Manava Dharmashastra 1.29

1.29

hiṃsraṃ paraprāṇaviyogakaraṃ sarpasiṃhahastyādi | tadviparītamahiṃsraṃ rurupṛṣatādi | mṛdu peśalamānāyāsakam| krūraṃ kaṭhinaṃ paraduḥ khotpādanātmakam | anyatprasiddham | yadetad dviśaḥ prasiddhaṃ karma jātaṃ tato yasya yadeva pradadhādvattavān kalpitavān sa prajāpatiḥ sarge sṛṣṭyādau pūrvakarmānurūpyamavekṣya, tatkarma sa sṛṣṭaḥ prāṇī svayamāviśat pratipadyate | bhūtakālatā na vivakṣitā | adyatve'pi jātidharmasyānupadiṣṭasya svayampratipattidarśanāt |

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
‘Hurtful’ is that which deprives living beings of life, such for instance, as the Serpent, the Lion and the Elephant;—the opposite of this is the ‘Harmless’; for instance, the several species of the Deer, the Ruru, the Pṛṣat and the like;—‘Tender’ is that which is kind, which causes no suffering to any one;—‘Hard-hearted’ is that which causes pain to others;—the rest are well known.

Out of the said pairs of the line of actions, that which ‘he,’ Prajāpati, in accordance with its previous conduct, ‘implanted,’ assigned, ordained,—in a being,—‘at creation’—at the beginning of creation,—that line of action the created living being acquires by itself.

No significance is meant to be attached to the past tense in ‘accrued’: for even now-a-days we find the qualities inherent in a certain class of beings coming to the individual without teaching, spontaneously.—(29)