MY SOMALI BOOK 205 



Nature. It is a belief with which one can readily 

 sympathise : for besides having a foundation in fact 

 it originates in some cases in the impossibility its 

 holder finds in reconciling cruelty in Nature with the 

 existence of a beneficent Power controlling the uni- 

 verse ; while the limitations of the finite human mind 

 render it difficult to adopt the wiser plan of being 

 content not to understand — yet — though, after all, is 

 the necessity for the pain and suiTering that exist 

 among mankind more easy to understand than a 

 similar necessity for a measure of what seems to us 

 cruelty in the scheme of life of creatures less sensitive 

 than ourselves ? 



The contrary view is common enough, which looks 

 upon Nature as harsh and ruthless to a superlative 

 degree. But surely the truth, as is so often the case, 

 lies between the two extremes. 



Dr. Wallace writes * : " There is much evidence 

 that violent deaths, if not too prolonged, are painless 

 and easy," and (after giving examples), " we have a 

 right to conclude, that when death follows soon after 

 any great shock, it is as easy and painless a death as 

 possible ; and this is certainly what happens when an 

 animal is seized by a beast of prey. For the enemy is 

 one which hunts for food, not for pleasure or excite- 

 ment ; and it is doubtful whether any animal in a 

 state of nature begins to seek after prey until driven 

 to do so by hunger." As a general proposition, this 

 is undoubtedly true, but it is misleading if the con- 

 clusion is drawn therefrom, as has been done, that as 

 an invariable rule " the rush and spring of a savage 



* Darwinism, Chapter 11. 



