THE SOUL OF THE BRUTE.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13957, 17 July 1909, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE SOUL OF THE BRUTE.

In an appreciative notice of Countess Martineiigu Uesaresco's book, '-The flace oi -inimals in Human 'X nought," die " .Spectator" gives some very interesting illustrations.

A very unci testimony to man's fel-low-feeling for animals, quite apart from pity, is (.it remarks; illustrated by the animal trials of tne Middle Ages. As early as the ninth century we hear of regular trials of inconvenient or. offending animals", in which great care is taken to keep up an appearance of fair play for the difemiants. • The Countess Martinengo Cesares'eo gives an lu-count of sut-n a trial' which took place before a certain Prior in 13T0. •'The young son of a Burgundian swineherd iiad been killed by -throe sows." All the members cf the herd " were arrested as accomplices." It -was pointed out that the mass of the pigs were innocent. Justice did not nu.ve quickly, and it was not for years that a settlement was reached. * The Duke of Burgundy delivered judgment. "Only the tarce. guilty sows and one young pig (what had it doner) were to be executed; the others were set at liberty, ' notwithstanding that they had seen the death of the boy without defending him.' " The trial took so long that had they all been executed in the end they would have owed years of life to their accusers!

Sympathy for animals is, however, as this book amply proves, no product of modern civilisation. Men have often forgotten their relationship to the beasts of the field, hut it was suspected and acknowledged 'very early. Scandinavian and Persian and Indian literature furnish illustrations of curiously modern feeling, in this respect. The Itijr-eda preserves this address to a home-coming bride: —"Make thyself loved for the sake of the children that will come to thee; guard this house, be as one with thy hrshand ; may you grow old here together. Cast no evil looks, hate not thy spouse; be gentle in thought and deed, even to the. animals of this home." Zoroaster taught that men had duties towards the brute creation to be performed as to " God the Giver, Forgivcr, rich in Love." Their souls, he thought, would live again at "the renewal, of the world." Zoroaster could hardly limit mercy; he believed that "the. voice of him weeping, however low, mounts up to the star-lifdits." Moses legislated for "nimals, though to the .Tew the gulf hetween the human and the brute creation was always wide and evident. The Koran yields some sentences sugp-estive of svmnnthy, for instance the following:—"Fear God in these dumb animals, and ride them when they are fit to he rodp. and get off them when they are tired." Again :—" There is no beast on earth nor bird which flieth with its wings hut the same is a pconle like unto vnu. we have not omitted anything in the' of our decrees.: then unto their Lord shall they return."