instinctive feelings with our own species. The lioness robbed of her whelps causes the wilderness to ring aloud with the proclamation of her wrongs; or the bird whose little household has been stolen fills and saddens all the grove with melodies of deepest pathos.

All this is palpable' even to the general and unlearned eye; and when the physiologists lays open the recesses of their system-by means of that scalpel under whose operation they justly shrink, and are convulsed as any living subject of our own species-there stands forth to view the same sentient apparatus,1o and furnished with the same conductors " for the transmission of feeling to every minuest pore upon the surface. Theirs is unmixed and unmitigated1 pain-the agonies of martyrdom without the alleviation arising from those hopes and sentiments by which man is cheered. And so on that bed of torment on which the wounded animal lingers and expires, there is an unexplored depth and intensity of suffering which the poor dumb animal itself cannot tell. But there is an eloquence in its silence and helplessness which moves the heart more than words of anguish.

1 Alleviation, lessening; lightening (as of pain or sorrow).

2 Exuberance of gaiety, overflow of joy.

3 Remorseless, unpitying; lit. without "remorse," that biting of conscience which commonly follows wrong-doing. (Lat. morsus, bitten.)

4 Jurisdiction, power or right of exercising authority. (Lat. jus, law; dictio, a saying.)

3 Unequivocal, &c. Their face plainly tells the pain they are suffering; "unequivocal," clear, not doubtful; "physiognomy," the

face.

6 Pathos, tender feeling.
7 Palpable, plain; obvious.
8 Physiologist, one learned in the
structure of the body and the
function or office of its organs.

13

9 Scalpel, a knife used in surgical
operations.

10 Sentient apparatus, the brain
and nervous system; "sentient,"
having the power of perceiving or
feeling. (Lat. sentio, I feel.)
11 Conductors, the nerves; they act
a part analogous to that of the
telegraph wires, conveying to the
brain sensations of pain or plea-
sure; for instance, if a finger is
cut the nerves in connection with
the wounded part at once transmit
the painful message to the brain.
12 Unmitigated, unsoftened. (Lat.
mitis, mild.)

13 Those hopes, &c. The hopes of a
reward in another world, and the
feelings of love and devotion which
uplift the heart of the martyr.

IT

ON CRUELTY TO ANIMALS.

PART II.

T is a comfort to know that most of the cruelty practised in our land on the dumb creatures that minister to our wants arises from heedlessness, nct from pleasure in inflicting pain; because there is a fair hope that the treatment of poor brutes will become less cruel as the public become more thoughtful and considerate respecting their duty to the lower animals.

"A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast." Let a man be righteous, that is, imbued with a sense of fairness and just dealing, and he will not disregard the claims of the inferior creatures on his kindness.

Moreover, the person that ministers to the comfort and well-being of the humblest of his fellow-creatures ministers thereby to his own happiness. Think of all the luxury of feeling which accompanies the benevolent care of the helpless creatures at our disposal-a care which at length ripens into a strong and cherished affection for its objects-as when the worn-out hunter is permitted to graze and be still the favourite of all domestics through the remainder of his life; or the old and shaggy house-dog that has now ceased to be serviceable is nevertheless sure of his regular meals and a decent funeral; or when an adopted inmate of the household, as a motherless lamb, is treated as a playfellow by the children. Such relationships with the inferior creatures supply many of our finest associations of tenderness, and give even to the heart of man some of its simplest yet sweetest enjoyments.

There is a still loftier view to be presented of the duty of kindness to animals. It is a duty which oversteps the narrow limits in which the circle of our duties to our

fellow-men is confined. It is a duty which one order of creatures owes to an inferior order. If there were no such descending current of duty from beings of a higher rank to those of a lower, what would have become of ourselves? Whence have we learned this attitude of lofty unconcern about the creatures who are beneath us?

Not from those ministering spirits who wait upon the heirs of salvation. Not from those angels who circle the throne of heaven, and make all its arches ring with joyful harmony when but one sinner of this prostrate world turns his footsteps towards them. He who hath given His angels charge concerning us means that the tide of beneficence should pass from order to order, through all the ranks of His magnificent creation. But if we receive blessings from above and refuse to impart them to those beneath us, we are opposing the design of the Almighty, who will ultimately deal with us as we deal with others: "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."

The spirit in which we should act towards the brute creation most plainly appears the following stanza by the poet Spenser :

THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS.

"And is there care in heaven? And is there love

In heavenly spirits to these creatures base,
That may compassion of their evils move?
There is :-else much more wretched were the case
Of men than beasts: but oh, th' exceeding grace
Of highest God, that loves His creatures so,
And all His works with mercy doth embrace,
That blessed angels He sends to and fro,
To serve to wicked man, to serve his foe!"

HARUN AL RASHID AND HIS CAPITAL.

BAGDAD, founded in 765 on the west bank of the

Tigris, was for centuries the centre of Moslem 1 power in Asia, being the capital of the Caliphs until the year 1259, when the city was taken by storm, and the dynasty of her Caliphs extinguished.

Of this race the most renowned was Harun al Rashid (Aaron the Just), who reigned from 786 to 808. The fascinating pages of the "Arabian Nights," the delight of childhood in all countries, have made the name of this Caliph familiar to all young people fond of the marvellous. We can still see the Caliph2 and his vizier,3 disguised as merchants, slipping out at the postern gate at dusk, to seek adventures in the narrow lanes of Bagdad.

The external appearance of the city at the present day does not disappoint the expectations which may have been formed from Eastern history and romance. It stands in a forest of date-trees, which conceal the meanness of its buildings from the approaching stranger, but allow such glimpses of its splendid minarets and domes as prevent him from suspecting that the ancient glory of Bagdad has entirely departed. In the time of Harun this city was the home of poets, scholars, and philosophers; and in her splendid palaces were collected. vast treasures of gold and silver, and the precious products of all kinds of artistic work from all nations.

Harun earned the title of just by his personal endeavours to discover the real state of his subjects, by his readiness to listen to the tales of their wrongs, and by the care and pains he took to have their grievances redressed. "His title to the name of Al Rashid (the Just)," says Gibbon, "is sullied by the extirpation of