"If it hadn't
been for me you never would have lived. You see _I_ gave you the gift of
life. Therefore, instead of grumbling, you should be very much obliged
to me. Don't you understand? I preserved hares, so that without me you
would never have been a hare. Isn't that right, Mr.-- Mr.--I am sorry I
have forgotten your name," he added, turning towards me.
"Mahatma," I said.
"Oh! yes, I remember it now--Mr.--ah--Mr. Hatter."
"There is something in the argument," I replied cautiously, "but let us
hear our friend's answer."
"Answer--my answer! Well, here it is. What are you, Man, who dare to say
that you give life or withhold it? You a Lord of life, _you!_ I tell
you that I know little, yet I am sure that you or those like you have
no more power to create life than the world we have left has to bid the
stars to shine. If the life must come, it will come, and if it cannot
fulfil itself as a hare, then it will appear as something else. If you
say that you create life, I, the poor beast which you tortured, tell you
that you are a presumptuous liar."
"You dare to lecture me," said the Man, "me, the heir of all the ages,
as the poet called me. Why, you nasty little animal, do you know that I
have killed hundreds like you, and," he added, with a sudden afflatus of
pride, "thousands of other creatures, such as pheasants, to say nothing
of deer and larger game? That has been my principal occupation since I
was a boy. I may say that I have lived for sport; got very little else
to show for my life, so to speak.
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