BILLY AND HANS 



that this history will awaken in some 

 sympathetic hearts a tenderness to 

 the wild creatures, which shall, in the 

 great balance of gain and loss, weigh 

 down the little loss of one poor beastie, 

 sacrificed, not intentionally, to the 

 good of his fellows. And this is, after 

 all, the noblest end even of our human 

 lives — to die that others may live. 



Amongst the many letters I have 

 received, called out by their story told 

 in the Century, not a small proportion , 

 express a vivid faith in the immortal- 

 ity of animals, and it is known that 

 Luther and Agassiz, amongst others, 

 so believed. At first thought it seemed 

 to me fanciful, for where shall it end? 

 But when I think of Billy and Hans 

 I cannot conceive of them as no 

 longer existing. Has the love my 

 heart still holds for them — little 

 thread though it be, running into the 

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