THE EAGLE AND THE CANARY 179 



uncomfortable feelings concerning their condition 

 feelings which have an admixture of something 

 like a sense of shame or guilt, as if an injustice had 

 been done, and I had stood by consenting. I did 

 not do it, but we did it. I remember Matthew 

 Arnold's feeling lines on his dead canary, " Poor 

 Matthias/' and quote : 



Yet, poor bird, thy tiny corse 

 Moves me, somehow, to remorse ; 

 Something haunts my conscience, brings 

 Sad, compunctious visitings. 

 Other favourites, dwelling here, 

 Open lived with us, and near ; 

 Well we knew when they were glad, 

 Plain we saw if they were sad ; 

 Sympathy could feel and show 

 Both in weal of theirs and woe. 



Birds, companions more unknown, 

 Live beside us, but alone ; 

 Finding not, do all they can, 

 Passage from their souls to man. 

 Kindness we bestow and praise, 

 Laud their plumage, greet their lays ; 

 Still, beneath their feathered breast 

 Stirs a history unexpressed. 

 Wishes there, and feeling strong, 

 Incommunicably throng ; 

 What they want we cannot guess. 



This, as poetry, is good, but it does not precisely 

 fit my case ; my " compunctious visitings " being 



M 



