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BULLETIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
saddening. It was something of a grim satire upon our 
hospitality that one unlucky animal, which recently came within 
the city limits, was so ill-treated by the thoughtless crowd that 
it sought refuge in the burial ground, and there died from the 
harsh treatment which it encountered. And this brings me back 
to the point from which I started, viz., that we do not recognize 
sufficiently the just rights of many lovely things. I was told 
the other day of a small family party which went into the woods 
for a day’s pleasure. They camped at a spot often resorted to, 
and there a squirrel had its home. The little animal, quite 
unafraid, came out of its own residence and greeted them, 
apparently with pleasurable anticipation of some dainty morsel 
when the lunch was spread. A boy in the group threw at it a 
stone with too good aim and killed it — the mother of a family 
too young to do without a mother’s care. No doubt the act was 
a thoughtless one. The result materially affected the day’s 
pleasure of that party; but, what was worse, it unjustifiably 
deprived of life something that had a right to live. Could that 
or some similar idea or feeling he made a living force operating 
upon human conduct? A few days ago I read in a Connecticut 
newspaper a paragraph to the effect that a man living near a 
town in that state had discovered on his farm the hoard of 
chestnuts gathered by two red squirrels for their winter’s pro- 
\ision, and had confiscated it. Possibly this man acted without 
much thought, but surely it was a dishonourable and mean 
tiling to rob the squirrels of their winter’s provisions, the result 
of their indefatigable industry, particularly as the season for 
collecting a fresh supply is over. 
Within the range of observation of each one of us, there are 
many things which call us to keener and closer thought upon 
Life than perhaps we ordinarily give it. Whence comes it? 
What is it? Whither goes it? What power originates it? 
What controls it? Whether it is created by some primal law 
of matter or is the beneficent act of the Almighty Father, is it 
not a sacred thing? I need not enter upon the vast field of 
thought which these questions awaken. But the man must be 
