The day-school, the Sunday-school, and all libraries for the
young, demand the influence that shall teach the reader how to live in
sympathy with the animal world; how to understand the languages of the
creatures that we have long been accustomed to call "dumb," and the sign
language of the lower orders of these dependent beings. The church owes
it to her mission to preach and to teach the enforcement of the "bird's
nest commandment;" the principle recognized by Moses in the Hebrew
world, and echoed by Cowper in English poetry, and Burns in the "Meadow
Mouse," and by our own Longfellow in songs of many keys.
Kindness to the animal kingdom is the first, or a first principle in the
growth of true philanthropy. Young Lincoln once waded across a
half-frozen river to rescue a dog, and stopped in a walk with a
statesman to put back a bird that had fallen out of its nest. Such a
heart was trained to be a leader of men, and to be crucified for a
cause. The conscience that runs to the call of an animal in distress is
girding itself with power to do manly work in the world.
The story of "Beautiful Joe" awakens an intense interest, and sustains
it through a series of vivid incidents and episodes, each of which is a
lesson.
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