BETWEEN MAN AND ANIMALS. 29 



And, as you are aware, what is taught in some 

 instances, becomes in a manner hereditary ; in 

 this respect again, as it is believed by many, 

 resembling the human race. 



AMICUS. I thank you for these few details. 

 I am willing to adopt your notion of the ap- 

 proximation of the higher order of brutes to 

 our own race, in faculties as well as in organi- 

 sation ; and, for the sake of humanity, I wish it 

 were generally adopted. 



PISCATOK. If true, I could wish it adopted ; 

 not else. As regards humanity, I doubt its 

 having any material influence, reflecting how 

 gently and kindly brutes are treated by the 

 gentle and kind ; and how rudely and cruelly 

 treated are beings of our own kind by the rude 

 by nature, and cruel. 



AMICUS. Yet, on the idea you entertain, may 

 there not be a greater disposition to show 

 kindness to animals, and consideration for 

 their feelings, than on the opposite presump- 

 tion of an altogether absence of resemblance ? 

 In training, more I believe is effected by gentle 

 means than by harsh, by encouragement than 

 by fear ; by gaining the regard of the animal, 

 than by exciting its terror. We know that 



