18 



HOW THE AUTHOE WAS LED TO 



lonely ocean-waters. Without waiting for human listeners, and with 

 all the gi-eater security, the nightingale had still chanted in the 

 forest his sublime hymn. And for whom ? For her whom he loves, 

 for his offspring, for the woodlands, and, finally, for himself, his most 

 fastidious auditor. 





Another difference between this book and that of Toussenel's is, 

 that, harmonious as he is, and a disciple of the gentle Fourier, he is 

 not the less a sportsman. In every page the military calling of the 

 Lorraine is clearly visible. 



My book, on the contrary, is a book of peace, wiitten specifically 

 in hatred of sport. 



Hunt the eagle and the lion, if you will ; but do not hunt the 

 weak. 



The devout faith which we cherish at heart, and which we teach 

 in these pages, is, that man will peaceably subdue the whole earth, 

 when he shall gradually perceive that every adopted animal, accus- 

 tomed to a domesticated life, or at least to that degree of friendship 

 or neighbourliness of which its nature is capable, will be a hundred 

 times more useful to him than if he had simply cut its throat. 



Man will not be truly man — we return to this topic at the close 

 of our volume — until he shall labour seriously to accomplish the 

 mission which the earth expects of him : 



The pacification and harmonious communion of all living nature. 



