A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume 1: Taken from a View of the Education and Discipline, Social Manners, Civil and Political Economy, Religious Principles and Character, of the Society of FriendsClarkson, Thomas
Religion
A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume 1: Taken from a View of the Education and Discipline, Social Manners, Civil and Political Economy, Religious Principles and Character, of the Society of Friends
Clarkson, Thomas
Society of Friends
always to be considered, and to whom duties arise out of this spiritual
feeling, independently of any written law in the Old-Testament, or any
grant or charter, by which their happiness might be secured.
The Quakers therefore, viewing animals in this light, believe that they
are bound to treat them accordingly. Hence the instigation of two horses
by whips and spurs for a trial of speed, in consequence of a monied
stake, is considered by the Quakers to be criminal. The horse was made
for the use of man, to carry his body and to transport his burdens; but
he was never made to engage in painful conflicts with other horses on
account of the avarice of his owner. Hence the pitting together of two
cocks for a trial of victory is considered as equally criminal. For the
cock, whatever may be his destined object among the winged creation, has
been long useful to man in awakening him from unseasonable slumber, and
in sounding to him the approach of day. But it was never intended, that
he should be employed to the injury and destruction of himself, or to
the injury and destruction of his own species. In the same manner the
Quakers condemn the hunting of animals, except on the plea of necessity,
or that they cannot be destroyed, if their death be required, in any
other way. For whatever may be their several uses, or the several ends
of their existence in creation, they were never created to be so used by
man, that they should suffer, and this entirely for his sport. Whoever
puts animals to cruel and unnatural uses, disturbs, in the opinion of
the Quakers, the harmony of the creation, and offends God.
The Quakers in the second place, are of opinion that the renovated man
must have, in his own benevolent spirit, such an exalted sense of the
benevolent spirit of the Creator, as to believe, that he never
constituted any part of animated nature, without assigning it its proper
share of happiness during the natural time of its existence, or that it
was to have its moment, its hour, its day, or its year of pleasure. And,
if this be the case, he must believe also, that any interruption of its
tranquillity, without the plea of necessity, must be an innovation of
its rights as a living being.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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