150 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS. 



were delicious on toast," astonished some of the com- 

 pany by indignantly exclaiming : What ! eat robins, 

 our household birds ! I would as soon eat a baby ! A 

 man who, by word, teaches that '' God is love," on 

 being expostulated with for shooting robins, rephed that 

 " he had a perfect right to shoot any birds for food ; 

 that all life was created especially for the use of man." 

 This is almost the universal excuse. We are sick of this 

 miserable, selfish old lie. It is used as a screen to cover 

 half the cruelty practiced by man upon the lower ani- 

 mals, and is not half as honest as the plea that " might 

 makes right." God no more created the birds for you 

 and me than He created 3^ou and me for the birds. Let 

 us have done with the old dogma or selfish theology, 

 that " man is the grand pivot about which all the bal- 

 ance of creation revolves." 



Beast and bird and plant and flower were made cen- 

 turies before man inhabited this globe ; they still live 

 and flourish where he has never been, and they may 

 continue to live ages after he ceases to exist. The dear 

 old poet utters the diviner melody when he sings : 



^^He prayeth best who loveth best 



All things both great and small ; 

 For the dear God who loveth us 



He made and loveth all/'' 



