REVIEW. 
419 
It is much to be lamented that cruelty of any kind, which is 
opposed to the laws of God and the interests of man, should exist. 
We are surrounded by countless beings, all inferior to ourselves, 
whose qualities yield us the greatest happiness, or bring upon us 
the bitterest evil, according as we promote their happiness or aug- 
ment their suffering by our conduct. To draw forth all their excel- 
lence, and cause them to diffuse joy around us — to avoid touching 
the harsher springs of their constitution, and bringing painful dis- 
cord to our ears — it is indispensably necessary that we know the 
nature of their dispositions, and act with a proper regard to the 
relations established by the Creator between ourselves and them* 
Dr. Styles appears to have discovered the origin of the evil : — 
“ Since animals,” he says, “ suffer by the economy of their nature ,* 
since the fall, at least, they have been doomed to die ; not only 
have they been given as food for man, but they very generally 
prey upon each other. Every where power is contending with 
weakness, and life is struggling in the grasp of death. Death, 
premature death, seems to be the present condition of animal 
existence.” 
Then the fall of man, according to the Rev. Doctor’s ideas, was 
the cause of all the ills which the inferior animals have suffered 
since the beginning of the world. Let him again speak for him- 
self. “ When man rebelled against God, the curse of his apostacy, 
the sin of Paradise, was a shock to the universe. Then was dis- 
turbed that beautiful order and amity which Eden exhibited when 
hostility was unknown to its harmless tenants, who, awed by the 
presence of their great superior and Lord, literally realized the en- 
chanting vision which prophecy has disclosed as the distinguishing 
glory of the millennial age , — ■* the wolf dwelt with the lamb, the calf 
and the young lion and the fading together, the asp and the cocka- 
trice caused no alarm.’ ‘ There was nothing to hurt or destroy.’ 
When man became an exile, and was driven from this scene of 
surpassing loveliness, the confidence which he had inspired in the 
creatures subject to his power was succeeded by fear and dread. 
Wild and untameable, the beasts of prey sought independence in 
the jungle and in the wilderness. The work of general destruction 
commenced which has continued, without interruption or abate- 
ment, down to the present hour, its miseries aggravated and in- 
creased by the cruel agency of man.” 
Again, “ Had man retained his moral nature unimpaired, and 
had his reason been left to exercise its power uncontrolled by de- 
praved appetites and passions, there can be no doubt that his rule 
over the inferior creatures would have maintained them in their 
natural relation to each other, and with the least possible sacrifice 
of their enjoyment, and thus have held them in subordination to 
his own will.” “ But fallen apostate man began his career as a 
