PAIN TO ANIMALS.
Granted that any practice causes more pain to animals than it gives pleasure to man; is that practice moral or immoral? And if exactly in proportion as human beings raise their heads out of the slough of selfishness, they do not answer "immoral," let the morality of the principle of utility be forever condemned.
John Stuart Mill.
WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN.
It might have been that the sky was green, and the grass serenely blue;
It might have been that grapes on thorns and figs on thistles grew;
It might have been that rainbows gleamed before the showers came;
It might have been that lambs were fierce and bears and tigers tame;
It might have been that cold would melt and summer heat would freeze;
It might have been that ships at sea would sail against the breeze—
And there may be worlds unknown, dear, where we would find the change
From all that we have seen or heard, to others just as strange—
But it never could be wise, dear, in haste to act or speak;
It never could be noble to harm the poor and weak;
It never could be kind, dear, to give a needless pain;
It never could be honest, dear, to sin for greed or gain;
And there could not be a world, dear, while God is true above,
Where right and wrong were governed by any law but love.
Kate Lawrence.