AUTHOR OF
"THE SORCERY CLUB," "WERWOLVES," "BYWAYS OF GHOSTLAND," "SCOTTISHGHOSTS," "HAUNTED HOUSES OF LONDON," "HAUNTED HOUSES OF ENGLAND ANDWALES," "DREAMS AND THEIR MEANINGS," "FOR SATAN'S SAKE," "THE UNKNOWNDEPTHS," "DINEVAH THE BEAUTIFUL," "JENNIE BARLOWE," "GHOSTLY PHENOMENA,""MRS. E.M. WARD'S REMINISCENCES," ETC. ETC.
LONDON
WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LTD.
CATHEDRAL HOUSE, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
1913
First Published November, 1913.
If human beings, with all their vices, have a future life, assuredlyanimals, who in character so often equal, nay, excel human beings, havea future life also.
Those who in the Scriptures find a key to all things, can find nothingin them to confute this argument. There is no saying of Christ thatjustifies one in supposing that man is the only being, whose existenceextends beyond the grave.
Granted, however, merely for the sake of argument, that we have someground for the denial of a future existence for animals, consider theinjustice such a denial would involve. Take, for example, the case ofthe horse. Harming no one, and without thought of reward, it toils forman all its life, and when too old to work it is put to death withouteven the compensation of a well-earned rest. But if compensation beGod's law,—as I, for one, believe it to be—and also the raisond'être of a hereafter, then surely the Creator, whose chief claim toour respect and veneration lies in the fact that He is just andmerciful, will take good care that the horse—the gentle, patient,never-complaining horse—is well compensated—compensated in a goldenhereafter.
Consider again, the case of another of our four-footed friends—the dog;the faithful, affectionate, obedient and forgiving dog, the dog who isso often called upon to stand all sorts of rough treatment, and is shotor poisoned, if, provoked beyond endurance, he at last rounds on hispersecutors, and bites. And the cat—the timid, peaceful cat who ismauled, and all but pulled in two by cruel children, and beaten to ajelly when in sheer agony and fright it scratches. Reflect again, on thecow and the sheep, fed only to supply our wants; shouted at and kicked,if, when nearly scared out of their senses, they wander off the track;and pole-axed, or done to death in some equally atrocious manner whenthe sickening demand for flesh food is at its height.
And yet, you say, these innocent, unoffending—and, I say,martyred—animals are to have no future, no compensation. Monstrous!Absurd! It is an effrontery to common sense, philosophy—anything,everything. It is a damned lie, damned bigotry, damned nonsense. Thewhole animal world will live again; and it will be man—spoilt,presumptuous, degenerate man—who will not participate in another life,unless he very much improves.
Think well over this,—you who preach the gospel of man'spre-eminence;—you who prate of God and know nothing whatsoever aboutHim! The horse, dog, cat,—even the wild animals, whose vices,perchance, pale beside your own, may go to Heaven before you. TheSupreme Architect is neither a Nero, nor a Stuart, nor a clown. He willrecompense all who deserve recompense, be they great or small—biped orquadruped.
It is to testify to a future existence for animals and to create a widerinterest in it that I have undertaken to compile this book; and myobject, I think, can best be achieved in my own way, the way of theinvestigator of haunted places. The mere fact that there aremanifestations of "dead"