SPORT OR MURDER. 7 



he chases, I can understand while I disapprove. But 

 when a man justifies himself hy asserting that any 

 animal likes to be hunted, I can hardly find epithets 

 too contemptuous for him ; and I could see him run 

 the gauntlet among the Sioux Indians with but small 

 pangs of conscience. 



Some again call themselves Naturalists, and under 

 the shelter of that high-sounding name occupy them- 

 selves in destroying nature. The true naturalist 

 never destroys life without good cause, and when he 

 does so, it is with reluctance, and in the most 

 merciful way ; for the life is really the nature, and 

 that gone, the chief interest of the creature is gone 

 too. We should form but a poor notion of the 

 human being were we only to see it presented to our 

 eyes in the mummy ; and equally insufficient is the 

 idea that can be formed of an animal from the in- 

 spection of its outward frame. Nature and life belong 

 to each other ; and, if torn asunder, the one is object- 

 less and the other gone. 



Lastly, let me remind those who find such gratifi- 

 cation in destroying, that the word " Destroyer " is 

 in the Greek language " Apollyon ". 



As we do not intend to treat of the dead and dried 

 bodies of animals, but of their active life, we return 

 to our bat flitting in the evening dusk, and, instead 

 of shooting him, watch his proceedings. 



Every creature is made for happiness, and receives 

 happiness according to its capacity ; and it is very 



