182 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES 



nature as it relates to animal life in general. The 

 very exuberance and abundance of life is at once 

 obtained and kept within proper bounds by this 

 rapacity of some great tribes. A lingering death a 

 natural decay of those powers which alone enable the 

 animal to enjoy life would, on the contrary, be a 

 most miserable arrangement for beings not endowed 

 with reason, and not assisting each other. It would 

 be cruelty, because it would involve great and hope- 

 less suffering. Death by violence is to all unreason- 

 ing animals the easiest death, for it is the most 

 instantaneous ; and therefore, no doubt, it has been 

 ordained that throughout large classes there should be 

 an almost indefinite rate of increase, accompanied by 

 destruction rapid and complete in a corresponding 

 degree, since in this way only the greatest amount of 

 happiness is ensured, and the pain and misery of slow 

 decay of the vital powers prevented, All nature, 

 both living and extinct, abounds with facts proving the 

 truth of this view ; and it would be as unreasonable 

 to doubt the wisdom and goodness of this arrange- 

 ment, as it would be to call in question the mutual 

 adaptation of each part in the great scheme of crea- 

 tion. No one who examines nature for himself, how- 

 ever superficially, can doubt the latter ; and no one 

 certainly, who duly considers the laws ordained for 

 the general government of the world, can believe it 

 possible for these laws to have acted without a system 

 of compensation, according to which the vital ener- 

 gies of one tribe serve to prepare food for the de- 

 velopment of higher powers in another. 



