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If animals that have hitherto been regarded as the natural and irreconcileable eueraies of each other , can , by means of gentle discipline , be brought to live together in peace , and even in affection , shall we so far libel our merciful and benevolent Creator as to say , that he has formed the irrational part of the creation with capacities better adapted to profit by education than man whom he has endowed with reason ? Is it reasonable to suppose that whilst he has given to animals capacities to benefit by ins
truelook upon this show , may have had his mind awakened to the extraordinary effects of habit and gentle discipline , when he has seen the cat , the rat , the mouse , the hawk , the rabbit , tbe guinea-pig , the
owl , the pigeon , the starling , and the sparrow , each enjoying , as far as can be enjoyed in confinement , its respective modes of life , in the company of others ; the weak without fear , and the strong without desire to injure . It is impossible to imagine any prettier exhibition of kindness than is here shewn . The
rabbit and the pigeon playfully contending for a lock of hay to make up their nests ; the sparrow sometimes perched on the head of the cat , and sometimes on that of the owl , eacn its natural enemy ; and the mice playing about with perfect
indifference to the presence either of cat , or hawk , or owl . The modes by which this mau has effected this , are , first , by keeping all the creatures well fed ; and , secondly , by accustoming one species to tlie society of another at a very early period of their lives . The ferocious
instincts of those who prey on the weaker are never called into action ; their nature is subdued to a systematic gentleness ; the circumstances by which they are surrounded are favourable to the cultivation of kindlier dispositious ; ail their
desires and pleasures are bounded by their little cage ; and though the old cat sometimes takes a stately walk on the parapet of the bridge , he duly returns to his companions , with whom he has so long been happy , without at all thinking that he was born to devour them . This
is an example , and a powerful one , of what may be accomplished by a proper educatiou , which rightly estimates the force of habit , and confirms , by judicious management , that habit which is most desirable to be made a rule of conduct . The principle is the same whether it be applied to children or to brutes . —The Library of Entertaining Knowledge , Vol . 1 . Part 1 .
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tion , that he has been less favourable to man ? And that man , man made in his own image , cannot , without his miraculous intervention or preventing grace in Christ , be restrained from revenging insults , or from murdering or robbing his brethren ? If , with the gospel of peace in their hands , parents , school-masters ,
priests , and pnuces , cannot prevent thefts , murders , and wars , it woirld appear , certain , either that this religion is contaminated by the traditions of merj , or that those whose duty it is to teach it to others are unable to do so , either from ignorance , indolence , or prejudice . Were parents and others , * to whom education is entrusted , to take pains , by early , gentle discipline , to reclaim the
evil propensities of children , vices and crimes would gradually disappear , prisons would become useless , and original sin , the fiction of theologians , like the doctrine of Transubstantiation , would only be remembered as one of the superstitious chimeras engendered during ages of gross darkness . The rapid progress of physical knowledge affords a reasonable hope that the time is fast approaching when men in all ranks of life will be able
to judge for themselves , when religious errors will be gradually forsaken or exploded , and Christian knowledge will banish war , crime , and poverty , from the earth . From the way in which reformation has , in our own time , been advocated
atid practised , it is no wonder that its very name should have become obnoxl - ous . The great reformation wanted is moral reformation ; and without this , political legislation may be considered as little better th < tu empei icism ; for the wise Ruler of the world has made obedience
to his laws the positive condition of obtaining happiness and security . To expect that human laws , however cunningly-devised , will be permanently efficacious with a people , the large majority of which U vicious , is as visionary as to expect that a house built on a quicksand will endure the united efforts of the
storm and the deluge . As , in reformations , the opinions and principles of a large majority will prevail , it becomes of the greatest consequence that the lower classes , who in all nations constitute this majority , should receive sound Christian instruction ; not the instruction contained in creeds , catechisms , and articles « f faith , but those principles of piety and devotion to Qod , and of mercy and benevolence to man , taught and exemplified by Christ and his discipjes , and incol-
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Mucellaneoue ' Correspondence . AYJ
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1830, page 417, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2585/page/57/
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