SEPTEMBER 181 



us be perfectly honest in this matter, and explain that 

 the real reason for keeping strange or beautiful animals 

 in existence is solely and simply that this world may 

 lose nothing that amuses or interests us who have to 

 live in it. Nothing can be worse than the example 

 set by Nature herself in the matter of reverence for life, 

 whether it be in noble or humble organisms. Tens of 

 thousands of mammoths must have perished simul- 

 taneously by a widespread murrain, catastrophe, or 

 meteorological crisis, to account for the abundance of 

 their remains in Northern Europe ; the end of the 

 great auk was precipitated by the collapse of their last 

 breeding station into the ocean ; and as for the insect 

 world, no one can have passed beyond the threshold 

 of inquiry into that without being horrified by the 

 systematic cruelty practised by one species upon 

 another. Cruelty apart, the wastefulness is appalling. 

 Out of sixteen to twenty-five thousand larvse hatched 

 from the eggs of a single oil beetle (Meloe) during an 

 ordinary season, perhaps not more than three or four 

 attain the perfect form. All the rest perish, and are 

 intended to perish, victims to vicissitudes which are 

 part of the deliberate design of their life history. It is 

 true that the precautions to secure the perpetuation of 

 every species are infinite and astonishing ; but it is part 

 of the plan that the Destroyer of delights and Sunderer 

 of companies should be at work incessantly. 



