The casuistry of the Reformers was similar, in origin, to that of the early fathers; and, with the marked exception of the question of celibacy, the two systems greatly resemble one another in their severity. This strictness was most extreme in the Calvinistic Church, as is displayed in the stern rules of its founder, and in the works of the German Danæus (who, in fact, usually follows Augustine), of the English Perkins, and the Dutch Amesius. A more genial spirit prevailed in the Lutheran Church, which produced the Consilia of Melanchthon, and the treatises of Baldwin of Wittenberg, Olearus, Osiander, and Spener. In the Pia Desideria of the last we find the commencement of a more ascetic but specially subjective casuistry, founded upon the pietism of Thomas à Kempis. During the 17th century, several other Protestant works on casuistry appeared in England. Those of Bishops Hall and Barlow are not marked by much power. Perkins's Cases of Conscience (1606), starting from a discussion of the authority of Scripture and the nature of the Godhead, of repentance and the sacraments, arrives at conclusions which often display vigorous sense, and always a straightforward and even stern honesty. Thus he declares that a promise, though extorted under compulsion or by means of deceit, is binding so long as the loss to be sustained is merely temporary and private; and he condemns the striving for more riches than is necessary for the health of the body, the culture of the mind, and the satisfaction of one's obligations to one's family and to others. His most fanciful argument is that in which he founds the validity of an oath by a creature on the curious ground that “God is seen” (i.e., manifests himself) “in the creature.” The still more famous Latin treatise De obligatione conscientiæ (1660)—of which the best known section, the De Juramenti Obligatione appeared separately in 1647—by Sanderson, professor of theology at Oxford, is distinguished by an equal directness of moral aim, and by much learning and vigour. But the most renowned of all, Jeremy Taylor's Doctor Dubitantium (1660) has not the merit of similar clearness; as guides of conscience he mixes up the laws of revelation and nature, the laws ecclesiastical and civil of princes and governors, and “the fame or the public reputation of things, expressed by proverbs, &c.” while the place of careful original thought is often taken by profuse quotations.
During the last two centuries, the study of morals has developed itself in a totally different direction. Free discussion being opened up as to the fundamental questions of religion and morality, modern writers on ethics more generally content themselves with the treatment of great principles, without laying down specific rules for their practical application.
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CASWALL, Henry, D.D. (1810-1870), was born at Yateley, Hampshire, and educated chiefly at the grammar school of Chigwell, Essex. At the age of eighteen he went to the United States, and graduated in arts at Kenyon College, Ohio. After being engaged for several years as a parish minister and a professor of theology in America, he returned to England in 1842, obtained a private Act of Parliament recognizing the validity of his ordination in the United States, was appointed to the vicarage of Kgheldean, Wiltshire, and became proctor in Convocation for the diocese of Sarum, and preber.dary of Salisbury Cathedral. He received the honorary degree of M.A. from the university of Oxford, and that of D.D. from Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut. Caswall went back to the United States about two years before his death, which occurred at Franklin, Pennsylvania, December 17, 1870. The main object of his life was to promote the consolidation and to increase the power of the great religious organization connected with the English Re formation. His principal work is America and the Ameri can Church, 1839; 2d edition, 1851. He also wrote two works on Mormonism ; Scotland and tlie Scottish Church; The Western World Revisited, 1854; and The Martyr of tlie Ponoas, a memoir of the Rev. II. J. Seacock.
CAT, a name applied in its widest sense to all feline animals, but generally restricted to a few of the smaller species which approximate more or less closely to the domestic form. Of undomesticated species the best known is the wild cat (Felis cattis), inhabiting the most inacces sible mountain fastnesses, and the deepest recesses of the forests of Central and Northern Europe and Asia. It attains a length of 3 feet including the tail, is of a yellowish grey colour above and whitish beneath, with a dark streak extending along the back to the origin of the tail, and with indistinct transverse bands on the sides Its tail is bushy and of equal thickness throughout, annalated and tipped with black. The wild cat was formerly abundant throughout the wooded districts of Britain, but is now confined to Wales, the mountainous parts of the north west of England, and the Highlands of Scotland, where, owing to the increased attention now paid to the preservation of game, it is being rapidly exterminated by trap and gun. It forms its nest in rocky crevices, or in the hollows of trees, and has been known to make use, for this purpose, of the nests of the larger birds. It is nocturnal in its habits, prowling by night in search of the mammals and birds which form its food, and thus doing immense damage in districts well stocked with game. The fierceness of its disposition, its strength, and its agility are well known ; and although it does not seek to attack man, yet when disturbed in its lair, or when hemmed in, it will spring with tiger-like ferocity on its opponent, every hair on its body bristling with rage. " I never saw an animal fight so desperately," says Mr Charles St John ( Wild Sports of the Highlands), " or one which was so difficult to kill." In country districts specimens of the domestic cat run wild are by no means uncommon, for, having once tasted wild animal food, hares and rabbits are ever after wards preferred to rats and mice, and when the house cat thus takes to hunting there are few animals more destructive to poultry and game. In some instances they have been known to hunt regularly in the woods and yet retain sufficient domesticity to carry home their prey before devouring it; and notwithstanding the Latin proverb
" Catus amat pisces sed aquas intrare recusat,
they have been known to overcome their aversion to water in order to gratify their taste for fish. The offspring of such semi-wild forms gradually assume a uniform colouring not unlike that of the wild cat, a similarity which led to the supposition that the house cat was but a domesticated form of Felis catus. The greater size, however, of the latter, the uniform thickness of its tail a peculiarity which never reappears in any of the domestic varieties, nor in those which have returned to the wild state along with the fact of the great scarcity of house cats and the high value set upon them throughout Europe during the Middle Ages,
when the wild form was everywhere abundant, may be
