It is just this characteristic way in which the brute gives itself up entirely to the present moment that contributes so much to the delight we take in our domestic pets.  They are the present moment personified, and in some respects they make us feel the value of every hour that is free from trouble and annoyance, which we, with our thoughts and preoccupations, mostly disregard.  But man, that selfish and heartless creature, misuses this quality of the brute to be more content than we are with mere existence, and often works it to such an extent that he allows the brute absolutely nothing more than mere, bare life.  The bird which was made so that it might rove over half of the world, he shuts up into the space of a cubic foot, there to die a slow death in longing and crying for freedom; for in a cage it does not sing for the pleasure of it.  And when I see how man misuses the dog, his best friend; how he ties up this intelligent animal with a chain, I feel the deepest sympathy with the brute and burning indignation against its master.

We shall see later that by taking a very high standpoint it is possible to justify the sufferings of mankind.  But this justification cannot apply to animals, whose sufferings, while in a great measure brought about by men, are often considerable even apart from their agency.[1] And so we are forced to ask, Why and for what purpose does all this torment and agony exist?  There is nothing here to give the will pause; it is not free to deny itself and so obtain redemption.  There is only one consideration that may serve to explain the sufferings of animals.  It is this:  that the will to live, which underlies the whole world of phenomena, must, in their case satisfy its cravings by feeding upon itself.  This it does by forming a gradation of phenomena, every one of which exists at the expense of another.  I have shown, however, that the capacity for suffering is less in animals than in man.  Any further explanation that may be given of their fate will be in the nature of hypothesis, if not actually mythical in its character; and I may leave the reader to speculate upon the matter for himself.

[Footnote 1:  Cf. Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, vol. ii. p. 404.]

Brahma is said to have produced the world by a kind of fall or mistake; and in order to atone for his folly, he is bound to remain in it himself until he works out his redemption.  As an account of the origin of things, that is admirable!  According to the doctrines of Buddhism, the world came into being as the result of some inexplicable disturbance in the heavenly calm of Nirvana, that blessed state obtained by expiation, which had endured so long a time—­the change taking place by a kind of fatality.  This explanation must be understood as having at bottom some moral bearing; although it is illustrated by an exactly parallel theory in the domain of physical science, which places the origin of the sun in a primitive streak of mist, formed one