EIGHT-LEGGED FRIENDS. 107 



righteous wrath to rush out into the garden in hot haste 

 and put an end at once to the cruel wretch's existence 

 with a judicial antimacassar, a number of moral scruples, 

 such as could only be adeqt ately resolved by the editor 

 of the S2}ectato)\ always occurred spontaneously to my 

 mind and conscience just in time to ensure that wicked 

 Eliza a fresh spell of life in which to continue unabashed 

 her atrocious behaviour. 



Has man, I asked myself at such moments, mere human 



man, any right to set himself up in the place of earthly 



providence, as so much better and more moral than 



insentient nature ? If the spider cruelly devours living 



flies and intelligent or highly sensitive bees, we must at 



least remember that she has no choice in the matter, and 



that, as the poet justly remarks, ' 'tis her nature to.' 



But then, on the other hand, it might be plausibly 



argued that 'tis our nature equally to kill the creature 



that we see so hatefully fulfilling the law of its own cruel 



being. And yet again it might be pleaded by any able 



counsel who undertook the defence of Lucy or Eliza on 



her trial for her life against her human accusers, that she 



was impelled to all these evil deeds by maternal affection, 



one of the noblest and most unselfish of animal instincts. 



Moreover, if the spider didn't prey, it w^ould obviously 



die ; and it seems rather hard on any creature to condemn 



it to death for no better reason than because it happens 



to have been born a member of its own kind, and not 



of any other and less morally objectionable species. 



Jedburgh justice of that sort rather savours of the 



method pursued by the famous countryman who was 



ofuud cutting a harmless amphibian into a hundred 



