198 ANIMALS MORE GRATEFUL THAN MAN. 



and if from the first his hind legs were as often 

 handled as his neck, he would no more kick at you 

 for doing this than he would bite or strike at you for 

 handling his fore-quarters. It is the novelty of any 

 act that alarms the young horse, not the act itself. 

 Why is it that vicious horses seldom hurt children ? 

 they kick, bite, or strike at man, because man has ill- 

 used them : children have not. Surely this shows 

 that vice is not the leading and natural propensity of 

 the animal ! The child has probably never done 

 any thing to challenge the attachment of the animal ; 

 he has merely never done any thing to injure him. 

 Even this he repays by gratitude and confidence. 

 What would he then not do for those who would take 

 a very little trouble to win his attachment and sooth 

 his natural fear of man ! Any thing that Nature had 

 given him the power to perform or the instinct to 

 comprehend ! 



In advocating as strenuously as I do the utmost gen- 

 tleness towards animals, and most particularly young 

 ones, I am not on this occasion doing so as merely 

 advocating the cause of animals : a pretty widely - 

 extended intercourse with mankind, and a somewhat 

 close investigation of the feelings and disposition of 

 the generality of my fellow men, have been quite 

 sufficient to prevent me attempting so Quixotical a 

 campaign ; nor do I possess sufficient moral courage 

 to brave the sneers and ridicule that in this my en- 

 lightened country always have been so bounteously 

 bestowed on any one who has particularised himself as 

 the friend of animals : at least, such has hitherto been 

 the meed bestowed on those who have thus stood for- 

 ward in this cause from the majority of those from 

 whom we might have expected better things. I there- 



