Miscellaneous Scraps and Memorandums from my Portfolio. § XIX. Xenophon's humane character has not been sufficiently investigated bycritics. The Pythagorean school is more extensive than is usually believed. The Quakers, among their humane regulations, forbid the cruel sports of the field, such as hunting, shooting, etc. The observations of the poets Cowper, Thomson, Gay, Burns, and others, respecting cruelty, are generally extolled; why then are they not acted on? Mr. Gompertz's observations on the dogs of Turkey, and likewise the accounts of these dogs in the "Penny Magazine," deserve particular notice. With regard to animal and vegetable food, I may observe that I have lived for years on vegetable food alone with great advantage; and I believe I escaped once from a severe injury which might otherwise have proved fatal, owing to my then light fruit and vegetable diet. On Wednesday, 23rd June, 1813, my hand was dreadfully bruised, and the extensor tendo indicis divided; yet the wound healed by first attention. owing to my living at that time entirely on fruits. Shelley, Lawrence, Byron, Lambe, Newton, and other able men who have lived on vegetable food, have borne testimony to its perfect adaptation to the constitution of man; and the remarkable exemption of persons who do not eat meat from cholera and from numberless epidemics proves its usefulness also as a medical agent. The foolish notion that a cat has nine lives has caused much cruelty towards this useful animal; I have recorded a very barbarous instance of a kitten killed in an experiment to prove the tenacity of life in the feline kind: see Oct. 6th, 1820. If the instigator of this piece of cruelty had been served with a cat of nine tails, it would only have been the merited castigation of common justice. I remember, however, a remarkable case of a young cat squeezed nearly flat by accident, who recovered after lying a week for dead without food. P. S. Since writing the above, and after my work had gone to press, I had the pleasure to receive your "Moral Enquiries," a book which ought to be generally read, being full of very useful observations. Note to page 1, on Proverbs. The best collection of Proverbs for the English language is Ray's, in 1 vol. 8vo. For the European languages in general, Alle de Werke von Jacob Cats, 2 vol. folio, Amsterdam; wherein will be found the most ample illustrations of proverbs adages and emblems, illustrated with beautiful copperplate engravings. Consult also Erasmi Adagia, Quarl's Emblems, etc., etc. Animal Food. In addition to what I have said on this subject, consult Rousseau's eloquent observations in his " inégalité du peuple," a work which has caused may persons in their youth to leave off animal food. The circumstance that the goose's liver and other delicacies which are eaten are really nasty disases produced by cruelty, might perhaps have strengthened a natural aversion to a diet of flesh. Animals their own Friends. I have already taught a rough water dog, to carry about a basket and beg subscriptions for the Society. Might not this practice be adopted, if entrusted to humane persons, who would attend the Mendicant Dogs in their rounds to collect money y? Public dinners, concerts, charity sermons and other demonstrations of this kind have a great influence on society. Added to these, a balloon might ascend annually for the benefit of the Society, and no doubt the proprietors of public gardens would give up one day for so kind an object its descent might be announced by the return of carrier pigeons; and those who mounted in it would feel that, in leaving an earth of wo and trouble for calmer regions, they anticipated, in epitome, a final flight to a place of rest for all creatures, and had in part accomplished the wish of the psalmist. Ó that I hads wings like a dove: then would I fly away and be at rest : Soirées de St. Pétersbourg. This work which, though written in the alluring style of a romance, is in fact a powerful defence of christianity, ought to be translated into our language the German translation has had great success, and, from an elegant specimen which I have seen in manuscript from the pen of Mrs. Wemys Dalrymple, I have no doubt that, if the whole work were done into English, it would soon become one of the most popular publications of the day. The Almanac de Liège is said to contain some excellent remarks on kind conduct towards animals. Popular Songs and Nursery Poems should be written calculated to inspire children with humane sentiments, Dibden's and Dignum's sea songs had a prodigious effect in exciting naval emulation, and Calcott's glee of the Shepherd and his Dog gave a celebrity to the name of Tray, which has not yet gone out of fashion. Wesley's Sermon on the General Deliverance ought to be read by the religious, also Primatt's Book on Cruelty, both being full of biblical cita tions. The Instincts of Animals ought to form a separate branch of every liberal education. To the numerous examples on popular record I may add the following related to me by my grandfather as having happened near Rotterdam during the floods which followed the bursting of some of the dams before the year 1740. A cock, observing the waters rush into the farm yard, jumped into a large bowl in which were some grains of barley, and thus floated till the floods were over, having food on board. Branch Societies to befriend Animals must in time be established on the Continent. In various parts of Germany, in Belgium and on the Rhine I noticed that horses were often dreadfully overloaded; nor is it unusual to consign a pet horse, when old, to finish his days in the service and drudgery of the post! Public Hospitals. It is to be feared that in many of these, cruel experiments are often made on animals as well as on persons. All hospitals and particularly the private dissecting rooms of surgeons ought to be visited by the police, and servants should be admonished to report any case of cruelty to the police. Au Execrable, Custom prevails in many countries of the Continent against which travellers ought to be on their guard. During any popular cry of hydrophobia, and often without such an excuse, dogs are seized on in the street by real or pretended agents of police, who either demand |