30 A BOOK OF MORTALS 



revenue payers of the whole empire — being driven forth day 

 after day to starve in the dust-dry desert ; to starve without 

 one thought of help even from those who take and admin- 

 ister the revenue. 



A vague comfort comes with the thought that someone 

 once wrote a plea for these dumb creatures and asked in 

 their name — 



" Was there not One born in a lowly stable 

 Who told the world God marked the sparrow's fall 

 Are there no crumbs left for us from His Table 

 Or did He give mankind the right to all ? 



See how we die in thousands of starvation 

 We who have no glad Heav'n to heal our woe — 

 Yet if man hungers — quick for his salvation 

 High hands give gold — the gold that we bestow 



But here, again, the greatest proof of endurance lies in 

 the fact that even this vain plea did not come from the 

 beasts themselves. They were silent. 



Truly and indeed, it is the silence in which these myriads 

 of our fellow mortals are born and live and die which best 

 proves that they show at any rate the outward signs of the 

 oldest virtue in the world. 



That, and their singular freedom, as a rule, from any 

 outward sign of the envy, and covetousness, which breed 

 discontent. A rook, it is true, will cast eyes of desire on a 

 neighbour's nest, but if it yields to temptation it suffers 

 instant punishment at the hands, not only of the aggrieved 

 individual, but also of the outraged community. Piracy is 

 curiously prevalent amongst birds ; but, on the other hand, 

 the odium it inspires amongst the honest ones is quite as 

 curious. 



