Excerpt from Rational and Irrational Treatment of Animals: Address Delivered Before the New York State Agricultural Society, at Albany, on Wednesday Evening, February 9th, 1870 The present age is essentially a utilitarian one. It discards many barren speculative pursuits of former times for those which directly contribute to the triumphs of human intellect over the forces of nature, and seeks to inaugurate an era of universal civilization and happiness. We have not yet, however, arrived at the goal of our aspirations. It is true we have girdled the world with railroads, steamboats and telegraphs, bringing the contributions of all nations to minister to our physical and intellectual wants; and we have lessened the fatigue of toiling millions by substituting for worn fingers and wearied muscles the machine of admirable conception and design, and the all conquering power of steam. But as yet we come far short of the possible, in annihilating the sad list of human ills. Our Union Pacific Railroad, that greatest engineering work of modern times, reached not its completion without the immolation of its martyrs on the altar of human progress. No railroad track of any moment passes a year without offering up its human sacrifices as the price of the immeasurable advantages it grants to the traveling public. No large building, no great seat of learning is erected, but the remorseless demon of destruction exacts from his sworn enemies his human victims as the purchase of material and intellectual advancement. But if we have not yet acquired the power to avoid the lesser evils in the attainment of the greater good, we have at least reached this point of advancement - that we no longer seek to attain the desired object by inadequate and irrational means. We now demand of science that, while inaugurating great reforms, she shall also devote her best energies and her higher powers to the protection of the humble toilers in her grand reformations. In darker ages men sought for personal safety, as well as the protection of their flocks and herds, in charms, amulets and invocations, remnants of which are to be found, even in civilized communities, to the present day. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.