when we witnessed the wanton destruction of trees.  I once remonstrated with a cruel wretch whom I saw engaged in taking the life of some beautiful elms inhabiting a piece of pasture-land.  He replied, that in the hot days of summer the cattle did nothing but lie under them and chew their cud, when they should be at work feeding on the grass,—­that his oxen did not get fat fast enough, nor his cows give as much milk as they should give,—­“and so,” said he, “I’m goin’ to fix ’em,”—­and down came every one of the hospitable old trees.  We are not half so humane in our conduct towards the inferior races and tribes as the old Romans whom we calumniate with the epithet of Pagans.  The Roman Senate degraded one of its members for putting to death a bird that had taken refuge in his bosom:  would not the Senate of the United States “look pretty,” undertaking such a thing?  A complete Christian believes not only in the dogmas of the Bible, but also in the mythology, or religion of Nature, which teaches us, no less than it taught our fathers, to regard wanton cruelty towards any vegetable or animal creature which lives in the breath and smile of the Creator, as a sin against Heaven.

Having in the above paragraph got into the parson’s private preserve, as I shall be liable anyhow to an action for trespass, I am tempted to commit the additional transgression of poaching, and to give you a few extracts from a sermon a friend of mine once delivered. [It was addressed to a small congregation of Monothelites in a village “out West,” just after the annual spring freshet, when half the inhabitants of the place were down with the chills and fever.  It was his maiden effort,—­he having just left the Seminary,—­and did not “take” at all, as he learned the next day, when Deacon Jenners (the pious philanthropist of the place) called to tell him that his style of preaching “would never do,” that his thoughts were altogether of too worldly a nature, and his language, decidedly unfit for the sacred “desk.”  Besides,—­though he would not assume the responsibility of deciding that point before he had consulted with the Standing Committee,—­he did not think his sentiments exactly orthodox.  My friend was disgusted on the spot, and, being seized with a chill shortly afterwards, concluded not to accept the “call,” and, packing his trunk, started in quest of a healthier locality and a more enlightened congregation.]

“And here permit me to add a word or two for the purpose of correcting a very prevalent error.

“Most men, I find, suppose that this earth belongs to them,—­to the human race alone.  It does not,—­no more than the United States belong to Rhode Island.  Human life is not a ten-thousand-millionth of the life on the planet, nor the race of men more than an infinitesimal fraction of the creatures which it nourishes.  A swarm of summer flies on a field of clover, or the grasshoppers in a patch of stubble, outnumber the men that have lived since Adam.  And yet we assume the dignity of lords and masters of the globe!  Is not this a flagrant delusion of self-conceit?  Let a pack of hungry wolves surround you here in the forest, and who is master?  Let a cloud of locusts descend upon a hundred square miles of this territory, and what means do you possess to arrest their ravages?...