138 LIFE AND HABIT. 



accustomed to dress, of eating as we have been 

 accustomed to eat, and let us have no less liberty than 

 we are accustomed to have, and last, but not least, let 

 us not be disturbed in thinking as we have been ac- 

 customed to think, and the vast majority of mankind 

 will be very fairly contented — all plants and animals 

 will certainly be so. This would seem to suggest a 

 possible doctrine of a future state ; concerning which 

 we may reflect that though, after we die, we cease to 

 be familiar with ourselves, we shall nevertheless be- 

 come immediately familiar with many other histories 

 compared with which our present life must then seem 

 intolerably uninteresting. 



This is the reason why a very heavy and sudden 

 shock to the nervous system does not pain, but kills 

 outright at once ; while one with which the system can, 

 at any rate, try to familiarise itself is exceedingly 

 painful. We cannot bear unfamiliarity. The part 

 that is treated in a manner with which it is not familiar 

 cries immediately to the brain — its central govern- 

 ment — for help, and makes itself generally as trouble- 

 some as it can, till it is in some way comforted. Indeed, 

 the law against cruelty to animals is but an example of 

 the hatred we feel on seeing even dumb creatures put 

 into positions with which they are not familiar. We 

 hate this so much for ourselves, that we will not 

 tolerate it for other creatures if we can possibly avoid 

 it. So again, it is said, that when Andromeda and 

 Perseus had travelled but a little way from the rock 

 where Andromeda had so long been chained, she began 

 upbraiding him with the loss of her dragon, who, on 



