Instinct 141 



" Thou shalt not kill," will not be accepted in the watered- 

 down rendering, " Thou shalt do no murder," but will be 

 taken as a solemn injunction as it stands in the Bible, and 

 as it is certainly meant to be understood. Those of tender 

 heart who yearn for the driven steer, the dumb, bewildered 

 sheep at the shambles, the little stricken mass of feathers 

 falling from the skies, the terrified dog on the vivisection 

 table, may take comfort, that the age is not far distant, when 

 man will awaken to the awful responsibility he assumes, 

 when he misuses or takes the life of any one of God's 

 creatures. He will then understand, that the Giver of all 

 Good loves all the animals, and that they are His creatures, 

 and that if left unmolested, and, on the contrary, protected 

 and tamed, they will all begin to reflect this love, of which 

 man will be the channel, and will be gentle and affectionate 

 both to man himself, and to each other. If man is obedient 

 to this commandment, " Thou shalt not kill," and discards 

 his wilful and limited interpretation of it, he will then 

 begin to find countless other sources of food-supply coming 

 to him, of which he has been hitherto unaware, and the 

 seeming necessity for taking the life of any animal, in order 

 to minister to his own needs, will be no longer apparent. 

 The animals themselves will then also find other sources 

 of supply, in place of preying on each other. 



This latter statement may seem difficult to credit, but 

 if anyone likes to make a close study, they will find, that 

 it is even now extraordinarily apparent, how strongly 

 animals, — dogs especially, — reflect the mentality of those 

 with whom they associate. This can be seen in the dogs 

 of different nations. The bulldog and the fox-terrier, may 

 be said to represent the tenacious, and also the sociable 

 qualities of the English race, the Dandie Dinmont and 

 the Scotch terrier, the independent and argumentative 



