PURIFICATION. 



147 



charm of the East. The West has its peculiar splendours — in sun and 

 climate America is not less dazzling ; but the moral attraction of Asia 

 lies in the sentiment of unity which you feel in a world where man 

 is not divorced from nature ; where the primitive alliance remains 

 unbroken ; where the animals are ignorant that they have cause to 

 dread the human species. Laugh at it if you will ; but there is a 

 gentle pleasure in observing this confidence — in seeing the birds come 

 at the Brahmin's call to eat from his very hand — in watching the apes 

 on the pagoda-roofs sleeping in domestic peace, playing with or suck- 

 ling their little ones in as much security as in the bosom of their 

 native forests. 



"At Caii-o," remarks a traveller, " the tui-tle-doves know so well 



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they are under the protection of the public, that they live in the 

 midst of the very clamour of the city. Every day I see them cooing 



