36 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 
and power which are the elements of all supreme rule, whether 
it be human or divine. 
These earth-mated creatures are his subjects; and here, at 
least, his lust of despotism can be gratified, for he is ruler 
and lord above them all, for evil as well as for good. When 
it is for evil, how terrible he must be to them with his dread 
engines and his fierce subtlety! When for good, what moving 
of strange thoughts, what yearnings for a better and gentler 
being must visit them! Was it not so, even with ourselves, 
when there were giants in those days, and angels sought the 
daughters of Adam on our earth ? 
If creation be an unresting tendency, eternally ascending 
towards the perfect, then is our supposition less a fancy than 
a truth, and our dominion over the beast of the earth and 
the fowl of the air becomes a heritage of fearful responsi- 
bilities, embracing wide extremes of pleasure and of pain. 
Duties, then, of startling significancy, open to us, and we 
feel the presence of self-derived majesty expand throughout 
our principality, and in beneficence above immortal subjects. 
We are no longer their tyrants, but right royal masters. 
We know them not as the insensate objects of a rude caprice, 
dumb foot-balls to our blind and heady passions, to be chased 
and torn and worried in our savage glee,—but as the crea- 
tures of our dedicated love, to be guarded gently, nurtured 
well, and led by easy ways up, through serener airs, to happier ' 
fields. 
This is the Apocalyptic Vision of an elder race—man, THE 
AscenpeEr, beckoning the flocks and herds, the live ocean- 
tide of his inheritance, up the steep; the calm radiance of his 
merciful brow drawing its flood towards the stars! It isa 
healthful philosophy, full of noble teachings, and we should 
hold it to our hearts, though the reality of such a vision 
may be so remote—though, alas! fallen ourselves, we have 
cursed them. 
It is sad enough that all these creatures have scented 
