|
If a man runs away in battle when the
balls begin to fly, we call him a coward. He may excuse himself by the
argument that man must at all risks shun death. This is the excuse made by
the vivisector: he is often a kind and amiable man in every other relation
of life than in that aspect of his profession which demands, as he holds,
the torture of living animals for the advancement of the healing art.
Health of the body must be preserved at all costs; the moral health is of
little or no consequence in comparison with that of the body; above all we
must not die, death is the one thing to be avoided, hide therefore from
the darts of the King of Terrors behind the whole creation of lower
animals. Mr. Browning says this is cowardice exactly parallel with that of
the soldier who runs away in battle; the principle being that at all costs
life is the one thing to be preserved. The Anti-Vivisectionist principles
of Mr. Browning were very pronounced. He was for many years associated
with Miss F. P. Cobbe in her efforts to suppress the practice of torturing
animals for scientific purposes, and was a Vice-President of the Victoria
Street Society for the Protection of Animals from Vivisection at the time
of his death. See my Browning’s Message to his Time (chapter on
“Browning and Vivisection”).
|