18 FISHES. 



memento of sin ; for surely death in this our 

 world is the bitter fruit of human transgres- 

 sion. " By one man sin entered into the world, 

 and DEATH BY SIN." Yet the infliction is not to 

 the animal creation an unmitigated evil. A far 

 greater amount and variety of animal life is thus 

 sustained than could be supported otherwise, and 

 life to them is happiness. They have no terrors 

 of futurity beyond death, and probably have little 

 fear of death itself, beyond the habitual appre- 

 hension which prompts the exercise of caution 

 and sagacity. Death is the pang of a moment, 

 and is rather the termination of a pleasant active 

 life, than an actual evil. The gradual exhaustion 

 of strength by advancing age, or the dying of 

 want from inability to procure the needful food, 

 would be far more dreadful. Even the very ex- 

 ercise of the faculties arising from the present 

 state of things, — the vigilance, the stratagems, 

 the activity, the excitement involved in pursuit 

 and attack on the one hand, and in escape or 

 defence on the other, all are doubtless contribu- 

 tive to the relish of life, and to their consequent 

 happiness. The poet's judgment is according to 

 truth : 



" Harsh seems the ordinance, that life by life 

 Should be sustain'd ; and yet, when all must die, 

 And be like water spilt upon the ground, 

 Which none can gather up, — the speediest fate, 

 Though violent and terrible, is best. 

 with what horrors would creation groan, 

 What agonies would ever be before us, — 

 Famine and pestilence, disease, despair, 

 Anguish and pain in every hideous shape, 

 Had all to wait the slow decay of Nature ! 

 Life were a martyrdom of sympathy ; 

 Death, lingering, raging, writhing, shrieking torture ; 



