114 ON ZOOLOGY. 



The great enjoyment of animals seems to de- 

 pend upon the gratification of their appetites, and 

 the free use of their limbs ; as evinced in the 

 eagerness with which they devour their food, in 

 the impatience they discover under restraint, and 

 in the latitude which they take when removed from 

 confinement. If therefore they were all to be 

 limited to a vegetable diet, and to be deprived 

 of the gratification which a very large proportion 

 of them now derive from the pursuit of their prey ; 

 and if by such an arrangement, the enjoyments 

 of an active life, (now so visible throughout the 

 whole animal kingdom) were uniformly to termi- 

 nate in the sufferings and infirmities of old age ; 

 animals in that case, would not only be confined 

 to a very small proportion of happiness, but be 

 also subjetced, as they grow old, to utter want 

 and helplessness ; since they would not be open 

 to the protection and care, which, in our own 

 species, afford a solace to age, and soften, if they 

 cannot remove, the infirmities to which it is liable. 

 Providence has therefore limited these calami- 

 ties to a comparative few : and has bestowed a 

 wide range of enjoyment upon a very large pro- 

 portion, upon the condition that their lives (of 

 the value of which they are not conscious, and 

 which must at some time be forfeited) should be 

 subject to such abbreviation, as might contribute 

 to the common benefit of the whole, without bear- 



