io8 
A NATURALIST ON THE PROWL. 
impossible. If we got rid of these, each one might be 
replaced by a strong, healthy, well developed, human being 
in full possession of all his faculties. This is the teaching 
of nature and of science. The Spartans recognised it and 
exposed sickly infants on Mount Taygetus to die. Doubt- 
less many a fond mother yearned for her puny offspring 
and pleaded that it was not so weak as it looked ; but 
reason triumphed over sentiment, and the unpromising 
baby was taken away. And what the law of Sparta did 
for her citizens, the law of nature, as inexorable, does 
for all living things ; till man steps in and declares his 
unconquerable conviction that it is better that A should 
be weak and sickly and B should sympathise with him 
and care for him and sacrifice himself for him, than 
that A should cease to be and B should be free to care 
for himself. 
It is, I repeat, a great and wonderful thing. Where 
is the explanation ? 
“ Beyond the veil, beyond the veil.” 
Not on this side of it certainly. Among the lower animals 
there is kindly feeling in many phases, the attachment 
of the bird to its mate, the affection of the mother for 
her young ; but of compassion and benevolence I find 
