216 THE LAND'S END 



Connexion, with other minute variations in form and 

 shades of colouring ; and if he then, casting his eyes 

 down to where at the foot of the rock a faint, sharp, 

 sorrowful little note is heard at frequent intervals, he 

 should catch sight of a maimed rock-pipit or titlark, 

 creeping painfully about the beach with the aid of its 

 wings in search of small morsels of food among the 

 shingle and sea-wrack, his soul would be filled with 

 exceeding bitterness. " They do not know, they never 

 knew, me ! " I think he would turn away from a 

 people who call themselves by his name but are not 

 his followers in that which was best in his teaching 

 not in that divine spirit of love and tenderness which 

 was in Jesus of Nazareth, in St. Francis of Assisi, 

 and in all men whose memories are sacred in the 

 earth. I think he would pass away in the sea mist 

 with a mournful cry which would perhaps be audible 

 to the chapel-goers ; and they would wonder at it 

 and ask each other what this strange fowl could be 

 that uttered a cry as of a soul in pain. 



It is something to be able to say that not all of the 

 inhabitants are indifferent to these things. Even in 

 St. Ives, where bird-killing is most popular and a 

 wholesale slaughter of the spent and hungry fugitives 

 intoxicates with joy like a big catch of pilchards 

 where, indeed, bird-killing appears like an instinct as 

 well as a pastime, having come down "from ancientie," 

 to quote a phrase of Carew there are some who are 

 revolted by it. I am speaking not of visitors and 

 English residents, but of native Cornishmen ; and a 

 few of these have begged me " to do or say something 



