(From the first 1956 reprint edition)
As a relative of Dr. Anna Kingsford, that great lover of God's creatures, I am republishing this little book of "The Gospel of the Holy Twelve." I do so in the hope that its readers will be touched by the Compassion of the Master Christ for all living things, and that they will strive to imitate Him.
For the cruelties of the modern world towards animals and birds are a disgrace to civilized man. The agonies of the vivisection laboratories and slaughter-houses, of the victims of the fur trade, circuses and the rest, must be exposed in all their vileness, so that people everywhere may arouse themselves, and unite in ending them.
Let us remember that ALL LIFE IS ONE, and so guard from injury all living things, especially those most pathetically helpless and dependent upon us.
"He prayeth best who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all."
My thanks are due to Mr. S. H. Hart for his consent to this reprint. December, 1956
RONALD HENTLAND
