So, in fact, the condition of the poor brutes has gone from bad to worse. There is, indeed, a French law for the protection of animals, but it is nearly a dead letter. The great practical difficulty in cultivating the feelings on this subject comes from the general but most unreasonable idea that there is something manly in being indifferent to the sufferings of brutes, and something childish in having pity for them. I remember a French gentleman who considered himself strong-minded because he made his carriage horses work when they had raws. In the lower classes men are proud of overloading and of making their horses go over unreasonable distances.[11] In both countries men are ready to inflict pain on animals whenever they think that they can get pleasure out of it for themselves. The passions for sport and _gourmandise_ are the two which come next after science for pitilessness. The infliction of wounds for amusement, and the boiling alive of lobsters, are common to England and France, but the following is, I believe, peculiarly French:--When we lived at Sens my wife discovered that it was the custom, when selling rabbits on the market-place, to put their eyes out with a skewer, from a belief that this cruelty improved the flavour.[12] I find that cooks are all convinced that boiling alive is necessary to the flavour of a lobster, and there is no reasoning with cooks and gourmands if they believe that cruelty heightens the delicacy of tortured flesh. [Sidenote: The Sentiment of Reverence.] [Sidenote: Veneration of the Priests by Catholics.] [Sidenote: Absence of Veneration in the Republican Party. Victor Hugo. Ingres.] [Sidenote: Chevreul.] [Sidenote: Extinction of Royalist Sentiment.] [Sidenote: Want of Reverence for High Officials.] [Sidenote: Absence of Veneration in Family Life.]