70 



KLASIH.KIHTS {)\ XATf-KK 



in the monkeys, in the opossum, and in tlie 

 parrot. 



Indeed, all round, it may be safely said that the 

 spiders as a ^^roup stand at the head of the animals 

 with jointed bodies ; and that the geometrical tribe 

 in particular stand at the head of all the spiders. 

 Nor nuist we consider that their cruelty and ferocity 

 put them (»ut of court in this connection ; for man 

 himself, takin}4 him in the mass, is one of the moht 

 ruthless of animals ; and the bees, which by uni- 

 versal consent rank amon^ the hij^hest insects, are 

 the j^roiip which most universally slau^^hter their 

 own brothers, the drones, as soon as the communitv 

 has no further use for them. The fact is that 

 Nature as a wln)le is intensely utilitarian ; each 

 kind ti^^hts for its own hand alone, and rej^ards as 

 little the feelings of other kinds as the fisherman 

 res^arcU the feelings of herrings, or as the fish- 

 monger minds the objection of lobsters to be 

 boiled alive for our human convenience. A race 

 that skins livinj^ eels at iii'.lin^s^ate, and decks its 

 hats with egrets in Hyde Park, has no just j^round 

 of complaint, after all, against my poor, misj^uided, 

 iuisband-eatinj4 Rosalind. 



