BIPEDS AND QUADRUPEDS. 5 



diminishing the infliction of sufl'ering on animals, 

 whose nature and disposition shew far less of the 

 brute than that of their merciless masters. 



There is, however, another error, that is by no 

 means an uncommon one for those to run into who 

 deprecate any particular pursuit, or conduct, in 

 others ; this is, their enthusiasm in the cause they 

 take up is apt to lead them to describe acts that 

 only might be better left undone, as absolutely re- 

 prehensible, and others that are only reprehensible, 

 as directly flagitious ; the doing this only tends to 

 bring on, first, a want of confidence in what they 

 say, on the part of those to whom they address 

 themselves ; secondly, a denial of the truth and vali- 

 dity of the arguments produced ; and lastly, a dogged 

 determination to set them at defiance. 



I think it more than probable that, in what I 

 may say in the present essay, I shall be thought, 

 by the amiable instigator of it, not to have gone far 

 enough in stringent reprehension of some acts and 

 pursuits, that to her may appear as cruel and unjus- 

 tifiable ; but I must bear in mind that in writing it 



