THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING. 



343 



boys to collect them ! It is often overdone, and results 

 in cruelty and damage to the nests; but not always, 

 and how it takes the boys out into the woods and 

 fields ! Indeed, I know of one brown-eyed enthusiast 

 who was the possessor at one time of some few dozen 

 varieties of birds' eggs, gathered by long journeyings 

 from the woods and the pastures^ and obtained by dint 

 of hard scrambling and climbing — but obtained, and 

 blown, and labeled, and arranged in a box; and what 

 an interesting collection of the beautiful little spotted 

 and fragile things it was ! How variously colored and 

 speckled they were, and how we learned from his box 

 of eggs of the habits of the feathered tribe; and how 

 delightful it was to find out what bird a certain kind 

 of egg belonged to ! It was one of the beneficent pro- 

 visions of the Mosaic law that, if a man must gather 

 birds' eggs or destroy the nests, "thou shalt not take 

 the dam with the young;" that is, so to speak, if evil 

 comes upon you, do not let it go too far ! But the 

 rather be kind; let not mercy give place unto wrath. 



Pain, be it allowed, is more real to us, more excru- 

 ciating to our sensitive natures, more complex and more 

 Intense. Yet suffering — and great pain — is none the 

 less an actual fact among animals. So far as I have 

 been able to observe it, pain with them is not of so 

 long duration as with us, nor so keen, in proportion 

 as their blood differs from ours in its consistency. But 

 the tragedy of a torn nest is no less a tragedy for a 

 feathered pair, simply because it is of less consequence, 

 and happens to a lower order of beings, than is the 

 burning of a handsome dwelling for a man and his 

 wife. We rebuild our homes and go to the painful 



