INTRODUCTION 



case and every person may have a different 

 standard. The general rule, it seems to me, 

 should be that the highest apparent good 

 must be permitted to justify the means, and 

 in my own experience, the keeping of tamed 

 animals of any species is for children of 

 almost any growth the means of opening 

 the nature to a higher attainment of human 

 sympathy. In the young the habit of regard - 

 ing their pets as objects of tenderness and 

 sympathy is an unquestionable good, and 

 in my acquaintance with humanity I have 

 never found a man or woman who really 

 loved animals who was not at heart a good 

 man or woman. 



Nor is there force in the objection, raised 

 by a friend who is devoted to certain forms 

 of humanitarian activity, that there is such 

 need of work for the human sufferers that 

 there is no place for keeping pets. The 

 capacity of either human love or human 

 charity is not diminished by the satisfaction 

 of the thirst for something of our own on 

 which to pour out our love. Whatever 

 awakens in the heart a new passion increases 



