228 RELIGIOUS FEELING 



certain bitch, that had a special respect for the drivers or 

 stokers of locomotive engines on the Metropolitan Railway 

 (London), and on no other, when she found one of these 

 her human idols, ' grovelled before him, danced around and 

 fawned on him, doing fetich generally to him.' 



Nor are there wanting minds and men devoutly theo- 

 logical on the one hand and highly poetical on the other 

 students of nature and in sympathy with all nature's 

 works, that look upon bird song as a form of praise to our 

 common Creator. Thus the late Canon Kingsley tells us 

 that St. Francis ' saw no degradation to the dignity of 

 human nature in claiming kindred lovingly with creatures 

 so beautiful [as birds], so wonderful, who [as he fancied in 

 his old-fashioned way] praised God in the forest even as the 

 angels did in heaven.' l Such a conception will be regarded 

 by others than Kingsley as only a fancy. But it is not only 

 a beautiful fancy : there is a possibility at least that it may 

 represent more than fancy fact. It may be a mere expres- 

 sion of the joyous sense of existence, unconscious, non- 

 voluntary in strictness ; but even so considered it may be 

 regarded as a form or species of praise. 



In the dog there exists not only a necessity for loving or 

 bestowing its superabundant love on some object, worthy or 

 unworthy, but there is the same craving for affection or 

 attention, the same necessity for love or of being loved, that is 

 so characteristic of the human child. This longing for the 

 affection of its master prompts the dog to seek, by all the 

 means in its power, reconciliation when it has given him 

 cause of offence, and feels that it is in his disfavour. Such 

 a craving leads to efforts frequently repeated and of all 

 kinds at propitiation ; the animal tries to deprecate its 

 master's wrath, to ingratiate itself once more in or into his 

 good graces, to obtain restitution to favour in other words, 

 to ensure forgiveness. Its sense of sin or guilt is here at 

 least associated with a perception or feeling of the necessity 

 for or desirability of pardon. 



In some cases the sinning animal seeks to make atonement 

 for its sin, as is pointed out in other chapters for instance, 



1 < Prose Idylls,' 2nd edit., 1874, pp. 24-5. 



