THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING. 



353 



less, I still went on in the triumph of sport. I am not 

 inclined, however, to think that hunting and trapping 

 are an unmixed evil. Both, it is true, cause pain to the 

 animals hit and caught; and yet, even then, these same 

 animals die more quickly and with less suffering than 

 in the lingering way of Nature. I shall not greatly 

 encourage these pastimes, though I used to love them 

 and still do, and think they are beneficial in more than 

 one way. But shall we not, in every way we can, as 

 our better instincts prompt and guide us, seek to lessen 

 and to alleviate the misery, wherever found, in this our 

 common life, and thus play the part of kindness in our 

 world in a mission of mercy to our fellows of the wild? 

 We can at least do that. 



I acknowledge that the position of the vegetarians 

 is impregnable. It is true that the Lord, at the cre- 

 ation, said that the herb of the field and the fruit of 

 the trees were to be as meat for our forefathers; that 

 it is only after the fall that we find man sacrificing the 

 firstlings of his flock; and that it was not until past the 

 flood that the Lord openly sanctioned to Noah the eat- 

 ing of flesh. Yet, and notwithstanding, I find myself, 

 along with millions of other human beings, so com- 

 pletely transformed by the heredity of the ages that, 

 if I find I can get hold of a good piece of beefsteak 

 or some other savory meat, and am hungry after a day's 

 hard labor — well, I am simply going to eat it ! Tend- 

 encies can not be overcome in a day. That is — to com- 

 plete my little allegory — evil has become so insistent, 

 so paramount, so preponderant, so much of a "second 

 nature," as we say, in life that, do what we will, we can 

 not escape it. Henceforth, after the fall, pain — and 



