30 The Naturalist in La Plata. 
the poet used those words, but in one truer, and 
wider, and infinitely sadder. Only when this sport- 
ing rage has spent itself, when there are no longer 
any animals of the larger kinds remaining, the loss 
we are now inflicting on this our heritage, in which 
we have a life-interest only, will be rightly appreci- 
ated. It is hardly to be supposed or hoped that 
posterity will feel satisfied with our monographs of 
extinct species, and the few crumbling bones and 
faded feathers, which may possibly survive half a 
dozen centuries in some happily- placed museum. 
On the contrary, such dreary mementoes will only 
serve to remind them of their loss ; and if they 
remember us at all, it will only be to hate our 
memory, and our age — this enlightened, scientific, 
humanitarian age, which should have for a motto 
Let us slay all noble and beautiful things, for to- 
morrow we die.” 
