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NINTH WEEK-FRIDAY.

PREDACEOUS ANIMALS.-THEIR OFFICES IN NATURE.

I HAVE already more than once adverted to the remarkable, and, in some respects, mysterious arrangement, by which certain animals are formed, to deprive other living creatures of their existence, and gorge themselves with their remains.* This is a subject, however, which, in reference to the moral character of the Creator, is of very grave importance, and requires deliberate consideration. The predaceous habits of the eagle tribe, which we have just been contemplating, furnishes a proper opportunity for the discussion. I do not doubt that the system of prey can be shown to be a benevolent provision, suited with consummate wisdom to the other conditions of our fallen world.

In arguing this subject, it is especially necessary to keep in mind what was said in the commencement of the "Winter" volume, regarding the character impressed on Nature, which does not exhibit a system such as might be formed by a philosopher in his closet, where evil is excluded, and moral perfection and unalloyed happiness universally prevails; but a scheme of compensations and contrivances, by which "evils are avert.ed or mitigated, and excellence is drawn from the very bosom of apparent defect and worthlessness." This is just what we might expect to discover in a world of discipline, for such a rational but sinful creature as man. It is what, in every part of our enquiry, we have found actually to exist.

The first question connected with the subject I am now discussing, is the general one of the existence of pain. With Sir Charles Bell's admirable exposition of

* See particularly "Winter,"-paper on the Balance preserved in the Animal and Vegetable Creation.

† See "Winter,"-papers on the Character impressed on Nature.

the sensibility of the surface, compared with the deeper parts of the body, the reader is already acquainted;* and nothing further is necessary to show that pain, so far from being an unmitigated evil, is given for benevolent purposes, is obviously modified and limited so as best to promote these purposes, and, in the advantages which it confers, unspeakably counterbalances any distress which it may occasion.

There is another view of this subject, which has not been considered with the attention it demands, but which would amply repay the inquirer into Nature, I mean the comparative degree of sensibility to pain existing in different orders of beings. Dr Macculloch has turned his mind to this subject, and has brought forward many convincing reasons to show that we are mistaken if we judge of the pain suffered by the inferior creation, from the acuteness of our own corporeal feelings;—that, in fact, the sensibilities of all the lower animals seem to be inferior to that of man, while they exist in very different degrees in different orders; and that these sensibilities have been so regulated as 66 to permit them to perform their functions, and enjoy their lives, with the least superfluous pain, or contingency of pain."

This is an important point obtained, in commencing the consideration of the system of prey; for if it can be shown that this system secures a far greater extent and variety of animal existence, than on any other conceivable plan, consistent with other cosmical arrangements, was at all possible, and at the same time that the enjoyment of life greatly countervails the suffering, the scheme will at once appear to be benevolent; while the obtuseness of feeling in those animals which suffer a violent death under this system, serves still further to abate the evils with which it is confessedly attended.

The power of subsistence in animals depends on the quantity of their food. The design of the Creator, therefore, being to extend happiness by extending animal

* "Winter,"-paper on Contrivance.

life, one necessary part of this intention must be to produce the greatest possible quantity of food. Now, although it be true, that the primary means of subsistence are placed in the vegetable world; yet, if animals were merely constituted so as to consume plants and their produce, it cannot be doubted, not only that the various tribes of animals would be greatly diminished, but that the entire mass of life would be very much reduced, and many portions of nature would remain untenanted. If we look at the ocean, for example, this will appear in a very striking light. Vegetable productions could not, consistently with known material laws, have been produced in the sea, in sufficient quantity to supply marine animals with food, to the extent in which they actually exist. Let any person reflect on the number of fishes, "the myriads of shell-fishes, the still more uncountable myriads of the inferior tribes, down to the coralmaking animals, and even, beyond all this, the incomprehensible crowds, which, in a constant series of gradations downwards, both in structure and magnitude, at length escape our microscopes," and he will easily perceive that, but for the predaceous habits of the inhabitants of that element, it would have been impossible that the same quantity of life could be sustained.

The very same thing, though in a more limited degree, takes place among land animals. Now, it is allowed, that a considerable accession of food might have been obtained by bestowing on all living creatures the instinct which actually belongs to those animals that, like the vulture, feed on carrion. But this supply is necessarily limited and uncertain, and, without an alteration in the laws of decomposition, would always be transitory. The system of prey was therefore necessary, under present conditions, for the fulfilment of the benevolent intentions of the Creator.

In adverting to this system, it has been justly said, that, as respects the animals which are the victims of it, a natural death is generally attended with greater, and

certainly more protracted pain, than a violent one; and, in the case of domestic animals, which are the prey of the human race, the care of man, in defending them from enemies, and providing for them an abundance of wholesome and agreeable food, is a further countervailing circumstance of no slight amount. It does not appear, however, that Paley has taken the most correct view of the subject, when he asserts that the system of prey is the natural and necessary remedy for“ super-fecundity," the converse of this proposition being more consistent with an enlarged and enlightened consideration of the subject, namely, that one of the intentions of what he terms super-fecundity, was to promote animal existence in all its various forms. "If," says Macculloch," the cod produces six millions of progeny at once, it is because this food is assigned to other fishes as their provision: For any other purposes it would be an unwise appointment (which cannot be admitted), since even one fish would fill the entire ocean in a few years: And if, while the marine insects of the north are produced in endless millions, their devourer, the whale, produces but one in the same time, we must conclude that these crowds were destined for its food."

The system of prey, then, is a wise provision, intended not merely to preserve the balance of nature, as formerly stated, but to preserve that balance at the full extent of animal existence. The evil of a violent death, even were it tenfold greater than it is, could not counterbalance this good; and that evil has many mitigations. Not to recur to what has already been said as to the sudden nature of this kind of death, and the dullness among the inferior animals in their sensibility to pain, it must be remembered, that they are not tormented with anticipations of this calamity, nor is it aggravated by any knowledge of the fatal event awaiting them, even when in the very act of expiring under the fangs of their devourer.

There is another fact relating to this subject, which must not be omitted, as it is a singular and beautiful

provision of Providence, for mitigating the pain of destruction. In the neck, near the scull, there is a point where a wound of the spinal marrow produces instant death, apparently without suffering; and it is not a little remarkable, that such effect is confined to a single and constant point. Now this point, though perfectly defended from all ordinary injuries, is accessible to a a certain degree of violence, when that violence is skilfully applied. Dr Macculloch remarks, that the knowledge of this fact, which man has only discovered by experiment, has been given to all predatory animals from their birth; and if this is a needful security to them for procuring their food, it is still more a merciful provision for the suffering animal. Every one knows," says he, "that this part of the spine is almost always the object of attack; while, if there are some animals which as instinctively seize on the carotid arteries, the design is of the same nature, and both equally confirm the present views."

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These considerations are, I think, sufficient to establish that there is both wise and benevolent contrivance in this system of prey; but I must not allow it to be thought that I have any wish to conceal the difficulties under which natural religion still labours, on the whole question, of which this is only a part. Let the mitigations be what they may, the question still remains behind, why evil should exist at all. It is obvious that this is intended; and yet we cannot conceive any reason which should render impossible the existence of a world without it. Such a world, indeed, would be entirely different from ours, both in its construction and in its ultimate object. It would not be a world of discipline. If we would understand the intentions of the Eternal, and fully vindicate his perfections, our knowledge must be derived from the higher science of revelation. It is there alone that we can understand why "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until

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