BIPEDS AND QUADRUPEDS. 23 



animal undergoes ; such is the meanness, the lies, 

 for it is no other used in hiring, and such the cruelty 

 often practised by despicable avarice, and the absence 

 of all proper feeling that should emanate from one 

 calling himself man. 



I may be accused of making somewhat more 

 stringent remarks on, and indeed accusations against 

 the selfishness and want of feeling on the part of 

 persons in general, as regards animals, than they may 

 think deserved, or that I am warranted in doing. If 

 they are so, I hope it will be remembered, that I am not 

 writing to amuse, that I have not personally selected 

 my subject, but that being fixed on, I am only doing 

 what some one else would have been deputed to do, 

 had I not been flattered by being held as capable of 

 judging how far the cause calls for such observa- 

 tions as I may make : of course what I say does not 

 apply indiscriminately to all persons ; those whom 

 the still voice of conscience does not reprove, will, I 

 am sure, applaud the motive of the work. Even 

 those who may, or must, allow themselves to be in 

 the reverse case, will hesitate ere they venture to 



