108 CARNIVOROUS RACES. 



lame, the aged, and the supernumeraries, are consigned to 

 speedy death ; and while each suffering individual is soon 

 relieved from pain, it contributes its enfeebled carcass to the 

 support of its carnivorous benefactor, and leaves more room 

 for the comfortable existence of the healthy survivors of its 

 ow^n species. 



The same " police of Nature," v^'hich is thus beneficial to 

 the great family of the inhabitants of the land, is cstabhshed 

 vi'ith equal advantage among the tenants of the sea. Of 

 these also, there is one large division that lives on vege- 

 tables, and supplies the basis of food to the other division 

 that is carnivorous. Here again we see, that in the absence 

 of carnivora, the uncontrolled herbivora would multiply 

 indefinitely, until the lack of food brought them also to the 

 verge of starvation ; and the sea would be crowded with 

 creatures under the endurance of universal pain from 

 hunger, while death by famine would be the termination of 

 ill-fed and miserable lives. 



The appointment of death by the agency of carnivora, as 

 the ordinary termination of animal existence, appears there- 

 fore in its main results to be a dispensation of benevolence ; 

 it deducts much from the aggregate amount of the pain of 

 universal death; it abridges, and almost annihilates, through- 

 out the brute creation, the misery of disease, and accidental 

 injuries, and lingering decay ; and imposes such salutary 

 restraint upon excessive increase of numbers, that the sup- 

 ply of food maintains perpetually a due ratio to the demand. 

 The result is, that the surface of the land and depths of the 

 waters are ever crowded with myriads of animated beings, 

 the pleasures of whose life are co-extensive with its duration; 

 and which throughout the little day of existence that is 

 allotted to them, fulfil with joy the functions for which they 

 were created. Life to each individual is a scene of con- 

 tinued feasting, in a region of plenty ; and when unexpected 

 death arrests its course, it repays with small interest the 

 large debt, which it has contracted to the common fund of 



