Transcribed from the 1918 John Lane edition ,
GREAT TESTIMONY
AGAINST SCIENTIFIC CRUELTY
:: COLLECTED AND EDUCED BY ::
THE HONBLE. STEPHEN COLERIDGE
WITH EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS
LONDON: JOHN LANE THE BODLEYHEAD
NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY MCMXVIII
p. ivprinted by william brendon and son, ltd., plymouth,england
p.vPREFACE
If the support of great and good men, famous throughoutChristendom, will avail to justify a cause, then indeed we whowould utterly abolish the torture of animals by vivisection cannever be put out of countenance.
Difficult would it be indeed to bring together the authorityof so many resounding reputations against any other act of man,since slavery was abolished.
The poets, philosophers, saints and seers of England haveunited to anathematise it as an abomination, and as a deed onlypossible to a craven.
It seems strange that in the face of such authenticcondemnation the horrid practice has not disappeared off the faceof the civilised earth, until it is observed that it has receivedthe shameless support of science, which for two generations hasusurped p. vian authority over conduct for whichit possesses no credentials. The modern prostration ofmankind before science is a vile idolatry. In the realm ofethics science is not constructive but destructive. Itexalts the Tree of Knowledge and depresses the Tree of Life.
How is the character of man elevated or purified by all themaddening inventions of science? How indeed! Are wemade better men by being whirled about the globe by machinery, bythe increased opportunities for limitless volubility, or by theingenious devices for mutual destruction? And how are wemorally advantaged by the knowledge of the infinite depths ofspace, the composition of the stars and the motions of theplanets?
The old Persian, when his far-travelled offspring returnedwith these wonders to tell, replied: “My son, thou sayestthat one star spinneth about another star; let itspin!”
And Ruskin once remarked: “Newton explained why an applefell, but he never p. viithought of explaining the exactlycorrelative, but infinitely more difficult question, how theapple got up there.”
The dead and dreary law of gravitation made it fall, but theglorious law of life, known only to God, drew it up out of theearth and hung it in all its inexplicable wonder high in theair.
And I think herein is a very good parable applicable toourselves and our age.
Science has found out that everything in the Universe isfalling towards everything else, or trying to do so, and we areso absorbed in this deciduous discovery that we have forgotten tolook up and observe the lovely things about us that byGod’s