60 THE VITAL FUNCTIONS. 



to endure abstinence for a great length of time, 

 without any apparent diminution of their strength : 

 a horse or an ox woukl sink under the exhaustion 

 consequent upon fasting for two or three days, 

 whereas the wolf and the martin have been known 

 to live fifteen days without food, and a single meal 

 will suffice them for a whole week. The calls of 

 hunger produce on each of these classes of animals 

 the most opposite effects. Herbivorous animals 

 are rendered weak and faint by the want of food : 

 but the tiger is roused to the full energy of his 

 powers by the cravings of appetite ; his strength 

 and courage are never so great as when he is 

 nearly famished, and he then rushes to the attack, 

 reckless of consequences, and undismayed by the 

 number or force of his opponents. From the time 

 he has tasted blood, no education can soften the 

 native ferocity of his disposition : he is neither to 

 be reclaimed by kindness, nor subdued by the 

 fear of punishment. On the other hand, the ele- 

 phant, subsisting upon the vegetable productions 

 of the forest, superior in size ftnd even in strength 

 to the tiger, and armed with as powerful weapons 

 of offence, which it wants not the courage to em- 

 ploy when necessary, is capable of being tamed 

 with the greatest ease, is readily brought to submit 

 to the authority of man, and requites with affection 

 the benefits he receives. 



On first contemplating this extensive destruction 

 of animal life by modes the most cruel and re- 

 volting to all our feelings, we naturally recoil with 

 horror from the sanguinary scene; and cannot re- 

 frain from asking how all this is consistent with 

 the wisdom and benevolence so conspicuously 



