EVOLUTION AND OCCULTISM/PART 12
Men and Animals
From "Bibby's Quarterly,"
Autumn, 1903
The
relation of man to the lower animals is but very partially understood, chiefly
because animals are generally regarded as "having no souls," and
hence as being divided from man by an insuperable gulf. In Italy this idea has
been carried so far that even cruelty is excused, under the plea "Non e
Christiano," " It is not a Christian," as though the absence of
a future life justified the making of the present life miserable! But even
among kindly-hearted people there is a very general idea that animals are
merely an appendage of man, and that, as it is often phrased, "God made
animals for man's use." Hence the animal is regarded only in the light of
its usefulness to man, and to consider the welfare and evolution of the animal
as a separate being would, to most people, savour of the absurd.
Yet it
is not absurd if the animal, like man, should be an evolving creature, if the
animal should in some sense have a "soul." Now, in the animal we find
maternal affection, capacity of love, fear of pain, and dawning intelligence,
and in some we see great courage, endurance, fidelity and devotion to a master.
Great as are the differences between these and the corresponding qualities in a
civilised man, they are differences in degree rather than in kind, and a better
moral character may be found in a domesticated dog than in a low type of
savage.
A
brave, loving dog, faithful to death, would seem to be more worthy of
immortality than a blood-thirsty, cruel, treacherous savage. Yet ordinary
orthodoxy dooms the one to extinction and awards immortality to the other.
Now,
it is true that there is one important difference between an animal and a man;
both are vivified by an immortal Spirit, whose powers are more or less unfolded
and active; but the bridge between the immortal spirit and the perishing body,
that which is sometimes called "the soul," the intelligent,
self-conscious "I," is present in the man, even in the most brutal
savage, and is normally absent in the animal.
Take a
flock of sheep, a herd of cattle, any group of similar animals, wild or
domesticated, and a marked similarity of thought, feeling and action may be
observed among them. They are largely guided by instincts, which they share in
common, and comparatively little by individual reasoning; it is as though there
were "a common soul" guiding them all.
But
when one of the higher animals comes into close relations with men--such an
animal as a dog or a cat--a gradual change is visible to the close observer. If
the animal be a favourable specimen of its class, and be strongly devoted to
its owner, it will gradually separate itself off from its kind, and begin to
show marks of individuality; it will evolve strong likes and dislikes, will
follow ways of its own, will manifest ever-increasing powers of reasoning, and
anyone who can use clairvoyant vision will see that a change has taken place in
the superphysical bodies of such an animal.
Now, a
man, however undeveloped, however savage, shews an astral body, a mental body,
and a causal body, with the spirit brooding over and vivifying all. But an
animal shows an astral body, a vague cloud representing an embryonic mental
body and the over-brooding spirit; the causal body, that which makes possible
the self-conscious "I," is absent. Herein lies the difference between
the animal and man, between the noblest ordinary animal and the most brutal
savage.
But
when a highly-developed animal becomes intensely devoted to some human being,
and clings to him with passionate and unwavering fidelity, the play of the
human self-conscious intelligence stimulates the dawning intelligence and
quickens the unfolding of the spirit in the animal, and at last, as it were, a
flash, like an electric spark, springs across the gulf between the
over-brooding spirit and the embryonic mental body, a bridge of light spans the
gulf, the causal body is formed, the "soul " is born. Henceforth the
animal is separated off from its kind, and has completed the term of animal
evolution. Its death will be followed by an immense period of rest and inner
growth, and it will, long ages hence, be borne into some future humanity, to
begin the long course of human evolution.
These
individualised animals are, indeed, rare exceptions, but all animals are
treading the path which leads to individualisation, and their progress is
hastened or retarded by the human beings with whom they come into contact. The
dog, the cat, and the horse are the three animals capable of profiting most by
association with man, and their progress in the animal kingdom may be much
quickened by the wise, firm, and sympathetic training given to them by their
elder brothers, men. Even when they may not reach the point of
individualisation, they may be led up near to it, and a link is made between
them and their masters which, in the future, will be a source of benefit and
happiness to both.
The
practical difference which the adoption of this view of animals would cause in
the relationship between them and men would not be the relinquishment of their
services, nor the loss of their utility. They would be used as much as they are
now, but the treatment of them would be always kind, considerate, firm and
judicious. The training of the animal would be regarded as useful to the animal
as well as to the man; hasty and unnecessary blows and savage language would be
avoided, and harsh punishment of horse or dog would be regarded as showing the
owner's incapacity to train and educate aright. All cruel methods of breaking
would be abandoned, trust and confidence on the part of the animal would be
encouraged, and we should hear much less of "incurably vicious horses "--vice
which is mostly the result of human stupidity and cruelty.
Man
must gradually learn to regard himself as the divinely appointed ruler of the
animal world, using his great powers to raise and train his subjects, not to
crush and terrify them. He must cease to look on them as existing only for his
use and comfort, and regard them as his infant brethren in the divine family,
knowing that he is the representative to them of the Divine Being, to whom he
must answer for the exercise of the kingship placed in his hands.
END OF
THIS BOOK.
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