ANIMAL REPUTATION. 99 



the other, that in neither case, generally speaking, is there 

 any desire or intention of committing an injustice. Man 

 and other animals sin in ignorance of the results of their sin. 

 The rat or the magpie does not usually steal in order that 

 some poor girl may be blamed and punished for the sup- 

 posed theft by her of a spoon or ring. I say usually, for 

 parrots and other birds play jokes of such a kind for the 

 purpose sometimes of annoying their human foes, quite well 

 knowing that they are annoying them, and enjoying the 

 evidences or fruits of their annoyance. In the same way 

 man, when he habitually neglects or maltreats a donkey, is 

 for the most part ignorant that the stubbornness with which 

 he fancies he is dealing if present at all is the natural 

 fruit of his own behaviour. He sins in thoughtlessness, 

 perhaps from incapacity to understand or appreciate the 

 connection between cause and effect in the determination of 

 character in subject animals by the circumstances in which 

 they are placed. 



H 2 



