He did not go as far as the Brahmin, but he seemed to have weighed this saying of Ecclesiastes: "Who knoweth whither the soul of the animal goeth ?" Hideousness of aspect, deformity of instinct, troubled him not, and did not arouse his indignation.

He was touched, almost softened by them.

It seemed as though he went thoughtfully away to seek beyond the bounds of life which is apparent, the cause, the explanation, or the excuse for them.

He seemed at times to be asking God to commute these penalties.

He examined without wrath, and with the eye of a linguist who is deciphering a palimpsest, that portion of chaos which still exists in nature.