334 GENERAL TREATMENT. 



in which the domestic animals have much need 

 to be k blessed' in more senses than one. 



8. The provision of due periodical rest and relaxation for 

 working animals. A sabbath, or day of rest, once a week, was 

 enjoined by Scripture for all working animals ; and science 

 points to the desirability of obeying this salutary and humane 

 injunction, both in the spirit and letter. The Sunday gam- 

 bols of cart or plough horses, the result of a joyous sense of 

 freedom from their week-day toils, must be as familiar as they 

 ought to be suggestive. Work animals, indeed, not only 

 require and deserve regular and occasional holidays sab- 

 bath and others -as much as do working men, but they are 

 likely to make a much better use of them. We know, only 

 too well, how common it is for well-paid artisans in our large 

 towns to devote their now abundant holidays to the grossest 

 self- intoxication and debasement. 



9. A common form of honouring or perpetuating the 

 pleasant memory of an animal pet of the smaller sort, such 

 as a dog or cat, parrot or canary, is to have recourse to the 

 taxidermist's art ; the animal itself is c preserved ' by means 

 of what is popularly called c stuffing.' In this form I have 

 frequently seen the favourite poodle or lap-dog, reclining as 

 was its wont, carefully preserved in a glass case in the place 

 of honour in a master's library, or a mistress's boudoir, or in 

 some public museum to which the ' specimen ' has been pre- 

 sented. This is both the most prosaic and poetic form of 

 monument, that which most vividly recalls the aspect and 

 deeds of the departed favourite. 



10. Arrangements for the boarding out of pet animals, 

 either 



a. Temporarily, during the summer or holiday ab- 



sences of families, or 



b. Permanently, in cases where there are objections 



to retaining them at home that is, in their 



master's or mistress's houses 



are very much wanted. Certain animals themselves, for 

 example the cat, have the sense to board out their young 

 under certain circumstances ; they quarter them on human 

 families in whose tender mercies they have confidence. But 



