214 THE FOX 



have denied themselves henceforth the pleasure which 

 it gives. These persons, whether we agree with them 

 or not, we must respect. Nay, more, the advocates 

 of sport are bound to consider their arguments and 

 state, for their own satisfaction at least, why they do 

 not agree. The opponents of foxhunting put their 

 objections upon a syllogism. It is not right to in- 

 flict pain and death for our pleasure; foxhunting 

 inflicts pain and death for no other reason : therefore 

 foxhunting cannot be justified. To this it is a fair 

 reply, first, that pain and death are not the objects 

 of the sport ; and secondly, that we may without 

 scruple inflict both for sufficient reason. No one 

 doubts that foxes must be killed, and that if there 

 were no organised sport they would be killed just 

 the same. The race might even be exterminated, 

 though reasons will occur to the reader why this is 

 not quite so easy a matter as it appears to be on 

 paper. But at all events there is nothing wrong in 

 killing foxes. There is no real difference of opinion 

 about that. The only question is as to the method. 

 The key lies in the pleasure we find in the chase. 

 Of coruse those who take things as they find them 

 or who are like Tom Tulliver when he assured his 

 sister that worms did not feel when impaled upon 

 a hook, and was ' privately of opinion that it did not 



