AJSriMALS AS FELLOW-CREATURES. 335 



duty of self-preservation compels us to destroy those 

 animals which, directly by their ferocityj or indirectly' 

 by their number, endanger our lives — as indeed it also> 

 compels us to destroy, by war or judicial penalty, 

 those of our own species who do the same — yet it 

 should be the instinct of a generous mind to spare 

 and to protect those lesser lives which can harmlessly 

 co-exist with our own. In the earlier stages of human 

 life, when man had to battle with the other creatures 

 for his own safety, the hunter was respectable, both 

 because his activity was useful and because it required 

 him to brave danger; but in an old country like 

 our own, where all the dangerous and most of the 

 tiresome animals have been already killed out, the 

 hunting instinct is an anachronism, and its indulgence 

 often a mere puerile affectation. The sportsman ia 

 apt to become a similar social nuisance to the, wan-' 

 dering botanist, who promptly uproots all plants thati 

 are not common. The true naturalist would fain see 

 the energies of both applied elsewhere ; these people 

 would be useful in a new colony, where they could: 

 extirpate wild beasts, clear forests, and root up poison- 

 ous.plants ; but at home their mischievous activities jar 

 oh the lover of nature. The sparrow-hawk and the 

 pussy-cat are no doubt very interesting types of indi- 

 viduality; but it is not a very lofty ambition for 

 human beings to imitate them in the destruction of 

 perfectly helpless and harmless small game. The aim 

 of the naturalist should be to encourage all harmless 

 types of animal life.. Nearly every creature can be 



