THE EAGLE AND THE CANARY. 
135 
has been put upon them, and am not their owner, 
being only a visitor in the house, I am troubled 
with some 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 con- 
senting. 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 feelings strong, 
Incommunicably throng ; 
What they want we cannot guess. 
This, as poetry, is exceedingly good ; but it does 
not precisely fit my case ; my " compunctious 
