Quote#Wisdom
It seems that most animals produce many more offspring than can find…
Quote byLewis Gompertz · 1783–1861
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Fragments in Defence of Animals, and Essays on Morals, Soul, and Future State (1852), The System of Nature and Duty of Man to Animals, p. 16.
English (original)
It seems that most animals produce many more offspring than can find food, but that their numbers are kept small by other animals who prey upon them, otherwise they would perish by famine: which of the two evils would be the greatest we do not pretend to determine, but as the former is the plan most adopted we must believe it to be the best.
— Lewis Gompertz
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Axiom 5. That we should never admit of the propriety of the will or volition of one animal being the agent of another, unless we should perceive its own good to result from it, or that justice should require it.
First, how do you prove that mankind is invested with the right of killing them, and that brutes have been created for the purpose you assert them to be? Secondly, it is to be observed that the flesh of man himself possesses the same …