VIII 

 LATER WORKS AND FRIENDSHIPS 



WE must now look back a few years from the point 

 to which we were brought in the last chapter. The 

 year following the publication of his " Anecdotes 

 on Natural History" Mr. Morris was found com- 

 piling another volume of a similar kind, entitled 

 " Records of Animal Sagacity and Character." This 

 small work would need no special notice but for the 

 fact that it contained a remarkable essay, inserted 

 as a preface to the volume, giving the author's 

 views on a speculative subject of no little difficulty, 

 and one to which he had from time to time given 

 a good deal of thought. This was the future 

 existence of the animal creation. In this essay he 

 gave the opinions of several well-known writers, 

 among whom was Bishop Butler, and after formu- 

 lating his own ideas, he came to the conclusion that 

 there was at all events much in favour of the notion 

 that the spiritual life of animals, if such it may be 

 called, was not brought to an end at the time of 

 their bodily death. The most that could be urged 

 against the idea is only, as he said, in the words of 



Sir E. Lytton Bulwer, that they have "no warrant 



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