What! would you slap the Porcupine?
    Unhappy child—desist!
Alas! that any friend of mine
    Should turn Tupto-philist.*

    

To strike the meanest and the least
    Of creatures is a sin,

    

How much more bad to beat a beast
    With prickles on its skin.


*From τυπτω=I strike; φιλεω=I love; one that loves to strike. 
The word is not found in classical Greek, nor does it occur 
among the writers of the Renaissance—nor anywhere else.