RAJGIR: AN ANCIENT BAHYLON 41
whose very form was radiant with feeling and thought, that lifted him above the common world into that consciousness that makes history.
It may have been early morning when He came. P'or the books say that the great company of goats was being led up at that moment for the royal sacrifice ; fixed, it may have been, for about the hour of noon. Or it may have been about the time of cowdust, on the eve of the festival, and the herdsmen may have intended to stable their goats for that night outside the palace. In any case He came, some say carrying on his shoulder a lame kid, followed by the patter of thousands of little hoofs. He came, moreover, in a passion of pity. A veritable storm of compassion had broken loose withm him on behalf of these, the helpless "little brothers " of humanity, who were caught like man himself in the net of pain and pleasure, of life and death ; bewildered like rAan by love and sorrow, but who unlike man for want of speech could neither express their perplexity nor form a con- ception of release. Surely they crowded round Him, and rubbed themselves against Him again and again, the gentle, wondering, four-footed things ! For the animals are strangely susceptible to the influence of a silent love that has no designs on their life or freedom. All the legends of the world tell us that they catch the hush of Christmas Eve, respond to the eager questioning of the Child Dhruva, and understand that unmeasured yf^arning to protect them which may be read in the eyes of
