216 ' ON SPORTS AND EXERCISES. 



Cruelty to anl- diminish the influence of this principle, ought carefully* 

 mals will de- iq ^^ avoided. Now every single act of cruelty contri- 

 stroy the gene- , , ., . ^ , ., ^ - ^. • i • • 



ral sympathy "utcs its share toward the weakening or extinguishing 



Qfmaq; the principle of sympathy; and by the repetition of 



such acts, according to the general laws of habit*, a.dis- 



' position to cruelty is likely to b? generated. If a child 



be early indulged in sportively tormenting animals^ and 

 this vicious propensity be suffered to grow up into a ha- 

 bit, his sensibility to human suffering will be proportion- 

 ably diminished ; insensibility will harden into brutality ; 

 and at length he will not be restrained from positive acts 

 of cruelty towv^rd his own species, whenever goaded by 



— and render the feelings of interest or of passion. Hogarth, our great 



him callous to nioral painter, has admirably illustrated the progress of 

 every proper x o 



feeling in soci- cruelty in the human breast. The first stage of his hero's 

 cty. career is marked by sportive and wanton barbarity to 



animals. Upon this foundation crimes are soon erected ; 

 and at length grown callous to every social + and moral 

 feefing, he closes his profligate career, by the perpetra- 

 lUustrationsby tion of a deliberate and cruel murder. Another excellent 

 Dr.^Moor^" judge of the human heart, Dr. Moore, has forcibly de- 

 picted the effects of wanton cruelty to the inferior crea^ 



* " The habitude which the people of this country (viz. Cape 

 of Good Hope) necessarily acquire in witnessing instances of cru- 

 elty on human as well as brute creatures, cannot fail to produce a 

 tendency to hardness of heart, and to stifle feelings of tenderness 

 and benevolence. In fact, the rigour of justice is seldom softened 

 with the balm of mercy."— .See Barrow's Travels in Africa, Vol. II, 

 P-4I- 



f Such is the general impression on the mind of the power of 

 habit to generate cruelty, that in most countries, those occupations 

 •which employ men in the destruction of animal life for the suste- 

 nance of human kind, are held in degradation and contempt. The 

 lowest of the butchering tribe, in default of an executioner, is com- 

 pelled to perform his functions in France and many other parts of 

 the continent. There is an opinion prevailing in England, that 

 butchers, and even surgeons, ar<* equally disqualified, by the nature 

 of their occupations, to sit upon juries, in trials affecting the lives 

 of their fellow-subjects. This is probably a pppular error; or, if 

 true, yet a much more honourable reason may be assigned, why 

 surgeons are not required to act in the capacity of jurors. Their 

 office Is to administer to the sufferings and calamities of their feU 

 low-creatures— and it is fit they should every moment be disen- 

 gaged and free to obey the surftinons to so humane a duty. 

 , tion, 



