GENERAL REFLECTIONS. 109 



The Moors use the skin of the lion as quilts for their beds 

 It is said to have the remarkable property of keeping rats or 

 mice out of any room where it is deposited, for a considerable 

 length of time after it is taken from the animal. 



We have now ranged through the deserts and the forests, to 

 survey that ferocious tribe of animals, which are terrible to man, 

 as well as other creatures. In these, as in all others, the power 

 of the Creator is conspicuous, although exhibited in forms of 

 terror. This question may here naturally arise : How is it con- 

 sistent with infinite goodness, that animals should devour one 

 another, and be supported at the expense of one another's lives? 

 To judge whether this system of predacious violence among 

 animals can, even according to our limited view of the conse- 

 quences, be deemed a real evil, we ought to take the following 

 circumstances into consideration. 



In the present state of things, immortality is out of the ques- 

 tion : the universal law of Nature ordains, that whatever lives, 

 must die ; and it does not appear that the alteration of this law 

 could add to the happiness of the animated creation. To man, 

 the present life, in which evil is invariably mixed with good, is 

 only probationary, and preparatory to another and happier state 

 of existence, where evil shall be excluded, and felicity be per- 

 manent and without alloy. To other creatures life is a blessing, 

 which they enjoy for a time without any apprehension of its ter- 

 mination, or any anxiety for future occurrences. The present mo- 

 ment limits the sphere of their pleasures and their pains, as well 

 as the extent of their hopes and their fears. The system of prey 

 among animals, like the impulse of interest among men, is a spring 

 of activity and motion : pursuit forms the employment, and seems 

 to constitute the pleasures, of a considerable part of the animal 

 creation ; defence, flight, or instinctive precaution, is also the 

 principal business of another part ; and even in regard of the lat- 

 ter tribe, we have no reason to suppose that their happiness is 

 much disturbed by their apprehensions. Their danger, it is true, 

 continually exists, and Nature has endowed them with an instinc- 

 tive sagacity, which renders them so far sensible of it as to pro- 

 vide against it in the best manner they are able ; but it is only 

 when the attack is actually made, that they appear to suffer from 

 their situation. 



To contemplate the insecurity of their condition with anxiety 

 and dread, requires a degree of reflection which the compassion- 

 ate benevolence of the Creator has kindly refused to them ; thus 

 graciously providing that their present safety may not be disturb- 

 ed with the apprehensions of future danger, nor their immediate 



K 



