252 OUR OBLIGATIONS TO THE LOWEK ANIMALS 



of consideration shown to them is that of St. Francis, 

 who certainly had a passionate affection for all living 

 creatures. It is with the advent of rationalism that 

 one recognises the rise of a new feeling, when, early in 

 the eighteenth century, an English country clergyman, 

 the Rev. W. Grainger, scandalised his congregation and 

 incurred suspicion of unorthodoxy by preaching the 

 duty of humane treatment of beast and bird. 



On the other hand, considerate treatment of animals 

 is earnestly inculcated in the Koran. Mohammed 

 himself carried his kindly feeling towards them to an 

 excessive degree, if we may accept the tradition that he 

 cut the wide sleeve off his coat rather than disturb his 

 favourite cat that was sleeping on it. And at the 

 present time the treatment of horses and oxen in 

 Mohammedan countries is far different from the callous 

 cruelty of Neapolitan cabmen, or the heartless custom 

 in a country far nearer home of causing milch cows to 

 drag heavy weights. As Christians, the highest ascrip- 

 tion we can pay to the Being we worship is that His 

 property is always to have mercy, and our conscience 

 revolts from the limitation which confines that mercy 

 to ourselves alone among all His creatures. Queen 

 Victoria's long reign owes no small part of its lustre to 

 the series of Acts regulating the conditions under 

 which human and animal labour may be carried on in 

 the factory, the mine, and the field. 



Like all good things, however, this kind of legislation 

 is liable to abuse if it is guided merely by emotion. 

 An instance of mischief wrought by inconsiderate 

 sentiment may be found in one of the earlier of the 



