328 THE ETHICAL KINSHIP 



let live. Do more. Live and help live. Do to 

 beings below you as you would be done by beings above 

 you. Pity the tortoise, the katydid, the wild-bird, 

 and the ox. Poor, undeveloped, untaught crea- 

 tures ! Into their dim and lowly lives strays of 

 sunshine little enough, though the fell hand of 

 man be never against them. They are our fellow- 

 mortals. They came out of the same mysterious 

 womb of the past, are passing through the same 

 dream, and are destined to the same melancholy 

 end, as we ourselves. Let us be kind and merciful 

 to them. 



' Wilt thou draw near the nature of the gods ? 

 Draw near them, then, in being merciful ; 

 Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge,' 



Let us be true to our ideals, true to the spirit 

 of Universal Compassion whether we walk with 

 the lone worm wandering in the twilight of con- 

 sciousness, the feathered forms of the fields and 

 forests, the kine of the meadows, the simple 

 savage on the banks of the gladed river, the 

 political blanks whom men call wives, or the 

 outcasts of human industry. 



Oh this poor world, this poor, suffering, ignorant, 

 fear-filled world ! How can men be blind or 

 deranged enough to think it is a good world? 

 How can they be cold and satanic enough to be 

 unmoved by the groans and anguish, the writhing 

 and tears, that come up from its unparalleled 

 afflictions ? 



But the world is growing better. And in the 



