states of evolution are vaguely reviewed, as they
are, in fact, in that more rapid and mysterious passage between
conception and birth. Young nations pass through the same phases, and
some of them are abominable. The sense of power is a dangerous thing.
The child feels it in his hands, and the nation feels it in its first
victory.... In the Chapel during a period of several days we talked
about the wonder of animals (the little boys of the house present) and
the results were so interesting that I put together some of the things
discussed in the following form, calling the paper Adventures in
Cruelty:

As a whole, the styles in cruelty are changing. Certain
matters of charity as we used to regard them are vulgar now.
I remember when a great sign, THE HOME OF THE
FRIENDLESS, used to stare obscenely at thousands of city
school children, as we passed daily through a certain street.
Though it is gone now, something of the curse of it is still
upon the premises. I always think of what a certain observer
said:

"You would not think the Christ had ever come to a world,
where men could give such a name to a house of love-babies."

I remember, too, when there formerly appeared from time to
time on the streets, during the long summers, _different_
green-blue wagons. The drivers were different, too--I recall
one was a hunchback. These outfits formed one of the
fascinating horrors of our bringing-up--the fork, the noose,
the stray dog tossed into a maddened pulp of stray dogs, the
door slammed, and no word at all from the driver--nothing we
could build on, or learn his character by. He was a part of
the law, and we were taught then that the law was
everlastingly right, that we must grind our characters
against it.... But the green-blue wagons are gone, and the
Law has come to conform a bit with the character of youth.

The time is not long since when we met our adventures in
cruelty alone--no concert of enlightened citizens on these
subjects--and only the very few had found the flaw in the
gospel that God had made the animals, and all the little
animals, for delectation and service of man. Possibly there
is a bit of galvanic life still in the teaching, but it
cannot be said to belong to the New Age.

Economic efficiency has altered many styles for the better.
Formerly wes