No generous mind delights to oppress the weak, but rather to cherish and protect. - Anne Brontë

One bright day in the last week of February, I was walking in the park, enjoying the threefold luxury of solitude, a book, and pleasant weather.

I sometimes think she has no feeling at all; and then I go on till she cries — and that satisfies me.

A little girl loves her bird — Why? Because it lives and feels; because it is helpless and harmless? A toad, likewise, lives and feels, and is equally helpless and harmless; but though she would not hurt a toad, she cannot love it like the bird, with its graceful form, soft feathers, and bright, speaking eyes.