xix IS NATURE CRUEL? 379 



painful wounds, or worse diseases. Against this vast ever- 

 present network of dangers, together with the ever-present 

 danger of consuming fire, man is warned and protected by 

 an ever-increasing sensibility to pain, a horror at the very 

 sight of wounds and blood ; and it is this specially developed 

 sensibility that we, most illogically, transfer to the animal- 

 world in our wholly exaggerated and often quite mistaken 

 views as to the cruelty of nature ! 



As a proof of the increased sensibility of the civilised as 

 compared with the more savage races, we have the well- 

 known facts of the natives of many parts of the world 

 enduring what to us would be dreadful torments without 

 exhibiting any signs of pain. Examples of this are to be 

 found in almost every book of travels. I will here only 

 mention one. Among most of the Australian tribes there 

 is a regular scale of punishment for various offences. When 

 a man entices away another man's wife (or in some other 

 offence of an allied nature) the allotted punishment is, that 

 the complainant and his nearest relatives, often eight or ten 

 in number or even more, are to be allowed to thrust a spear 

 of a certain size into the offender's leg between ankle and 

 knee. The criminal appears before the chiefs of the tribe, 

 he holds out his leg, and one after another the members of 

 the offended family walk up in turn, each sticks in his spear, 

 draws it out, and retires. When all have done so, the leg 

 is a mass of torn flesh and skin and blood ; the sufferer has 

 stood still without shrinking during the whole operation. 

 He then goes to his hut with his wife, lies down, and she 

 covers the leg with dust— probably fine wood ashes. For a 

 few days he is fed with a thin gruel only, then gets up, and 

 is very soon as well as ever, except for a badly scarred leg. 

 Of course we cannot tell what he actually suffered, but 

 certainly the average European could not have endured 

 such pain unmoved. 



This, however, is only an illustration. It is not essential 

 to the argument, which is founded wholly on the principles 

 of Darwinian evolution. One of these principles, much 

 insisted on by Darwin, is, that no organ, faculty, or sensation 

 can have arisen in animals except through its utility to the 

 species. The sensation of pain has been thus developed, 



