John Styles
John Styles | |
---|---|
Born | 17 March 1782 |
Died | 22 June 1849 | (aged 67)
Occupation | Congregational minister |
John Styles (17 March 1782 – 22 June 1849) was an English
Congregational minister and animal rights
writer.
Biography
Styles was educated at
Aberdeen University
.
In 1837, the
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) sponsored an essay competition, with a prize of £100, for the best essay encouraging greater kindness to animals (illustrating "the obligations of humanity as due to the brute creation").[3][4][5] Styles won the competition with his essay The Animal Creation: Its Claims on Our Humanity Stated and Enforced, an early work on animal rights.[4]
Styles based his arguments on Christian principles from the Bible, arguing that animals feel pain and suffer as humans do and that because God has given humans dominion over animals, they should treat them with benevolence and mercy.
Styles opposed all forms of hunting and vivisection.[3][4] He was not a vegetarian, but did criticize the luxuries of meat-eating. Historian Rod Preece has suggested that Styles plagiarized from An Essay on Humanity to Animals (1798), by Thomas Young (c.1772–1835) of Trinity College, Cambridge, and that the SPCA jury did not notice the borrowings.[4][8]
Styles died at Kennington on 22 June 1849.
Selected publications
- An Essay on the Character and Influence of the Stage on Morals and Happiness (1807)
- An Essay on the Character and Influence of the Stage (1807)
- Memoirs of the Life of the Right Hon. George Canning (1828)
- The Animal Creation: Its Claims on Our Humanity Stated and Enforced (1839)
See also
References
- ^ a b The Characteristics and Dying Testimony of Peter: A Discourse Occasioned by the Death of Rev. John Styles, D. D. By John Sibree. The Baptist Magazine. Volume 41, 1849. p. 561
- ^ "The Surman Index Styles, John". surman.english.qmul.ac.uk.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7748-2109-4
- ^ ISBN 978-0-415-94363-5
- ^ ISBN 978-1-108-49296-6
- ^ "The Animal Creation: Its Claims on our Humanity Stated and Enforced. By the Rev. John Styles D.D." The Herald of Peace. 1: 331–333. 1839.
- The Monthly Review. 149: 145–146. 1839.
- ^ "Young, Thomas (YN789T)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.