^^ BIPEDS AND QUADRUPEDS. 



living beings will be humane to any other ; he who 

 is a brute to the brute, will be the same in all his 

 relative duties in life; he will be brutal as a husband, 

 brutal as a father, and brutal as a friend, for his 

 mind is brutal. Boys we know, for we daily see it, 

 are generally cruel to animals. This not arising 

 from provocation, but an innate love of tyranny, a 

 true though by no means flattering type of man ; 

 let us, however, hope that the cruelty of boys is 

 often occasioned by want of reflection, and let 

 us farther hope we may never meet with such a 

 demon as a man who would be cruel from a sheer 

 love of cruelty. 



From whatever cause brutality originates, this is 

 quite clear, the efi'ect of it is the same to whatsoever 

 or whomsoever is subjected to it. Passion, that so 

 many persons hold as an excuse for what is inexcu- 

 sable, I consider the worst plea that can be ofi'ered. 

 A man of usual equanimity of mind may commit a 

 fatal act, or one involving the risk of its being so ; 

 if he does, there can be little doubt but that Ke has 

 received provocation, which, though it might not ex- 



