parasites, remain. This is inevitable in certain cases. But it is
wanton killing off that I am speaking of to-night. Civilized man
begins by destroying the very forms of wild life he learns to
appreciate most when he becomes still more civilized. The obvious
remedy is to begin conservation at an earlier stage, when it is
easier and better in every way, by enforcing laws for close seasons,
game preserves, the selective protection of certain species, and
sanctuaries. I have just defined a sanctuary as a place where man is
passive and the rest of Nature active. But this general definition is
too absolute for any special case. The mere fact that man has to
protect a sanctuary does away with his purely passive attitude. Then,
he can be beneficially active by destroying pests and parasites, like
bot-flies or mosquitoes, and by finding antidotes for diseases like
the epidemic which periodically kills off the rabbits and thus starves
many of the carnivora to death. But, except in cases where experiment
has proved his intervention to be beneficial, the less he upsets the
balance of Nature the better, even when he tries to be an earthly
Providence.

In itself a sanctuary is a kind of wild "zoo," on a gigantic scale and
under ideal conditions. As such, it appeals to everyone interested in
animals, from the greatest zoologist to the mere holiday tourist.
Before concluding I shall give facts to show how well worth while it
would be to establish sanctuaries, even if there were no other people
to enjoy the benefits. Yet the strongest of all arguments is that
sanctuaries, far from conflicting with other interests, actually
further them. But unless we make these sanctuaries soon we shall be
infamous forever, as the one generation which defrauded posterity of
all the preservable wild life that Nature took a million years to
evolve into its present beautiful perfection. Only a certain amount of