BENEFICIAL TO THE HEBIVOROUS. 131 
system, the natural world would present a mass 
of daily suffering, bearing a large proportion to 
the total amount of animal enjoyment. By the 
existing dispensations of sudden destruction and 
rapid succession, the feeble and disabled are 
speedily relieved from suffering, and the world 
is at all times crowded with myriads of sentient 
and happy beings ; and though to many indivi- 
duals their allotted share of life be often short, 
it is usually a period of uninterrupted gratifica- 
tion ; whilst the momentary pain of sudden and 
unexpected death is an evil infinitely small, in 
comparison with the enjoyments of which it is 
the termination. 
The inhabitants of the earth have ever been 
divided into two great classes, the one herbivo- 
rous, the other carnivorous ; and though the ex- 
istence of the latter may, at first sight, seem 
calculated to increase the amount of animal 
pain ; yet, when considered in its full extent, it 
will be found materially to diminish it. 
To the mind which looks not to general results 
in the economy of Nature, the earth may seem 
to present a scene of perpetual warfare, and in- 
cessant carnage : but the more enlarged view, 
while it regards individuals in their conjoint 
relations to the general benefit of their own 
species, and that of other species with which 
they are associated in the great family of Na- 
ture, resolves each apparent case of individual 
