THE DESTRUCTIVE PRINCIPLE. 387 



more apparent than in the ordinary Otters, on account of the curious setting on of the 

 hinder limbs and the comparative shortness of the tail, which is barely more than seven 

 inches long, while the head and body measure three feet in length. The food of the 

 Sea Otter is not restricted to fish, but is composed of various animal productions, such 

 as Crustacea and molluscs. Some writers assert that, in default of its more legitimate 

 food, it varies its diet by sea-weeds and other vegetable substances. 



DURING the progress of this work, several allusions have been made to the destructive 

 principle, as illustrated in the character of certain animals, and a few suggestions have 

 been offered as to its origin, its manifestation, and its object. The subject is too deep 

 in its purport and too wide in its bearings to be comprehended within the limits of a 

 single article, and it must therefore be resumed from time to time, as its various 

 phases are exemplified by the nature of the various creatures which draw the breath 

 of life. 



As in the animals which have already been mentioned the principle of terrestrial 

 destruction has been manifested, so we find a further development of the same idea in 

 the Otter, the destroyer of the waters. In order that we may rightly appreciate the 

 part which the Otter plays in the great and ever-changing drama of Nature, it needs 

 that we should as far as possible place ourselves in the position of the creatures among 

 whom its destructive mission is fulfilled. 



A shoal of fish is swimming quietly through the clear stream, thinking of nothing but 

 themselves, their food, and their physical enjoyment of existence. Suddenly, from some 

 unknown sphere, of which they can form no true conception, comes flashing among 

 them a strange and wondrous being, from whose presence they flee in instinctive terror. 

 Flight is in vain from the dread pursuer, which seizes one of their companions in its 

 deadly grasp, and in spite of the resistance of the struggling prey, bears it away into an 

 unknown realm, whose wonders their dim sight cannot penetrate, and whose atmosphere 

 is too ethereal for their imperfect frames to breathe and live. Ever and anon the terrible 

 pursuer is mysteriously among them, like the destroying angel among the Egyptians, 

 and, as often as it is seen, snatches away one of their number in its fatal grasp, and 

 vanishes together with its victim into the unseen realms above. 



To the fish, the Otter must appear as a supernatural being, for it comes from a world 

 which is above their comprehension, and returns thereto at will, a visible and incarnate 

 Death. All animals, creations, and existences have some idea of a being that is superior 

 to themselves, and that being, which to their minds conveys the highest idea, is to them 

 the Divinity. So that to the fish, the Otter may stand in the light of deity a remark- 

 able type of the heathen ideas of the Divine nature. 



As various races and individuals of mankind are endowed with greater or smaller 

 capacities, they must form an idea of a deity which is consonant with their own natures, 

 and it therefore follows that the loftiest natures will worship the highest God. There- 

 fore, we find in the history of the Israelitish nation, that the narrow-minded Jews copied 

 the surrounding heathens in paying their fearful worship to the fiery Moloch, the cruel 

 and murderous deity of wrath ; while the poets and' prophets prostrated their spirits in 

 loving adoration before Jehovah, the great Source of all, from whom, through whom, 

 and by whom all things, beings, and essences came into existence. 



At the present day, and even in this country, the same contracted ideas are too 

 evident, for there are many narrow-minded persons who are incapable of receiving a deity 

 that is more loving than themselves, and can only appreciate one that is more powerful. 

 Their form of praise is expressed by fear and trembling, and the amount of their rever- 

 ence is measured by the amount of punishment which they think he can inflict upon 

 them. So with the savage natives of the Southern seas, who consistently honor the 

 representations of their deity by piteous deprecations of his anger, and lie trembling 

 before him in slavish fear. Servile terror is the form of respect which they pay towards 

 those whom they honor, and which they unscrupulously exact from those by whom 

 they desire to be honored. 



Still, there is a great truth in this power-worship of the savage and undeveloped 

 nature, for it is a step in the improvement of the human race when they learn to acknowl- 



