THE NATURAL 



can cut her in two without making her let go; a chain, 

 truly, of carnage. 



The larvae of the sphex, another wasp, are fed on live 

 crickets that have been paralyzed by a stab. As soon 

 as it hatches the larva attacks the cricket in the belly at 

 the chosen spot where the egg has been layed. The poor 

 insect protests by feeble movements of antennae, and 

 mandibles: in vain; he is eaten alive, fibre by fibre, by 

 a great worm which gnaws his entrails, and with so 

 great a skill that it begins on the parts not essential to 

 life, and thus keeps the prey fresh and tasty to the last. 

 Such is the gentleness of nature, the good mother. 



The carabes are fine coleoptera, violet, purple, and 

 golden. They feed only on living prey, which they chew 

 slowly, beginning at the belly, and boring slowly into the 

 palpitating cavity. Helices, and slugs are thus torn apart 

 by bands of carabes who dig them up and dissect them in 

 a boiling of saliva. 



Such are theft and murder, in nature. These are the 

 normal acts. Herbivorous species alone are innocent 

 perhaps from imbecility; always occupied in eating, be- 

 cause their food is so unsubstantial, they have not time 

 to develop their powers: they are the inevitable prey, a 

 sort of superior grass which will be browsed at the first 

 opportunity. But the carnivora are in the same way 

 eaten by their stronger and more adroit fellow-boarders. 

 Very few beasts have a quiet death. The geotrupes, 

 scarabs, necrophores their work finished, the egg-laying 

 accomplished, devour each other to pass the time, per- 

 haps, to lend a little gaiety to their last moments. 

 Animals are of but two sorts, hunters and game, but 



