regards those animals which are
mostly dumb, such as the horse, which, except on rare occasions of extreme
suffering, makes no sound at all, but only expresses pain by certain
movements indicating pain--how tender we ought to be of them, and how
observant of these movements, considering their dumbness. The human baby
guides and governs us by its cries. In fact, it will nearly rule a
household by these cries, and woe would betide it, if it had not this power
of making its afflictions known. It is a sad thing to reflect upon, that
the animal which has the most to endure from man is the one which has the
least powers of protesting by noise against any of his evil treatment.

ARTHUR HELPS.

* * * * *

UPWARD.

His parent hand
From the mute shell-fish gasping on the shore,
To men, to angels, to celestial minds,
Forever leads the generations on
To higher scenes of being; while supplied
From day to day with His enlivening breath,
Inferior orders in succession rise
To fill the void below.

AKENSIDE: _Pleasures of Imagination._

* * * * *

CARE FOR THE LOWEST.

I would not enter on my list of friends
(Though graced with polished manners and fine sense,
Yet wanting sensibility) the man
Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm.
An inadvertent step may crush the snail
That crawls at evening in the public path;
But he that has humanity, forewarned,
Will tread aside, and let the reptile live.
The creeping vermin, loathsome to the sight,
And charged perhaps with venom, that intrudes,
A visitor unwelcome, into scenes
Sacred to neatness and repose, the alcove,
The chamber, or refectory, may die:
A necessary act incurs no blame.
Not so when, held within their proper bounds,
And guiltless of offence, they range the air,
Or take their pastime in the spacious field:
There they are privileged; and he that hunts
Or harms them there is guilty of a wrong,
Disturbs the economy of nature's realm,
Who, when she formed, designed them an abode.
The sum is this: If man's convenience, health,
Or safety, interfere, his rights and claims
Are paramount, and must extinguish theirs.
Else they are all--the meanest things that are--
As free to live, and to enjoy that life,
As God was free to form them at the first,
Who in his