186 CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 



quisite, and consequently their sufferings as acute, as those of 

 larger animals. The writhings of the poor worm, on which we 

 accidentally tread, evidently show the pangs which it feels, shock 

 the heart that is endowed with sensibility, and force it to lament 

 the step which fortuitously caused these sufferings. Horrible, 

 however, to relate, parents too frequently indulge their children 

 in the wanton sport of torturing poor insects in a manner at 

 which humanity must shudder. Although this horrid propensity 

 may, at that early period of life, be attributed to a want of re- 

 flection, yet, if indulged, it may settle into a habit of cruelty, and 

 render their hearts callous, not only to the sufferings of the brute 

 creation, but to those of their own species. A parent, indeed, 

 who encourages his child to torture a poor helpless insect, ought 

 not to wonder if he afterward see him a murderer of his fellow- 

 creature, which will very probably be the case, unless a want of 

 courage, strength, or opportunity, prevent the exerciee of his 

 cruelty, or the terrific dread of the gallows restrain his hands. 



" What more advance can mortals make in sin, 



So near perfection who with blood begin?" DRYDEN. 



The supreme court of judicature at Athens, to its eternal 

 credit, punished a boy for putting out the eyes of a poor bird 

 that unfortunately fell into his savage hands ; and parents and 

 masters should never overlook an act of cruelty towards any 

 thing that is endowed with life and sensation, however minute 

 and contemptible it may seem. No creature is mean or insignifi- 

 cant in the eyes of the Universal Parent, the Creator of all beings. 



" With Him, no high nor low, no great nor small 

 He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all." 



Great and little, important and mean, are relative terms, and 

 distinctions of our own, which have no existence in the all-com- 

 prising view of the Creator and Governor of the universe. 



The consideration that all the felicity of animals is confined to 

 the short period of the present life, without any hope or com- 

 pensation in a future state of existence, ought to be an additional 

 inducement to treat them with compassion. We ought to ima- 

 gine every inoffensive animal, which our wanton cruelty would 

 deprive of existence, addressing us in the mouse's affecting pe- 

 tition : 



" But if this transient gleam of light 



Be all of life we share, 

 Let pity plead within thy breast, 



This little all to spare." 



These moral sentiments, so strongly inculcated by reason, are 

 decidedly corroborated by religion, sanctified by scripture, and 



