8 MAN AND ANIMALS 
TIT. MaAn’s RELATION TO NATURE 
Mr. Roosevelt’s statement is quite different from much of the poetry 
about nature, still it is a true picture. We live in a man-made nature 
from which the conspicuous animals and their deadly struggles have 
been eliminated (4, 5). Of the admirers of the beauties of nature I 
fancy that many, perhaps the majority, think of it as a series of lawn- 
like pastures, well-trimmed hedges, such as finds its ideal expression in 
some of the older countries like England. 
The trees, round, woolly, ready to be clipped; 
And if you seek for any wilderness 
You find, at best, a park, a Nature tamed 
And grown domestic like a barnyard fowl. 
—E. B. Browning, “Aurora Leigh.” | 
The close observer of nature, even in such man-made conditions as in 
Bedfordshire or in the Chicago parks, sees all the struggle which Mr. 
Roosevelt has depicted for the birds and mammals of primeval conditions. 
To kill is nature’s first law. 
I. MAN’S CONDUCT TOWARD ANIMALS 
There is much sentimental nonsense about nature, about animals 
and cruelty to animals, as well as much actual cruelty and wanton 
destruction of useful animals. With some people birds obscure all else 
in the animal world. The destruction of squirrels, which are equally if 
not more interesting than birds, is sometimes advocated because of their 
alleged destruction of birds’ eggs. The friend of the squirrel would 
plead equally hard for the destruction of certain hawks and owls as 
enemies of the squirrel. Certainly all lovers of the insect world might 
advocate the destruction of birds to protect their particular zodlogical 
pets. 
That birds save the harvests of every season is believed by many. 
The student of mammals is equally sure that certain mammals are the 
balance wheel, while the herpetologist is convinced of the importance of 
snakes, and the entomologist’s economic world turns about predatory and 
parasitic insects and spiders. The fact is that each view, even thus 
extremely stated, contains its elements of truth. The whole truth is 
hardly knowable. Each animal is dependent upon many others. The 
dependences are so numerous that we find it. necessary to isolate par- 
ticular animals and construct them into a society of real but limited 
relations for purposes of discussion (see p. 170). Still there are a few 
things that we can be reasonably sure of. The first is that we cannot 
