HUMAN NATURE AND BRUTE NATURE. 89 



are influenced by feelings like ours may be learned from 

 the gay plumage of the bird of Paradise, acquired under 

 the same influence of the preference and admiration of 

 others, for which fair women wear fair raiment, and for 

 which the soldier, at extra risk to his life, is clad in 

 scarlet. 



According to a principle now well known, the earlier 

 the period of life the greater the resemblance is likely to 

 be between creatures akin to one another. Hence we 

 may explain the phenomenon that some children, through- 

 out their childhood prone to causeless mischief and 

 stubborn resistance, become at length reasonable and 

 self-controlled men. As for the child, so for the brute, 

 a future of enlightened reason and self-control may be in 

 store. The largest and most generous minds are now 

 beginning to contemplate the possibility of an immortal 

 destiny for all animals whatsoever. To my own mind, 

 as doubtless to many of yours, such a conception has 

 often seemed fanciful and ridiculous, as the greatest and 

 best notions often do to minds that are narrow or un- 

 expanded by a wisdom higher than their own. So it 

 was that the gossips and philosophers of Athens mocked 

 when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, though 

 St. Paul was preaching only the resurrection of human 

 beings. To extend this belief in the resurrection to all 

 the animate creation is to extend our conception of the 

 power and the goodness of God, to make easy many 

 things that otherwise seem appallingly difficult in 

 regard to His justice and His mercy. Does it seem 

 a thing impossible with you that God should raise 



