Birds, Insects, Man and Woman 109 



ing their comely heads, and never wear another. 

 Why do they proclaim themselves murderers ? 



As we listen to the delicious glee of the bobo 

 link over the meadows, to the swift, bright cry of 

 the meadow lark, or the tender sibilation of the 

 red-winged blackbird in the swales, it seems im 

 possible that human beings can possibly think of 

 killing these lovely creatures, or of being accom 

 plices after the fact in their slaughter. The other 

 day, the sun shining ardently over the fields and 

 forests, and drawing delicate veils of moisture 

 from the brooks and swamps, one listening to 

 these wild and gracious utterances of the sole and 

 infinite Spirit could only conceive of the world 

 of Nature as one of harmony. The several grades 

 of life are interdependent and the less developed 

 nurture the higher perpetually. 



As for man, only he introduces a breach in the 

 order of being, and destroys tree and flower and 

 bird without respect to their offices, despoiling 

 himself the worst of all. And when he is told 

 this and it is proved to him, the moment s greed 

 makes him shut his mind and dismiss considera 

 tion of the subject. Still his ignorant woodchop- 

 pers fell the forest, &quot; clearing &quot; the land, destroy 

 ing the saplings as remorselessly as they cut the 

 trees of timber or of cord wood, and ravaging the 

 whole forest by fire. Still his railroads rush 



