SUMMARY (Deborah Madsen):

In the Preface Thomas Tryon offers an explanation of the Christian obligations that humans bear towards other-than-human animals.  In the chapters that follow, he first applies these principles to the specific cases of horses and sheep; then to the conduct of human life; then he turns to the colonization of America and the opportunities offered to create a society based on Christian respect for all creatures. According to Tryon, "Man" has "dominion" over the Creation only in three respects: that God is thereby glorified; that real and not frivolous human needs are satisfied, and that the animals are supported in the realization of their true nature:"helping, aiding and assisting those Beasts, to the obtaining all the Advantages their Natures are by the great, bountiful and always benificent Creator made capable of " (n.pag.). Humans are to animals what angels are to humans:

so will not any wise, or (which is all one) good Man think it below him to descend to do good Offices to these under-graduated Fellow-Creatures of his, whom some with a proud disdainful Scorn call Dumb Creatures and Brute Beasts, though yet they will haue a Voice to cry against their Oppressions; and if all things were rightly weighed, the former would appear much more Brutish (that is, more Absurd, and acting more contrary to the pure Dictates of unbyass'd and indepraved Nature) than the latter (n.pag.).

Humans forget their unregerate state, and mistakenly consider themselves entirely superior to all other creation; Tryon's aim is "to awaken him to aspire to that real Dignity which he seems almost wholly to have forgot" (n.pag.) and, specifically, to offer advice on the mangement of horses and sheep, for the benefit of all. 

Chapter one explains the nature of horses and how best to feed and care for them. In contrast to the many useful, dignified, tasks with which horses assist, Tryon denounces the sport of horse racing, which does not count among the beneficial work provided by horses: "I will not mention the famous Sports of Racing, since 'tis founded on an extravagant Humour, rather than any just cause, nor know I whether for our own Di∣version, … forbid hopes of getting Money (which being but a Mineral, or refined Dirt, seems much inferiour in the Dignity" (1-2). The humor of horses tends to the "cholerick" and heat dominates the equine temperament with the consequence that horses can easily be over-excited, over-worked, and over-heated, which causes illness and disease (2-3). This principle governs Tryon's advice concerning food, stabling, and handling of horses.

Chapter two covers the same topics in relation to sheep which, Tryon describes, "are in Temperature moderately Hot and Moist, and in Complexion Phlegmatick-Sanguine, with a mixture of Melancholy, and if they exceed in any of the four Humours, it is in Moisture; their Radical Fires burn but gently, being of a good equal Temperature, whence their sweet and amicable Natures and Dispositions do arise" (34). Balance being key to this temperament, Tryon advises against any circumstance that might generate an excess of heat (37). For example, he advises early shearing and condemns the practice of delaying shearing until later in the Summer so that the animals will sweat and increase the weight and value of their wool (41). Tryon provides a lengthy account of the language of sheep, which he links to the original language of nature:

ALthough Sheep have by Nature but One only Tone or Bleat, yet they can communicate their Minds to each other by varying and altering the same, accor∣ding to the respective states of their Minds and Spirits, and suitable to the occasion, no less readily than Mankind do convey their conceptions by articulate words; for when such a Centre is awakened, then presently such a sound is predominate in the Bleat; the like is to be understood in all other Creatures, even in Men; for every Word does vary in its Sound, according to what Property is awakened in the sevenfold Nature; and look whatever Property carries the upper Dominion, such a Sound or Tone is chief in the Word, and carries along with it the power of that Property or Principle, and by way of spirits it incorporates with its similes, in those to whom such words are directed. And according to the Radix of each word, so do they kindle either Love or Anger; for every Word does sound forth the state and nature of that Center, whence they proceed (59-60).

He describes creatures like sheep as sentient, though not to the same degree as humans but, in contrast to humans, having better preserved the original capacities granted by God: man "who yet was made a thousand degrees more sublime, but he wandered out of the Path of that pure Law and Way he was ordained to walk in, whereas those other inferiour Creatures have not, and therefore they all retain those Original Gifts bestowed upon them in their Creation" (62-63).

Chapter three recounts the advantages and disadvantages of moderate labor and exercise. Tryon condemns idleness as contrary to the operations of the body and all creation which is in constant motion. He cautions that "by Idleness I do not mean a Letargy of the Soul, or Stupidity of the Body, or the not doing any thing at all, but the doing of Evil, or that which we ought not to do" (89). Among those who facilitate the evils of idleness are those who "abandon themselves to Idleness, Gluttony, Drunkenness and all Uncleanness" and it is they who promote blood sports such as "Huntings, Hawkings, ... Bull-baitings, Bear baitings, Cock fightings, Races ... and a thousand other Vanities" (88).

Idleness and Gluttony are two of the greatest Tyrants in the World; for they enthrall the Mind, and draw it to all kind of Vitiousness, and both enfeeble and torture the Body by a great Number of Diseases, which are also entailed to their Posterity; so that what men call Pleasure proves the greatest Pain (92).

In contrast, "Labour and Abstinence are not only two of the best Physitians in the World, and two of the best Common-Wealths-men, the Pillars of Strength and Fortitude, but the Grounds of all Virtue" (96). Tryon concludes that those who refuse the principle of Temperance and instead indulge in idleness defy God who "hath endued thee with Organs of Body and Faculties of Mind, but thou let'st them rust with Idleness, or dost weaken and destroy them by Excess, and so thy Work, that very Work for which thou wast made remains undone; thy Creator is most ungratefully neglected, or Impiously affronted; thy Fellow-Creatures, instead of a Guide or Helper, find thee a Tyrant, and their Tormentor: Thy Life is rendred uncomfortable here, and all Endeavers after a better state hereafter are by thee sleighted (98).

Chapter four is entitled "The Planter's Speech to his Neighbours and Country-men in Pennsylvania, East and West-Jersey, and to all such as have Transported themselves into New Colonies for the sake of a quiet retired Life." Tryon begins by recounting the reasons for emigration: religious freedom, self-determination, escape from a corrupt society, self-realization, and the "civilization" and conversion of Indigenous people (102-103). "In order to these Great and Glorious Ends, it will well become, nay, is the Indispensible Duty of all that are Superiours amongst us, to make Laws and imitate Customs that may tend to Innocency and an Harmless Life, so as to avoid and prevent all Oppression and Violence either to Men or Beasts; by which we shall strengthen the Principle of Well-doing, and qualifie the Fierce, Bitter, Envious, Wrathful Spirit, which (as 'tis said of Fire and Water in their Extreams) is a good Servant, but a bad Master" (104-105). To avoid importing the behaviors and conditions that they have left England to escape, Tryon recommends such governing principles as Temperance and the prohibition of alcohol; the promotion of locally-made and modest forms of clothing and dress; the banning of idle jesting and gossiping; the prohibition of dowries to prevent marrying for wealth; the insistence that everyone works but for a maximum of six hours per day; and the banning of arms and ammunition. He asks "what Affinity there is or can be imagined between a Christian, and Guns, Swords, Powder, Shot, Drums, and the frightful noise of Armed Troops marching on to Manslaughter, Desolation and Spoil?" (118). Then, he proceeds to a long explanation of the reasons why killing other-than-human animals is as bad as killing fellow-humans:

Can you think the Noble Race of Man was made to be a Tyrant over, and a Scourge unto the inferior Inhabitants of the World? No sure, he was to treat and govern them in Love and Friendliness. But instead thereof, he is now become their deadly Enemy. Therefore though you will not fight with, and kill those of your own Species, yet I must be bold to tell you, That these lesser Violences (as you may call them) do proceed from the same Root of Wrath and Bitterness, as the greater do, there being but one grand Fountain from whence all kinds of Evil, Violence, Oppression and Cruelty do proceed, whether it be towards our Brother, Man, or any other of our Fellow-Creatures. And though Custom hath made the killing and oppressing of Beasts, Birds, &c. to be [familiar], and consequently easie, and done without any Remorse or Bowels of Pity, yet it is still from the dark Root. 'Tis true, we read in Scripture frequently of the Killing both Men and Beasts; and 'tis true, the Lord did give the Nations liberty to kill and eat the Flesh of Inferior Creatures; But note, That this was not done until Mankind had departed out of his holy Law, and government of his divine Principle, into his sierce Wrath, out of which wrathful Principle he permitted the killing and eating of Flesh (119-120).

After the Fall, according to Tryon, God gives to humans flesh to eat because that is the closest substance to the "wrathful spirit" that governs postlapsarian humanity (129); but in Heaven seeds and fruit are the only food, as promised in Gen. 1: 29. Tryon proposes that the colony "prefer the eating of Fruits, Grains and Seeds, for fear we should be precipitated into the Wrath before we are sensible of it, as many Thousands are; for mens strong Inclinations to Flesh and Blood, and to all Beastiality, do too clearly manifest that they live in the Power and Operation of the sierce Wrath and savage Nature of the wild Beasts of the Desert" (133).

Chapter five concerns "The Complaints of the Birds and Fowls of Heaven, for the Trea[c]hery and Violence they sustain from Man" and specifically the violence practised in America where, before the arrival of English settlers, birds and other animals "lived in a very great degree of freedom and security" (144). Adopting the collective voice of the birds, Tryon explains "'tis the Treachery and Tyranny that we endure from the hands of Creatures that call themselves Rational, and whom we never injured, but on the contrary have many ways obliged, that enforces us to remonstrate to all the Creation the Injustice of their Dealings and our Sufferings" (142). He underlines the irony that a people who have fled violence now bring it with them to the New World in the form of hunting, shooting, and laying snares and traps (145).