PUNISHMENT BY MAN. 365 



in the act, in JJagrante delicto, and punished on the spot, in 

 view of the proofs of the offence. 



Man frequently commits the error of exercising undue 

 rigour or severity in his punishments of not adapting their 

 form or degree to the nature of the offence committed. And 

 he forgets, or he is ignorant of, the efficiency of mere moral 

 punishments in many cases the tone, look, or gesture of re- 

 proof, or even of mere disapprobation. 



Nor does man make allowance for the age of the offender ; 

 for the opportunity it has had of acquiring knowledge; for 

 its degree of experience or education ; for its power or 

 want of self-control ; for its natural aptitudes or tempera- 

 ment. 



And equally little does he think of the peculiar circum- 

 stances under which offence has been committed ; how far, 

 for instance, it has been due to provocation, ill-usage, faulty 

 education, or neglect by man himself. Eash, unthinking 

 man is only too apt to inflict punishment in the heat of pas- 

 sion, during which he is careless of what he does, careless 

 of a poor animal's feelings, careless of the result either to 

 himself or the animal. 



Nevertheless, all these sins of man's whether of omission 

 or commission, of ignorance, superstition, stupidity, or cruelty 

 tell at once on the behaviour, perhaps permanently on the 

 character, of the animal punished. For, in the first place, 

 the dog and other animals recognise the justice or injustice 

 of their punishments ; they feel or know whether or not 

 they have deserved them; and they act accordingly, meekly ac- 

 cepting what they have deserved, but angrily resenting what 

 has not been deserved. The consciousness of having com- 

 mitted a fault not unfrequently begets not only expectation 

 of, but preparation for, punishment, in the horse (Youatt), 

 dog, cat, monkey, elephant, and other animals ; they antici- 

 pate retribution at man's hands as the natural or inevitable 

 fruit of the transgression of some of his unwritten, unspoken 

 laws. 



Hence the necessity, in punishment as in education, for 

 the study of an animal's individuality in determining the 



