is only be cause you are larger, and so have it
in your power, I beg you will consider, how you would like, that either
myself, or some great giant, as much larger than you as you are bigger
than the mouse, should hurt and torment you? And I promise you, the
smallest creature can feel as acutely as you, nay, the smaller they are,
the more susceptible are they of pain, and the sooner they are hurt: a
less touch will kill a fly than a man, consequently a less wound will
cause it pain; and the mouse which you have now been swinging by the
tail over the cat's mouth, has not, you may assure yourself, suffered
less torment or fright than you would have done, had you been suspended
by your leg, either over water, which would drown you, or over stones,
where if you fell you must certainly be dashed to pieces. And yet you
could take delight in thus torturing and distressing a poor inoffensive
animal. Fie upon it, Charles! fie upon it! I thought you had been a
better boy, and not such a cruel, naughty, wicked fellow.' 'Wicked!'
repeated the boy, 'I do not think that I have been at all wicked.' 'But
I think you have been extremely so,' replied his father; 'every action
that is cruel, and gives pain to any living creature, is wicked, and
is a sure sign of a bad heart. I never knew a man, who was cruel to
animals, kind and compassionate towards his fellow-creatures: he might
not perhaps treat them in the same shocking manner, because the laws of
the land would severely punish him if he did; but if he is restrained
from bad actions by no higher motive than fear of present punishment,
his goodness cannot be very great. A good man, Charles, always takes
delight in conferring happiness on all around him; nor would he offer
the smallest injury to the meanest insect that was capable of feeling.
'I am sure,' said the boy, 'I have often seen you kill wasps, and
spiders too; and it was but last week that you bought a mouse-trap
yourself to catch mice in, although you are so angry now with me.' 'And
pray,' resumed his father, 'did you ever see me torment as well as kill
them? Or did I ever keep them in pain one moment longer than necessary?
I am not condemning people for killing vermin and animals, provided
they do it expeditiously, and put them to death with as little pain as
possible; but it is putting them to needless torment and misery that
I say is wicked. Had you destroyed the mouse with one blow, or rather
given it to somebody else to de