6 LOVE S MEINIE. 



ence, and of the equally conscious pride of the boys, as 

 they stood to be painted, has been somewhat to shorten 

 the power of the on'e, and to abase the dignity of the 

 other. And thus, in the midst of my admiration of the 

 youths' beautiful faces, and natural quality of majesty, 

 set off by all splendours of dress and courtesies of art, I 

 could not forbear questioning with myself what the true 

 ^alue was, in the scales of creation, of these fail* human 

 beiuffs who set so hio"h a value on themselves : aud,— as if 

 the only answer, — the words kept repeating themselves in 

 my ear, " Ye ai-e of more value than many sparrows." 



2. Passeres, arpovdot,, — the things that open their wdngs, 

 and are not otherwise noticeable ; small birds of the land 

 and wood ; the food of the serpent, of man, or of the 

 stronger creatures of their ow^n kind, — that even these, 

 though among the simplest and obscurest of beings, have 

 yet ])rice in the eyes of their Maker, and that the death of 

 one of them cannot take place but by Plis permission, has 

 long been the subject, of declamation in our pulpits, and 

 the ground of much sentiment in nursery education. But 

 the declamation is so aimless, and the sentiment so hollow, 

 that, practically, the chief interest of the leisure of man- 

 kind has been found in the destruction of the creatures 

 which they professed to believe even the Most High 

 would not see perish without pity ; and, in recent days, it 

 is fast becoming the only definition of aristocracy, that 

 the principal business of its life is the killing of sparrows. 



Sparrows, or pigeons, or partridges, what does it mat- 



