expression and the method of its action.
THE END.