Hunting therefore does not appear, in the opinion of the Quakers, to be
followed for any of those purposes, which alone, according to the
original charter, give mankind a right over the lives of brutes. It is
neither followed for food, nor for prevention of injury to man, or to
the creatures belonging to him. Neither is life taken away by means of
it, as mercifully as it ought to be, according to the meaning of the[12]
great condition. But if hunting be not justifiable, when examined upon
these principles, it can never be justifiable in the opinion of the
Quakers, when it is followed on the principle of pleasure, all
destruction of animal-life upon this last principle, must come within
the charge of wanton cruelty, and be considered as a violation of a
moral law.
[Footnote 12: The netting of animals for food, is perfectly
unobjectionable upon these principles.]
SECT. III.
_Diversions of the field judged by the morality of the
New-Testament--the renovated man or christian has a clearer knowledge of
creation and of its uses--he views animals as the creatures of
God--hence he finds animals to have rights independently of any written
law--he collects again new rights from the benevolence of his new
feelings--and new rights again from the written word of revelation.
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