holding themselves fully justified for taking such as tend to increase or illustrate our knowledge of God and his works. At the same time, it is a grand object to gratify their taste at as little expense of pain to the creature as possible, and to put them to instantaneous death. The most eminent naturalist for many years in the north of Ireland, was John Templeton, Esquire, of Orange-grove, near Belfast. Botany was his favourite study, but he left no department of nature unexplored : "Well could he speak of all the flowers of spring, The Rev. Dr. Hincks, in a memoir of his life, in the Magazine of Natural History, vol. 1, p. 404, truly observes that "he was remarkable for his kind attention to every part of the animal creation. In this he set an excellent example to naturalists, for he always contrived to gratify his curiosity without pain to the subject of it, and would, at any time, have lost the opportunity of acquiring knowledge, rather than be the cause of suffering to a living creature. When circumstances justified the deprivation of life, he considered how it might take place with the least pain." The author had the honour of ranking Mr. Templeton among his friends, and enjoyed frequent opportunities of hearing his humane sentiments, and witnessing the exercise of those virtues by which he was characterised. His example, it is to be hoped, has not been without its due influence. The members of the Belfast Natural History Society will honour the memory of their deceased friend, by following him, not only in the walks of science, but in the more estimable paths of philanthropy and mercy. Some of them are among the most ardent and successful investigators of nature, as may be attested by the names of Thompson, Haliday, and Paterson, to say nothing of their founder. A similar society has recently been formed in Dublin, and among its members are many young men who are pursuing the same high and honourable career; and fast hastening, not only to rescue their country from the reproach to which she was so long liable, of total igno rance and neglect of Natural History,* but, as we trust, to give her a name among the nations for her devotion to that noble science. Would that similar societies were formed in every city and county of Ireland, and that both young and old of all sects and denominations constituted their members! How much would their co-operation in the studies of nature tend to promote their common good, to neutralize the baneful influences of political and religious bigotry, and foster those principles of benevolence in the exercise of which man finds his purest enjoyment? Such studies both at home and abroad afford a healthful recreation to youth, a cheerful amusement to age, a constantly new and inexhaustible variety of pleasures not confined to time or place, but perennial and universal; springing exuberant in every clime and in every season, in the torrid and the frozen zone, in the peopled city and the desolate wilderness; never disgusting by excess nor cloying by repetition; and while they familiarize the mind to converse with the works of God, and imbue it with a love of the beautiful and the grand, create or improve a taste for the good and the true, and elevate it to contemplate, to adore, and to imitate the infinitely glorious perfections of that Great Being, whose name is Love, and whose" tender mercies are over all his works." CHAPTER X. HUMANITY TO ANIMALS CONSIDERED AS A SUBJECT OF EDUCATION. "When the judges of the Areopagus condemned to death a boy for picking out the eyes of live quails, they must have considered that barbarity as a presumption, or symptom of a disposition horribly cruel, and which, should the boy grow up, would do infinite mischief in society." QUINTILIAN, v. 9. Guthrie's translation, vol. i. p. 292. IT has been observed by phrenologists, and particularly by Spurzheim, that there is no part of education * See some curious and amusing illustrations of this in a little volume entitled "Thoughts on the Study of Natural History," addressed to the more shamefully neglected than the cultivation of conscientiousness, or the moral principle. While no pains, expense, or assiduity are spared in promoting the intellectual culture of the young, or in teaching them what are called accomplishments to dance, to fence, and to ride-there is comparatively little or nothing done to improve the best part of the constitution-the moral sense-the benevolent affections. On the contrary, we often see the animal propensities indulged a spirit of cruelty fostered-acquisitiveness, combativeness, destructiveness, and a taste for luxury, the great instigators of cruelty, called into fearful action. That children who have the misfortune to be so ill instructed should become tyrannical and inhuman men, is only what is to be expected. The fruit will be the genuine product of the seed sown. "Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?” Every parent who wishes to see his children become wise and virtuous men, will take care to imbue their minds with principles of humanity. But if he suffers them to practise every species of cruelty of which they are capable, and prevents them not;-if he allows them to kill flies, spiders, and beetles; to teaze cats, dogs, and donkeys; to search for birds' nests; to destroy the eggs or the young with impunity; and, as soon as they can fling a stone, handle a bow and arrow, or fire a pistol or gun, to carry on the work of destruction; what is he to expect of them in their riper years, when every malignant passion has been strengthened by indulgence? He may consider the life of an insect or a bird as a thing of no value, and care not how dogs are lashed, cats hunted, and flies impaled. But these trifles, if such they seem, may lead to serious, and even appaling results. While a child is permitted to torture a poor animal, he is in training to become an executioner. The tyrant of the woods may become the proprietors of the Belfast Academical Institution, 1820. This work is not so well known as it merits. It led to the foundation of the Belfast Museum of Natural History, an institution creditable to the taste and liberality of the inhabitants of that public-spirited town, and which has contributed in no small degree to promote a taste for the studies which it recommends. *"Immanitas certe erga bestias est veluti tyrocinium scelestioris crudelitatis, et qui sustinent male habere pecudes, earumque malis videntur delectari, ii sæpe haud multo misericordiores erga homines evadunt."— CLERICUS in Gen. ix. 4. R tyrant of the city, and the killer of flies the scourge of his own family, "Antiphates trepidi laris, ac Polyphemus." It has been said that children are naturally cruel, that they have an instinctive_pleasure in torturing flies, and treading upon worms. To affirm this is to malign their character, and impeach the wisdom and goodness of the Creator. If they are cruel it is not by nature, but a bad education; and there would be much greater cause of complaint, were it not for the benignant counteracting influence of that very nature which is so foully misrepresented. But human folly, having wrought all the evil of which it is capable, deformed what was fair, and perverted what was good, lays the blame on infinite wisdom and goodness! "The Saga relates, that in order to alter the mild disposition of Ingiald Illrada, he was fed with wolves' hearts. Judging from his future actions, this regimen appears to have had the desired effect." As wolves are extinct in this country, a different regimen is employed to "alter the mild disposition" of children—a regimen that operates directly on the mind, and freezes the "genial current of the soul." Kirby remarks, that "the first knowledge we get of insects is as tormentors; they are usually pointed out to those about us as ugly, filthy, and noxious creatures; and the whole insect world, butterflies and some few others excepted, are devoted by one universal ban to proscription and execration, as fit only to be trodden under our feet and crushed." Young people are naturally active, turbulent, curious. They must be in motion, and hence they pursue animals, and in the ardour of pursuit, rudely seize, strike, sometimes kill them, not from cruelty, but to make sure of their capture. Curiosity also leads to minute examination, which terminates in dismemberment and death. All such practices should be discouraged, both by precept and example. If properly taught humanity, they will be humane. "Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined." The experience of all ages and countries bears testimony to the truth of the observation, "Quo semel est imbuta recens, servabit odorem "The odours of the wine that first shall stain The virgin vessel, it shall long retain."-FRANCIS. The sensibilities and sympathies of children can be easily excited by kind admonition, and by expressions of pity and condolence for such animals as suffer injury or wrong. There is no great difficulty in shewing them the analogy between the affections, the wants, and the sufferings of a man and those of a brute. Should a child be detected in killing a fly, you may remonstrate or reason with him in a style similar to that of Titus with Marcus :— Tit.-What dost thou strike at, Marcus, with thy knife? Mar.-Alas, my lord, I have but kill'd a fly. Tit. But how, if that fly had a father and mother? And buzz lamenting doings in the air? Poor harmless fly! That with his pretty buzzing melody Came here to make us merry; and thou hast kill'd him. SHAKSPEARE. If, instead of accosting a child thus, and leading him to participate in the wrongs and sufferings of an insect, some injudicious friend or domestic were to laud him for his dexterity and perseverance in catching and destroying one, as the Lady Valeria lauds the son of Coriolanus, how would his killing propensities, with his love of approbation, be stimulated into fearful activity! Valeria says to Volumnia : "O' my word, the father's son: I'll swear 'tis a very pretty boy. O' my troth, I look'd upon him o' Wednesday half an hour together: he has such a confirm'd countenance. I saw him run after a gilded butterfly; and when he caught it, he let it go again; and after it again; and over and over he comes and up again; catch'd it again or whether his fall enraged him, or how 'twas, he did so set his teeth, and tear it; O, I warrant, how he mammock'd it!" Vol.-One of his father's mood. Val.-Indeed la, 'tis a noble child. Such acts as are here eulogized were highly characteristic of the child of the warrior, who said that "Like an eagle in a dove-cot, I |