Life, 1906-08-23 · page 9 of 20
Life — August 23, 1906 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes E. Kay Robinson's book "The Religion of Nature," which argues animals don't suffer like humans because they lack human consciousness of pain. The main cartoon, "Snap-Shots in Hades," depicts this philosophy as absurd: it shows the underworld with people and animals in equal torment, suggesting Robinson's comforting doctrine is false. The text mocks Robinson's logic—that a baby screaming doesn't *know* it's in pain, so we needn't feel concerned. The reviewer (Agnes Repplier) argues this is willful delusion used to justify indifference to animal suffering. The satire attacks both Robinson's book and the comfortable self-deception it provides to those wishing to ignore animal pain.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
*LIFE* A Comfortable Creed DEVOUT and well-meaning Eng- lishman, Mr. E. Kay Robinson, has written a book which he calls “The Religion of Nature,” and in which he argues for our edification and relief that animals cannot ‘“suffer”—in our sense of the word—because they have no consciousness of suffering, no intelli- gent understanding of pain. ‘This cheer- ful conclusion clarifics for him the whole scheme of creation. If we would only stop ascribing to animals the sensations of terror and agony which we should feel erpack in) qo(munvres” in their place, but which they—being unable to classify terror and agony—can- not feel, then (so says Mr. Robinson) our hearts would be at rest. The world would no longer seem one vast charnel house, but a happy hunting-ground, where, in the absence of reasoning, pursuer and pursued are equally content. Our very language, we are told, is at fault when we use the same words to express a dog’s sensations and our own; and we are driven by the limitations of our speech to admit a puppy where he has no right to be—within the pale of human sympathy. a \ wie ca au AY B39 4 | SNAP-SHOTS IN HADES A NEW PUNISHMENT, JUST INTRODUCED FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE NEVER ON TIME LIFE’S WEATHER FORECAST Squalls from the South It is hardly surprising that Mr. Robin- son’s book should have provoked some lively retort. His arguments, if sound, must leave us equally unconcerned by the sufferings of a baby, or of a very little child. The baby screams with pain, but it doesn’t know that what it is screaming about is pain; consequently, as to suffer we must know that we are suffering, the baby isn’t suffering, and we need feel but a modified regret when it falls on its precious little nose. There are weak- minded people to whom a baby in pain is a more pitiable object than a man in pain, because a man can bring his spiritual force to bear upon his bodily torture; he can always be the captain of his soul. But such weak-minded people have no alternative but to be sorry for the sufferings—equally helpless and un- ennobling—of an animal. On the whole, “The Religion of Nature,” as preached by Mr. Robinson, is an adamantine creed; and it will pain him to find his chief disciples among the advocates of vivisection. Their views on the subject have always resembled those of little Tom Tulliver, who assured his credulous sister that angleworms could not feel being fastened on the hook—it being ‘Tom’s private opinion thai it didn’t matter much if they could. Agnes Repplier. RIGGS: I understand that Gander, the financier, is losing his memory. Gr Then he is just beginning to enjoy himself. comicbooks.com *