SYMPATHY BETWEEN MAN AND ANIMALS. 47 



interesting birds. They continue flying about here, but, as appears to me, 

 in reduced numbers since their meeting on the 8th. Is it not probable 

 that the flies constituting food most agreeable to them are now lessening? 

 so that, like able economists, in which knowledge there is no teaching 

 like instinct, they are enabled to comprehend the necessity of sending 

 away a portion of their community. The unincumbered are perhaps gone, 

 leaving those with young to .follow, soon as sufficient strength is acquired, 

 or as food fails. Such condition of affairs may reasonably be assumed to 

 be the subject of discussion at the assembly mentioned, and the diminution 

 in number points to that result. 



Bath, September \$th. } 1856. 



SYMPATHY BETWEEN MAN AND ANIMALS. 



BY O. S. ROUND, ESQ. 



It is perhaps a trite observation how differently two persons will act 

 under the same circumstances; one will fail, the other will succeed; arising, 

 doubtless, from the possession of a particular faculty in one, which the 

 other does not possess, and therefore has no inciting feeling towards; and 

 this goes further, for it often happens that we do possess the faculty, but 

 want example or stimulus of some kind to enable us to compass the act; 

 and thus, to speak more to the point of what I am about to say, this 

 master-spirit exercises a wonderful influence on the brute creation, and 

 that not always directly. 



I can speak from experience with regard to horses, the most beautiful, 

 noble, and intelligent of animals, in my opinion; and I am sure I need 

 only refer any practised horseman or whip to his own experience in con- 

 firmation on this point of what I would advance. Let him remember how 

 he has thrown himself on the back of a favourite horse on a sunny 

 morning, and taken a ride of a few miles, and how he has enjoyed the 

 ride; and let him remember how cheerily and well his nag cantered along. 

 Why was this? He may answer, "It was a fine morning, and I was 

 well and in good spirits, and the fineness of the day influenced the horse 

 too, if he felt such things;" be assured he did, but he did more than 

 this, he was conscious of your own exhilaration, and partook of and sympa- 

 thized in the feeling. Put another case, that of a hunt, when men* and 

 horses are excited enough, and yet even here, a timid and unassured rider 

 will cause the most gallant horse to miss at his leap, not merely from 

 bad management, but the influence which the rider has over his horse's 

 sympathies. Thus we hear many anecdotes of an intractable, nay, unman- 

 ageable animal being subdued and gentle, merely by the consciousness of 



