You or I may have a brother or a sister who is not normally endowed as to brain power, who, perchance, may be idiotic or insane, or who, through sickness or mishap, is weakminded; but do we make this an excuse for neglecting, cruelly treating, or failing to love such a one?  On the contrary, the very fact that he or she is not so able to plan for, care for, and protect him or her self, is all the greater reason for all the more careful exercise of these functions on our part.  But, certainly, there are many animals around us with far more intelligence, at least manifested intelligence, than this brother or sister.  The parallel holds, but the absurd falsity of the position we assume is most apparent.  No truer nobility of character can anywhere manifest itself than is shown in one’s attitude toward and treatment of those weaker or the so-called inferior, and so with less power to care for and protect themselves.  Moreover, I think we shall find that we are many times mistaken in regard to our beliefs in connection with the inferior intelligence of at least many animals.  If, instead of using them simply to serve our own selfish ends without a just recompense, without a thought further than as to what we can get out of them, and then many times casting them off when broken or of no further service, and many times looking down upon, neglecting, or even abusing them,—­if, instead of this, we would deal equitably with them, love them, train and educate them the same as we do our children, we would be somewhat surprised at the remarkable degree of intelligence the “dumb brutes” possess, and also the remarkable degree of training they are capable of.  What, however, can be expected of them when we take the attitude we at present hold toward them?

Page after page might readily be filled with most interesting as well as inspiring portrayals of their superior intelligence, their remarkable capabilities under kind and judicious training, their faithfulness and devotion.  The efforts of such noble and devoted workers as Henry Bergh in New York, of George T. Angell in Massachusetts, and many others in various parts of the country, have already brought about a great change in our attitude toward and relations with this great body of our fellow-creatures, and have made all the world more thoughtful, considerate, and kind.  This, however, is just the beginning of a work that is assuming greater and ever greater proportions.

The work of the American Humane Education Society[A] is probably surpassed in its vitality and far-reaching results by the work of no other society in the world to-day.  Its chief object is the humane education of the American people; and through one phase of its work alone—­its Bands of Mercy, over twenty-five thousand of which have already been formed, giving regular, systematic humane training and instruction to between one and two million children, and these continually increasing in numbers—­a most vital work is being done, such as no man can estimate.