“We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals…. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth.” – Henry Beston, The Outermost House (1928)
Henry Beston wrote these words in 1927, some 83 years ago – and that amazes me. Of inerest also is that in The Outermost House he wrote about the devastating aftereffects of an oil spill off Cape Cod while he was a resident.
For me, the magic of this quote is in the phrase “They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time….”
When will we humans become true advocates for all creatures and for the entire planet?
Andrew Shattuck McBride, Writer's Blog 