90 The Morality of Nature 



man beings of other races causes only a reflection of regret. 

 And so that idea of death which is repugnant in human af- 

 fairs, becomes less so when brutes are considered, and ap- 

 pears as a commonplace process among very inferior ani- 

 mals. And there is something of an instructive correctness of 

 estimate in this. To those lower creatures which afford our 

 best examples for the study of this subject death means little, 

 they and their parents, their clan, their race, regard with en- 

 tire apathy their decimating losses ; they live their little lives, 

 and it does not matter much how long. A fish who lives 

 seven days and dies, or a fly who lives seven days and dies, 

 simply live and cease to live. What does it matter to the fish 

 that he was only one-thousandth part mature, while the fly 

 was of ripe age. 



But higher animals, to whom death matters more, feel the 

 loss instinctively. They mourn, and their feelings are not of 

 empty sentiment, they are the result of perceptible loss ; and 

 their mourning is the expression of knowledge of the loss. 



And among the higher animals the action of death in 

 modifying the race is much less severe. It does not so fre- 

 quently operate in the extinction of individual life, except 

 in the earlier years of age. At this period there is still a 

 stern selection, based upon the worth and wisdom of race 

 and family, more than upon those of the creature. Fitness 

 is more the production of cultivation and purpose, and relies 

 less upon accidental variation than before, yet when produced 

 the fitness is variable and much of it is rejected as insuf- 

 ficient — as when resistance to disease is lessened by over 

 luxurious manner of living. 



And when human reason assumes control of inferior life 



