BENEVOLENCE IN MAN AND BEAST 155 



difference are so overwhelming that we may set aside 

 the assumption that there is a common sympathy 

 among non-related animals, even when not carnivorous. 

 It is not a defect of character, but of comprehension. 



The relations between those of the same species 

 are closer, though exhibitions of helpfulness are 

 by no means general, and instances of positive ill- 

 treatment are common. In spite of this, they are 

 probably exceptional. The monkeys who drown 

 the objectionably sick by shoving them off trees 

 into the river are certainly rather worse than the 

 Greeks who " marooned" Philoctetes for the same 

 reason. But with this should be contrasted Brehm's 

 story of the rescue of the young baboon from his dogs 

 by a patriarch of the troop, and the encouragement 

 given by an older stag to a young one which feared 

 to jump a fence. Lord Lovat gives an admirable 

 description of the latter scene in the volume of the 

 Badminton Library on " Deer-stalking." The old 

 stag reached over towards the young one at last, and 

 " actually kissed him " ; but the youngster would not 

 jump. 



Animals are so "helpless" themselves when any- 

 thing goes amiss, especially in cases of accident, 

 that they can hardly be expected to do much for 

 others. But the impulse is often there in the related 

 kinds, though it is not extended to the non-related. 

 Otters run round a trapped otter all night. Cats and 

 foxes visit the bodies of their dead, and so do stoats 

 and weasels. It is a rule with trappers to leave these 

 near a trap ; so we may conclude that these animals 



