ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 337 



Now, guess what this wound might be. A burn. In this dangerous 

 Indian climate, where everything gi'ows putrid, they are frequently 

 constrained to cauterize the sores. He endui'ed this treatment 

 patiently, and went every day to undergo it. He felt no antipathy 

 towards the sru'geon who inflicted upon him so sharp an agony. He 

 groaned ; nothing more. He evidently understood that it was done 

 for his benefit ; that his torturer was his friend ; that this necessary 

 cruelty was designed for his cure. 



Plainly this elephant acted upon reflection, and upon a bhnd 

 instinct ; he acted against nature in the strength and enlightenment 

 of his will. 



Page 270. The master-mghtingcde. — I owe this anecdote to a 

 lady well entitled to a judgment upon such questions — to Madame 

 Garcia Viardot (the gi'eat singer). The Russian peasants, who pos- 

 sess a fine -ear and a keen sensibility for Nature (compared with her 

 harshness towards them), said, when they occasionally heard the 

 Spanish cantatrice : "The nightingale does not sing so well." 



Page 273. Still the little one hesitates, &c. — " One day I was 

 walking with my son in the neighbourhood of Montier. We perceived 

 towards the north, on the Little Saleve, an eagle emerging from the 



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