LESSON 34 Cruelty to animals

第三十四课 人类对动物的残忍

Man is the direct agent of a wide and continual distress to the lower animals; and the question is, "Can any method be devised for its alleviation?" On this subject that scriptural image is strikingly realized: "the whole [inferior] creation groaning and travailing together in pain" because of him. It signifies naught to the substantive amount of the suffering, whether it be prompted by the hardness of his heart, or only permitted through the heedlessness of his mind. In either way it holds true, not only that the arch-devourer Man stands preminent over the fiercest children of the wilderness as an animal of prey, but that for his lordly and luxurious appetite, as well as for his service or merest curiosity and amusement, Nature must be ransacked throughout all her elements. Rather than forego the veriest gratifications of vanity, he will wring them from the anguish of wretched and ill-fated creatures; and whether for the indulgence of his barbaric sensuality or his barbaric splendour, he can stalk paramount over the sufferings of that prostrate creation which has been placed beneath his feet.

人类是低等动物广泛而深远的痛苦的代名词，问题是：有无办法可以缓解？《圣经》形象显然已对该问题有所意识：人类导致所有[下等]造物在痛苦中呻吟劳作。而对于它们所遭受的巨大痛苦，人类亦或始于内心的残酷，亦或纯属神经大条，却假装视而不见。无论怎么看这都是事实。因为人类是优越的吞噬者，为了填饱自己那傲娇贪婪的胃，为了受到服务，亦或仅被好奇和享乐驱使，人类会像猛兽般扑向荒野中最凶猛的子女，将自然万物洗劫一空。人类用不幸之生物的痛苦来满足自己的虚荣心，而这样的虚荣心却永远得不到满足。为了放纵自己无法抑制的残暴带来的快感，人类将绝望痛苦的万物踩在脚下，趾高气扬。

These sufferings are really felt. The beasts of the field are not so many automata without sensation, so constructed as to assume all the natural expressions of it. Nature hath not practised this universal deception upon our species. These poor animals just look, and tremble, and give forth the very indications of suffering that we do. Theirs is the distinct cry of pain. Theirs is the unequivocal physiognomy of pain. They put on the same aspect of terror on the demonstrations of a menaced blow. They exhibit the same distortions of agony after the infliction of it. The bruise, or the burn, or the fracture, or the deep incision, or the fierce encounter with one of equal or of superior strength, affects them similarly to ourselves. Their blood circulates as ours. They have pulsations in various parts of the body as we have. They sicken, and they grow feeble with age, and, finally, they die, just as we do.

痛苦是真真切切的。大地万物不是无感的机器，它们自创造之时便具备所有的自然的情感表达。自然从未用这种普遍适应的骗术欺骗我们这些物种。这些可怜的小家伙儿只能无助地忘着、颤抖着、对于人类给自己造成的伤害表现出种种迹象。它们凄厉地哭喊，它们狰狞的表情，无不在阐述着自己遭受的巨大痛苦。在面对威胁时它们同样恐惧；当遭受极大痛苦时它们同样表情扭曲；瘀伤、烧伤、骨折、深切口、与同等或更强大之物的激烈交锋也同样会使它们受到影响，就像我们人类一样。它们的血液和我们的血液一样循环流动，它们不同的身体部位也有着和我们一样的跳动着的脉搏，它们会生病，会随着年龄的增长变得虚弱，最后，它们会和我们一样死去。