2 3 8 



ZOOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 



as swelling and hemorrhage. After the repulse of Tor- 

 res Vedras, Massena congratulated the survivors of his 

 staff and vaunted himself bullet-proof, when the remark 

 of a by-stander caused him to put his hand to his 

 wounded forehead: " Chien de Notre Dame ! qu'est-ceque 

 ga f" said he with unfeigned surprise. Count Ranzau, 

 the StreitJians, " Rowdy Jack," as his comrades called 

 him, once received three stabs before he knew that he 

 was hurt; and in the battle of Ostrolenka, Kosciusko led 

 his " scythe-brigade" till his horse was shot down, when, 

 dismounting, he found himself crippled by a shot that 

 had struck him an hour before, — merely through the 

 boot-leg, as he had thought at the time. 



Not all soldiers are volunteers, and cowards, as Shake- 

 speare says, " die many times ;" but a circus-manager 

 would have no difficulty in raising a regiment of bullies, 

 from a count to a cock-bantam, not only willing but 

 impatiently eager to try conclusions, with or without a 

 referee. Marcus Aurelius provoked a fierce revolt by 

 trying to compel the gladiators to fight with blunted 

 swords (Xiphilin., 1. xxi., 29), and four-footed champions 

 with a rival in sight often fall upon the biped who tries to 

 restrain them. Warfare is the normal medium of natu- 

 ral selection, and captive wild animals, of the carnivo- 

 rous species particularly, need very little encouragement 

 to accept a challenge. 



An instinctive recognition of these facts, rather than 

 of our ethical objections, seems to prevent semi-civilized 



