Mind in Animals. 365 



of the man. And that generosity, being a divine attribute, 

 belongs to the spirit and not to the body, no believer in 

 Christianity is likely to deny. Therefore, wherever we find 

 this characteristic developed, we must admit the presence of 

 an immortal spirit. 



That the lower animals do possess generosity in the sense 

 of Liberality will now be proved from circumstances that have 

 occurred within my own observation. My first proof is a 

 very interesting one, and is drawn from the life of a dog that 

 was the companion of my school-boy days. Sport was the 

 name of the animal. He was not a greedy, selfish creature, 

 but a generous, noble fellow. Many an act of self-sacrifice 

 had he been known to perform, and he was never happier 

 than when he was doing some good to his fellows. It was 

 not unlike him, when he would meet a poor, strange and 

 hungry animal of his own kind by the roadway, to bring him 

 to his master's house, and at the meal-hour divide with the 

 unfortunate his noon-day allowance. Between him and a 

 certain cat, called Blackey, which was also a member of the 

 same household, there existed a very strong friendship. 

 Any injury done the cat was most summarily resented by 

 Sport. He would share his meals with her, and never 

 seemed satisfied unless she would consent to take the 

 choicest bits. But the generosity was not all on his side, for 

 the cat certainly rivalled him in the exercise of this noble 

 trait, .which all acknowledge to be one of the noblest charac- 

 teristics of the human mind. When Blackey was sick, and 

 unable to be around, much of the time of the dog would be 

 spent in her presence. He would caress her with his paw, 

 smooth her silken, jet-black fur with his tongue, and seek by 

 every means in his power to raise her drooping spirits and 

 alleviate her miseries. No animal, not even man himself, 

 could show more real sympathy for a fellow in distress than 

 Sport did for Blackey. 



No bird, it would seem, could be expected to manifest so 

 little of generosity as the sparrow. As a rule, sparrows are 



