44 
NATURE NOTES 
that the fear of emptying his church would not restrain him from 
plain speaking if necessary, which is a different thing. 
For myself I can honestly enter a plea of ignorance hitherto ; 
possibly culpable ignorance, the ignorance of passivity, but I 
have not, like the deaf adder, wilfully stopped my ears. The 
wearing of many feathers has, indeed, seemed to me of doubtful 
taste, and possibilities of cruelty have occurred to my mind, but 
no “ appeal for help ” has reached me, nor have I known 
anything of thq vile trade in the feathers of the poor white egret, 
though so old a story, as it seems it is, to naturalists. Now I know 
better. But it occurred to me that before preaching I should 
learn accurately the facts of the supply of feathers generally, 
and be able to make true distinctions. It is easy without pre- 
paration to denounce cruelty at large, but then the words are 
not likely to stick. It is easy without preparation to denounce 
the particular cruelty to the egrets, but this wrong, though so 
plain, would, if made the subject of sermons, suggest questions 
and speculations about the destruction of other animals which I, 
with my present equipment, might find it difficult to answer. 
It is true that we clergy when in the pulpit have a privilege — 
the privilege of the blessed Glendoveer, in “ Rejected Addresses,’’ 
“ I am a blessed Glendoveer, 
’Tis mine to speak and yours to hear,” 
but the advantage is often only temporary. 
In view of the incessant slaughter of animals by man (seal- 
skins and ivory came to my mind) I must, I thought, form clearer 
views than I have at present of the right moral relation between 
man and the animal world, and be able to apply the test of some 
reasonable principles to the treatment of lower forms of life. 
It is also a consideration that most people know little outside 
the experience of their daily life, and that little has not much 
practical influence. There must be explanation as well as 
denunciation. Such were my thoughts, which will not be taken, 
I hope, to indicate a lukewarm feeling 
Some two weeks afterwards, when I was in the church 
waiting for those who had parish business to transact or who 
sought counsel, a young girl came in to see me ; I must call 
her Miss Standard ; a good and innocent girl, anxious to serve 
the Christian cause in the parish. Her family is wealthy. Alas! 
she wore “ ospreys ” in her hat. 
When the business of her visit was done I said, “ Will you 
let me speak to you before you go about your hat ? ” 
“ Oh, yes,” she replied, though surprised at so unexpected 
an opening ; “ I hope you like it.” 
“ It is a very pretty hat, but those feathers in it 1 do not like.” 
“Oh, dear!” she said, “I always get my hats at Mrs. 
Henry’s. We think her taste so good, and she took such pains 
with this.” 
“ You are, I daresay, thoughtless about such matters, but 
those feathers were got at a shocking cost.” 
