Chapter 1

VOICES FOR THE SPEECHLESS

Selections for Schools and Private Reading

by

ABRAHAM FIRTH

Secretary of the American Humane Association

--which "plead the cause Of those dumb mouths that have no speech."

LONGFELLOW

And I am recompensed, and deem the toils Of poetry not lost, if verse of mine May stand between an animal and woe, And teach one tyrant pity for his drudge

COWPER

1883

PREFACE

The compiler of this little book has often heard inquiries by teachers of schools, for selections suitable for reading and recitations by their scholars, in which the duty of kindness to animals should be distinctly taught.

To meet such calls, three successive pamphlets were published, and a fourth consisting of selections from the Poems of Mr. Longfellow. All were received with marked favor by the teachers to whom they became known.

This led to their collection afterwards in one volume for private circulation, and now the volume is republished for public sale, with a few omissions and additions.

All who desire our children to be awakened in their schools to the claims of the humbler creatures are invited to see that copies are put in school libraries, that they may be within the reach of all teachers. And this, not for the sake of the creatures only.

As Pope has said, "Nothing stands alone; the chain holds on, and where it ends, unknown."

Many readers may be surprised to find how many of the great poets have been touched by the sufferings of the "innocent animals," and how loftily they have pleaded their cause.

The poems in the collection are not all complete, because of their length in some cases, and, in others, because a part only of each was suited to the end in view. A very few, however, like "Geist's Grave" and "Don," could not be divided satisfactorily.

To all who have aided in this humble undertaking, heartiest thanks are given, and especially to its publishers who have accorded to it their coveted approval and the benefit of their large facilities for making the volume widely known.

May the lessons of kindness and dependence here taught with so much poetical beauty and with such mingled justice, pathos and humor, find a permanent lodgment in the hearts of all who may read them!

A. F.

BOSTON, MASS., U. S. A., June, 1883.

CONTENTS BY TITLES.

Introduction A Prayer He Prayeth Best Our Morality on Trial Sympathy Mercy Results and Duties of Man's Supremacy Justice to the Brute Creation Can they Suffer? Growth of Humane Ideas Moral Lessons Duty to Animals not long recognized Natural Rights "Dumb" Upward Care for the Lowest Trust Say Not See, through this Air The Right must win Animated Nature Animal Happiness No Grain of Sand Humanity, Mercy, and Benevolence Living Creatures Nothing Alone Man's Rule Dumb Souls Virtue Little by Little Loyalty Animals and Human Speech Pity Learn from the Creatures Pain to Animals What might have been Village Sounds Buddhism Old Hindoo Truth Our Pets Egyptian Ritual Brotherhood A Birthday Address Suffering To Lydia Maria Child Vivisection Nobility Acts of Mercy The Good Samaritan Love Children at School Membership of the Church Feeling for Animals Heroic Effect of Cruelty Aspiration The Poor Beetle The Consummation Persevere A Vision Speak Gently Questions Heroes For the Sake of the Innocent Animals Ring Out Fame and Duty No Ceremony True Leaders Be kind to Dumb Creatures Action "In Him we Live" Firm and Faithful Heart Service Exulting Sings In Holy Books The Bell of Atri Among the Noblest The Fallen Horse The Horse The Birth of the Horse To his Horse Sympathy for Horse and Hound The Blood Horse The Cid and Bavieca The King of Denmark's Ride Do you know The Bedouin's Rebuke From "The Lord of Butrago" "Bay Billy" The Ride of Collins Graves Paul Revere's Ride Sheridan's Ride Good News to Aix Dying in Harness Plutarch's Humanity The Horses of Achilles The War Horse Pegasus in Pound The Horse From "The Foray" On Landseer's Picture, "Waiting for Master" The Waterfowl Sea Fowl The Sandpiper The Birds of Killingworth The Magpie The Mocking-Bird Early Songs and Sounds The Sparrow's Note The Glow-Worm St. Francis to the Birds Wordsworth's Skylark Shelley's Skylark Hogg's Skylark The Sweet-Voiced Quire A Caged Lark The Woodlark Keats's Nightingale Lark and Nightingale Flight of the Birds A Child's Wish The Humming-Bird The Humming-Bird's Wedding The Hen and the Honey-Bee Song of the Robin Sir Robin The Dear Old Robins Robins quit the Nest Lost--Three Little Robins The Terrible Scarecrow and Robins The Song Sparrow The Field Sparrow The Sparrow Piccola and Sparrow Little Sparrow The Swallow The Emperor's Bird's-Nest To a Swallow building under our Eaves The Swallow, the Owl, and the Cock's Shrill Clarion in the "Elegy" The Statue over the Cathedral Door The Bird let Loose The Brown Thrush The Golden-Crowned Thrush The Thrush The Aziola The Marten Judge You as You Are Robert of Lincoln My Doves The Doves of Venice Song of the Dove What the Quail says Chick-a-dee-dee The Linnet Hear the Woodland Linnet The Parrot The Common Question Why not do it, Sir, To-day To a Redbreast Phoebe To the Stork The Storks of Delft The Pheasant The Herons of Elmwood Walter von der Vogelweid The Legend of the Cross-Bill Pretty Birds The Little Bird sits The Living Swan The Stormy Petrel To the Cuckoo Birds at Dawn Evening Songs Little Brown Bird Life's Sign A Bird's Ministry Of Birds Birds in Spring The Canary in his Cage Who stole the Bird's-Nest Who stole the Eggs What the Birds say The Wren's Nest On Another's Sorrow The Shepherd's Home The Wood-Pigeon's Home The Shag The Lost Bird The Bird's must know The Bird King Shadows of Birds The Bird and the Ship A Myth Cuvier on the Dog A Hindoo Legend Ulysses and Argus Tom William of Orange saved by his Dog The Bloodhound Helvellyn Llewellyn and his Dog Looking for Pearls Rover To my Dog "Blanco" The Beggar and his Dog Don Geist's Grave On the Death of a Favorite Old Spaniel Epitaph in Grey Friars' Churchyard From an Inscription on the Monument of a Newfoundland Dog The Dog Johnny's Private Argument The Harper "Flight" The Irish Wolf-Hound Six Feet There's Room enough for all His Faithful Dog The Faithful Hound The Spider's Lesson The Spider and Stork The Homestead at Evening The Cattle of a Hundred Farms Cat-Questions The Newsboy's Cat The Child and her Pussy The Alpine Sheep Little Lamb Cowper's Hare Turn thy Hasty Foot aside The Worm turns Grasshopper and Cricket The Honey-Bees Cunning Bee An Insect The Chipmunk Mountain and Squirrel To a Field-Mouse A Sea-Shell The Chambered Nautilus Hiawatha's Brothers Unoffending Creatures September The Lark The Swallow Returning Birds The Birds Thrush Linnet Nightingale Songsters Mohammedanism--The Cattle The Spider and the Dove The Young Doves Forgiven Prayers Dumb Mouths The Parsees Hindoo The Tiger Value of Animals Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

INTRODUCTION.

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THE BIBLE.

And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.--Gen. i. 31.

But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.--Ex. xx. 10.

For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.

I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine.--Psa. l. 10, 11.

The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.

The eyes of all wait upon thee: and thou givest them their meat in due season.

Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.--Psa. cxlv. 9, 15, 16.

A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast.--Prov. xii. 10.

Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction.--Prov. xxxi. 8.

But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee.--Job xii. 7.

Thou shalt not see thy brother's ox or his sheep go astray, and hide thyself from them: thou shalt in any case bring them again unto thy brother. And if thy brother be not nigh unto thee, or if thou know him not, then thou shalt bring it unto thine own house, and it shall be with thee until thy brother seek after it, and thou shalt restore it to him again.

In like manner shalt thou do with his ass; and so shalt thou do with his raiment: and with all lost things of thy brother's, which he hath lost, and thou hast found, shalt thou do likewise: thou mayest not hide thyself.

Thou shalt not see thy brother's ass or his ox fall down by the way, and hide thyself from them: thou shalt surely HELP him to lift them up again.--Deut. xxii. 1-4.

Who _is_ a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he DELIGHTETH IN MERCY. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities: and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.--Mic. vii. 18, 19.

Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom, and stretch her wings toward the south? Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high?--Job xxxix. 26, 27.

Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. --Prov. vi. 6-8.

And the Lord sent Nathan unto David. And he came unto him, and said unto him, There were two men in one city: the one was rich, and the other poor.

The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds: But the poor man had nothing save one little ewe-lamb, which he had bought and nourished up: and it grew up together with him, and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter.

And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock, and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come to him; but took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him.

And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die. And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because HE HAD NO PITY.--2 Sam. xii. 1-6.

Praise ye the Lord from the heavens: praise him in the heights. Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts.

Beasts and all cattle: creeping things, and flying fowl.--Psa. cxlviii. 1, 2, 10.

Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.--Psa. lxxxiv. 3.

And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle?--Jonah iv. 11.

For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn.--1 Tim. v. 18.

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Matt. v. 7.

Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.--Matt. vi. 26.

Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?--Luke xii. 6.

VOICES FOR THE SPEECHLESS.

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A PRAYER.

Maker of earth and sea and sky, Creation's sovereign, Lord and King, Who hung the starry worlds on high, And formed alike the sparrow's wing: Bless the dumb creatures of thy care, And listen to their voiceless prayer.

For us they toil, for us they die, These humble creatures Thou hast made; How shall we dare their rights deny, On whom thy seal of love is laid? Teach Thou our hearts to hear their plea, As Thou dost man's in prayer to Thee!

EMILY B. LORD.

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HE PRAYETH BEST.

O wedding guest! this soul hath been Alone on a wide, wide sea: So lonely 'twas, that God himself Scarce seeméd there to be.

O sweeter than the marriage feast, 'Tis sweeter far to me, To walk together to the kirk With a goodly company!--

To walk together to the kirk, And all together pray, While each to his great Father bends, Old man, and babes, and loving friends, And youths and maidens gay!

Farewell! farewell! but this I tell To thee, thou wedding guest! He prayeth well, who loveth well Both man and bird and beast.

He prayeth best, who loveth best All things both great and small; For the dear God who loveth us, He made and loveth all.

S. T. COLERIDGE.

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OUR MORALITY ON TRIAL.

Bishop Butler affirmed that it was on the simple fact of a creature being _sentient_, i.e. capable of pain and pleasure, that rests our responsibility to save it pain and give it pleasure. There is no evading this obligation, then, as regards the lower animals, by the plea that they are not moral beings; it is _our_ morality, not _theirs_, which is in question.

MISS F. P. COBBE.

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"Never," said my aunt, "be mean in anything; never be false, never BE CRUEL. Avoid those three vices, Trot, and I can always be hopeful of you."

C. DICKENS, in _David Copperfield_.

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SYMPATHY.

Wherefore it is evident that even the ordinary exercise of this faculty of sympathy implies a condition of the whole moral being in some measure right and healthy, and that to the entire exercise of it there is necessary the entire perfection of the Christian character, for he who loves not God, nor his brother, cannot love the grass beneath his feet and the creatures that fill those spaces in the universe which he needs not, and which live not for his uses; nay, he has seldom grace to be grateful even to those that love and serve him, while, on the other hand, none can love God nor his human brother without loving all things which his Father loves, nor without looking upon them every one as in that respect his brethren also, and perhaps worthier than he, if in the under concords they have to fill their part is touched more truly.

RUSKIN.

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MERCY.

The quality of mercy is not strained; It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath: it is twice blessed; It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes: 'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown: His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, The attribute to awe and majesty, Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings. But mercy is above this sceptred sway: It is enthroned in the hearts of kings; It is an attribute to God himself; And earthly power doth then show likest God's When mercy seasons justice. Therefore,... Though justice be thy plea, consider this,-- That, in the course of justice, none of us Should see salvation. We do pray for mercy; And that same prayer doth teach us all to render The deeds of mercy.

SHAKESPEARE: _Merchant of Venice_, Act 4, Sc. 1.

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RESULTS AND DUTIES OF MAN'S SUPREMACY.

And in that primeval account of Creation which the second chapter of Genesis gives us, the first peculiar characteristic of the Human Being is that he assumes the rank of the Guardian and Master of every fowl of the air and every beast of the field. They gather round him, he names them, he classifies them, he seeks for companionship from them. It is the fit likeness and emblem of their relation to him in the course of history. That "earnest expectation of the creature" which the Apostle describes, that, "stretching forth the head" of the whole creation towards a brighter and better state as ages have rolled on, has received even here a fulfilment which in earlier times could not have been dreamed of. The savage animals have, before the tread of the Lord of Creation, gradually disappeared. Those creatures which show capacity for improvement have been cherished and strengthened and humanized by their intercourse with man. The wild horse has been brought under his protecting care, has become a faithful ministering servant, rejoicing in his master's voice, fondled by his master's children. The huge elephant has had his "half-reasoning" powers turned into the faculties of a gentle, benevolent giant, starting aside from his course to befriend a little child, listening with the docility of a child to his driver's rebuke or exhortation. The light, airy, volatile bird seems to glow with a new instinct of affection and of perseverance under the shelter of the firm hand and eye of man. The dog, in all Eastern nations, even under the Old Testament itself, represented as an outcast, the emblem of all that was unclean and shameful, has, through the Gentile Western nations, been admitted within the pale of human fellowship. Truly, if man has thus, as it were, infused a soul into the dumb, lawless animals, what a community of feeling, what tenderness should it require from him in dealing with them. What a heartless, in one word, what an _inhuman_ spirit is implied by any cruelty towards those, his dependents, his followers, his grateful, innocent companions, placed under his charge by Him who is at once their Father and ours. Remember our common origin and our common infirmities. Remember that we are bound to feel for their hunger, their thirst, their pains, which they share with us, and which we, the controllers of their destiny, ought to alleviate by the means which our advancing civilization enables us to use for ourselves. Remember how completely each of us is a god to them, and, as a god, bound to them by godlike duties.

DEAN STANLEY.

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JUSTICE TO THE BRUTE CREATION.

The rights of all creatures are to be respected, but especially of those kinds which man domesticates and subsidizes for his peculiar use. Their nearer contact with the human world creates a claim on our loving-kindness beyond what is due to more foreign and untamed tribes. Respect that claim. "The righteous man," says the proverb, "regardeth the life of his beast." Note that word "righteous." The proverb does not say the merciful man, but the righteous, the just. Not 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.

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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.

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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 open but unfrequented path to immortality." The remark, so true of Howard's time, is happily not true of ours.

MACKENZIE'S _Nineteenth Century._

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MORAL LESSONS.

And let us take to ourselves the moral lessons which these creatures preach to all who have studied and learned to love what I venture to call the moral in brutes. Look at that faithful servant, the ox! What an emblem in all generations of patient, plodding, meek endurance and serviceable toil! Of the horse and the dog, what countless anecdotes declare the generous loyalty, the tireless zeal, the inalienable love! No human devotion has ever surpassed the recorded examples of brutes in that line. The story is told of an Arab horse who, when his master was taken captive and bound hand and foot, sought him out in the dark amidst other victims, seized him by the girdle with his teeth, ran with him all night at the top of his speed, conveyed him to his home, and then, exhausted with the effort, fell down and died. Did ever man evince more devoted affection?

Surely, something of a moral nature is present also in the brute creation. If nowhere else we may find it in the brute mother's care for her young. Through universal nature throbs the divine pulse of the universal Love, and binds all being to the Father-heart of the author and lover of all. Therefore is sympathy with animated nature, a holy affection, an extended humanity, a projection of the human heart by which we live, beyond the precincts of the human house, into all the wards of the many creatured city of God, as He with his wisdom and love is co-present to all. Sympathy with nature is a part of the good man's religion.

REV. DR. HEDGE.

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Whenever any trait of justice, or generosity, or far-sighted wisdom, or wide tolerance, or compassion, or purity, is seen in any man or woman throughout the whole human race, as in the fragments of a broken mirror we see the reflection of the Divine image.

DEAN STANLEY.

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DUTY TO ANIMALS NOT LONG RECOGNIZED.

It is not, however, to be reckoned as surprising, that our forefathers did not dream of such a thing as Duty to Animals. They learned very slowly that they owed duties to _men_ of other races than their own. Only in the generation which recognized thoroughly for the first time that the negro was a man and brother, did it dawn that beyond the negro there were other still humbler claimants for benevolence and justice. Within a few years, passed both the Emancipation of the West Indian slaves and the first act for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, of which Lord Erskine so truly prophesied that it would prove not only an honor to the Parliament of England, but an era in the civilization of the world.

MISS F. P. COBBE.

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NATURAL RIGHTS.