78 BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 



tvhile the tree-louse lives on plants, the musca aphi- 

 divora lives upon the tree-louse; the hornet lives 

 upon the musca aphidivora ; the dragon fly on the 

 hornet; the spider on the dragon-fly; the small birds 

 on the spider; and the hawk on the small birds. 



Deprived of reason, the innocent lamb licks the 

 hand raised for its destruction ; and the sufferings 

 which animals feel upon the speedy extinction of 

 the vital spark, must be momentary indeed, in com- 

 parison of the pangs they must have undergone, if 

 they had been left to expire by old age. Indeed, 

 according to this plan, old age would be impossi- 

 ble ; for what would the world soon become were 

 Its numerous tenants so cut off, and the putrid car- 

 cases to lie unburied ? the circumambient air, now 

 the source of life and vitality, must then in a short 

 lime be rendered pestilential, and bearing upon its 

 wings the noxious vapours, deal death and deso- 

 lation with increasing malignity to every climate, 

 until the beautiful theatre of life and activity became 

 one great charnel-house, and the animating flame be 

 for ever extinguished in the awful silence of eternal 

 night. 



Instead, therefore, of finding fault with the mer- 

 ciful dispensations of our all wise Creator, and re- 

 pining that lions and tigers, bears and wolves, ea- 

 gles and vultures, serpents and crocodiles, and vo- 

 racious monsters of the deep of every description 

 exist, let us rather rejoice that wherever the carcase 

 is exposed on the field, there will the vultures be 

 gathered together ; and that, where the lion and 



