erson.

THE DUTY.

+We ought to realize that the animal has feelings as keen as our
own.+--We owe to these feelings in the animal the same treatment that we
would wish for the same feelings in ourselves. For animals as for
ourselves we should seek as much pleasure and as little pain as is
consistent with the performance of the work which we think it best to
lay upon them. The horse cannot choose for itself how heavy a load to
draw. We ought to adapt the load to its strength. And in order to do
that we must stop and consider how much strength it has. The horse and
cow and dog cannot select their own food and shelter. We must think for
them in these matters; and in order to do so wisely, we must consider
their nature, habits, and capacities. No person is fit to own an
animal, who is not willing to take the trouble to understand the needs,
capacities, and nature of that animal. And acts which result from
ignorance of such facts as can be readily learned are inexcusable.

THE VIRTUE.

+Kindness is the recognition that a feeling of another being is of just
as much consequence as a feeling of my own.+--Now we have seen that in
some respects animals are precisely like ourselves. Kindness recognizes
this bond of the kind, or kinship, as far as it extends. Kindness to
animals does not go so far as kindness to our fellow-men; because the
kinship between animals and man does not extend as far as kinship
between man and man. So far as it does extend, however, kindness to
animals treats them as we should wish to be treated by a person who had
us in his power. Kindness will inflict no needless suffering upon an
animal; make no unreasonable requirement of it; expose it to no needless
privation.

THE REWARD.

+Kindness toward animals reacts upon our hearts, making them tender and
sympathetic.+--Every act we perform leaves its trace in tendency to act
in the same way again. And in its effect upon ourselves it matters
little whether the objects on which our kindness has been bestowed have
been high or low in the scale of being. In any case the effect remains
with us in increased tenderness, not only toward the particular objects
which have called it forth, but toward all sentient beings. Kindness to
animals opens our hearts toward God and our fellow-men.

He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.

He prayeth best who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear G