no A BOOK OF MORTALS 



History tells us of Alexander's love for Bucephalus, of 

 Yudishthra's surpassing love for his dog, which made 

 him forswear Paradise without his faithful companion. 

 And we read between the lines of many a curt mention 

 how much to man has been the mutual trust of fellow 

 mortals. 



Still the great bulk of benefit has gone down with those 

 fellow mortals to the grave. 



Who knows, who can know, how much of help and 

 example and close, confident comradeship have been given 

 in the past to man .? Given, taken, and forgotten ! 



We have laughed at animals, we have played with 

 them, hunted with them, amused ourselves with them, 

 and wept over them. We have, so to speak, made our 

 souls with them, learning the lessons they had to teach, 

 and for so much surely they claim grateful consideration at 

 our hands. 



The King's Spider then, which taught him perse- 

 verance, stands as a type for the endless unknown services 

 which the animals have done for man, ever since Adam first 

 learnt speech by calling them by their names. 



Far away days those ; and he has misused those names 

 hideously since by putting many of them to bad uses ; but 

 behind even such opprobrious epithets as dog, cat, pig, 

 ass, puppy, lies the certainty that each of these — automati- 

 cally or otherwise — has done more for humanity than 

 humanity has done for it. 



Take them as automata, deny them everything but a 

 grim similitude of Life — and yet 



What have they not done for our souls } 



