Reineke's abilities taking such a world at its word?

And let it not be supposed that society in this earth
of ours is ever so viciously put together, is ever so totally
without organic life, that a rogue, unredeemed by any
merit, can prosper in it. There is no strength in
rottenness; and when it comes to that, society dies and
falls in pieces. Success, as it is called, even worldly
success, is impossible, without some exercise of what is
called moral virtue, without some portion of it,
infinitesimally small, perhaps, but still some. Courage, for
instance, steady self-confidence, self-trust, self-reliance--
that only basis and foundation-stone on which a strong
character can rear itself--do we not see this in Reineke.
While he lives he lives for himself; but if it comes
to dying, he can die like his betters; and his wit is not
of that effervescent sort which will fly away at the sight
of death and leave him panic-stricken. It is true there
is a meaning to that word courage, which was perhaps
not to be found in the dictionary in which Reineke
studied. "I hope I am afraid of nothing, Trim," said
my uncle Toby, "except doing a wrong thing." With
Reineke there was no "except." His digestive powers
shrank from no action, good or bad, which would serve
his turn. Yet it required no slight measure of courage
to treat his fellow-creatures with the steady disrespect
with which Reineke treats them. To walk along
among them, regardless of any interest but his own;
out of mere wantonness to hook them up like so many
cock-chafers, and spin them for his pleasure; not like
Domitian, with an imperial army to hold them down
during the operation, but with no other assistance but
his own little body and large wit; it was something to
venture upon. And a world which would submit to be
so treated, what could he do but despise?

To the animals utterly below ourselves, external to
our own species, we hold ourselves bound by no law.

We say to them, vos non vobis, without any uneasy
misgivings. We rob the bees of their honey, the cattle
of their lives, the horse and the ass of their liberty. We
kill the wild animals that they may not interfere with
our pleasures; and acknowledge ourselves bound to
them by no terms except what are dictated by our own
convenience. And why should Reineke have acknowledged
an obligation any more than we, to creatures so
utterly below himself? He was so clever, as our friend
said, that he had a right. Th