Papa. I am glad that you quote the passage correctly, I have heard even clergymen quote, as the words of the Bible, the old proverb, "A merciful man is merciful to his beast."

Mary. We were informed in the sermon, that the Holy Bible contains a great many passages telling us that we ought to treat animals with tender compassion, and that cruelty to them is an awful sin in the sight of God and man.

Papa. That is true. The eloquent language of Scripture everywhere melts with tenderness and compassion towards the dumb and brute creation. The mind that does not recognise this truth will miss the meaning and force of the most suggestive parables and delicate analogies of Revelation.

Mary. We were told in the sermon that the miraculous speaking of Balaam's ass "rebuked" more than one sort of "madness" of the prophet; and that it was an additional reason for sparing Nineveh, that doomed capital, "wherein were more than sixscore thousand persons who could not discern their right hand from their left," that there were also in the city "much cattle." Our blessed Saviour proved that it was lawful to do a greater good on the Sabbath-day, by reminding His accusers that they themselves did a lesser, but still a real good, when He said unto them, "What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the Sabbath-day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? How much then is a man better than a sheep?" Does he wish to teach us the blessed doctrine of the special Providence of our Heavenly Father? He illustrates it by asserting that not a sparrow droops its wing without His notice. "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall to the ground without your Father;" as though His unwearied watchfulness and infinite goodness were shown in the care He

bestowed on the meanest creatures, and would be displayed far more conspicuously in the direction, the control, the present and final salvation, of them that love Him.

Papa. Let me add, that, to a mind which knows nothing of kindness towards brutes, the meaning of the parable of the Good Shepherd, is lost; and those incomparable words in which He is described, become merely expletive:-" He that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth, and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. And a stranger they will not follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers." So the Israelites were commanded "not to muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn :" where the lower law is the symbol of the higher law, recommending humanity to servants, encouragement to the laborious, and public rewards to those who diligently serve in any public or private capacity.

Mary. That is quite a new idea to me. It is illustrated by the exquisitely plaintive and tender pastoral appeal of Ezekiel, addressed to the careless priesthood of the temple, under a series of images derived from the duties of a shepherd to his flock" Thus saith the Lord God to the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?—The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them." Nor must it be forgotten that when God created the

living inhabitants of the globe, He "blessed them," while He did not so bless the stars in their courses, or the host of heaven, which He had just before called out of nothing.

Papa. At the same time, let us remember that we do not find a vestige of that slavish humiliation of man before the lower animals, which has been the growth of heathen superstition, and the reaction of which has led to much wanton cruelty. Whether Adam and the Patriarchs ate flesh before the flood is a problem hard to solve. To Noah and his descendants it was plainly permitted in the emphatic grant, "The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things." If that free grant received subsequently any limitation in regard to the Jews, the limitation was withdrawn when St. Peter, the apostle of circumcision, "saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth; wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air; and there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter, kill and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common." Here was a great law of liberty to eat all meats, used as the symbol or type of a higher and greater law, that of communion with the Gentiles, purified, through Christ, from all uncleanness.

Mary. You said, dear papa, that you would tell us something about dogs, and their habits and adventures.

Papa. The dog is a four-footed animal, distinguished as being very faithfully attached to man. Linnæus, a celebrated naturalist describes the domestic dog as the one "with tail curled towards the left :" and Cuvier says, that "the whole species is become our property; each individual is entirely devoted to his master, adopts his manners, distinguishes and defends his property, and remains attached to him even unto death; and all this springs not from

mere necessity, nor from restraint, but simply from a true friendship."

Freddy. How wonderful, papa.

Papa. It is, indeed, and what is almost as curious, the dog is the only animal that has followed man all over the earth. There is some doubt as to what was the parent-stock of this friend of man, for there are no traces of it to be found in a primitive state of nature, and many suppose the breed to be derived from either the wolf, or the familiarized jackal. The shepherd's dog, a variety which was most probably one of the first that civilized and settled man called in aid to preserve his flocks from beasts and birds of prey, and the depredations of roaming human tribes, is remarkable for the capacity of its cranium, or brain, and its great sagacity. It is distinguished by development even above the spaniels and their varieties, and the hounds, which comprise the most useful and intelligent dogs. In the bulldog and mastiff, though the head is one-third larger than those of the shepherd's dog and spaniel, the cranial capacity is not by any means so great. The New Holland, or Australian dog, is so wolf-like in its appearance, that it is sometimes called the "New South Wales wolf." Its height, when standing erect, is rather less than two feet, and its length, two feet and a-half. The head is formed much like that of a fox, the ears short and erect, with whiskers from one to two inches in length on the muzzle, so that it appears much more like a wolf than a dog. No fossil remains of the dog, properly so called, have ever been found. The bones of the wolf and of the fox occur in ossiferous caverns, but it is difficult to distinguish the bones of the wolf from those of the shepherd's dog. Some "Thibet" dogs were once brought over to this country by Dr. Wallich, and as they were considered very great rarities, were kept in the Zoological