2^6 



The Poets Beasts. 



affection, of the staunch, pluck}', little beast that had given 

 him a fast run, and saved its brush after all. At any rate^ 

 the idea that the animal is hunted because it kills chickens, 

 and, therefore, richly deserves the worst that can happen 

 to it, is utterly foreign to the character of "sport." The 

 fact that foxes are preserved in order to be hunted should 

 have corrected the theories of modern poets. 



With the otter it fares exactly the same. Because the 

 beast catches fish which men wish to catch it is said to 

 merit the death which overtakes it when the hounds pursue 

 and tear it to pieces. They all seem to hate it, call it 

 "felon," "robber," and "prowler," and Somerville descants 

 at length in a very spirited but most deliberately cruel poem 

 on the pleasures of murdering an otter. 



