RIGHTS OF MAN OVER THINGS.
Man was the last and the crowning work of the Creator. God made man in his own image and gave him dominion over all creatures.
"For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor.
"Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
"All the sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;
"The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas."
This high position is in entire harmony with man's innate consciousness of his superior powers, and of his nobler spiritual nature, and of his rightful dominion over all the other material creations. Man is a person, a thinking intelligent being, and is conscious of his personality, and from his lofty height he calls all else the lower and the inferior creatures. Wherever man is found over the whole earth, of whatever faith or grade of civilization, he claims this universal dominion.
Man was commanded to subdue the earth and bring it into subjection as his servant and he is conscious of his right to use all things to promote his comfort, convenience and welfare. Anything he can make of service to himself he has a right to appropriate.
A tree is a thing which he may prepare for his own purposes, for fuel, for tools, or for a dwelling, as he pleases.