18 
FISHES. 
• 
memento of sin ; for surely death in this our 
world is the bitter fruit of human transgres- 
sion. By one man sin entered into the worlds 
and DEATH BY SIN.” Yet the infliction is not to 
the animal creation an unmitigated evil. A far 
greater amount and variety of animal life is thus 
sustained than could he supported otherwise, and 
life to them is happiness. They have no terrors 
of futurity beyond death, and probably have little 
fear of death itself, beyond the habitual appre- 
hension which prompts the exercise of caution 
and sagacity. Death is the pang of a moment, 
and is rather the termination of a pleasant active 
life, than an actual evil. The gradual exhaustion 
of strength by advancing age, or the dying of 
want from inability to procure the needful food, 
would be far more dreadful. Even the very ex- 
ercise of the faculties arising from the present 
state of things, — the vigilance, the stratagems, 
the activity, the excitement involved in pursuit 
and attack on the one hand, and in escape or 
defence on the other, all are doubtless contribu- 
tive to the relish of life, and to their consequent 
happiness. The poet" s judgment is according to 
truth : 
‘‘ Harsh seems the ordinance, that life by life 
Should be sustain’d ; and yet, when all must die, 
And be like water spilt upon the ground, 
Which none can gather up, — the speediest fate, 
Though violent and terrible, is best. 
O with what horrors would creation groan, 
What agonies would ever be before us, — 
Famine and pestilence, disease, despair, 
Anguish and pain in every hideous shape, 
Had all to wait the slow decay of Nature ! 
Life were a martyrdom of sympathy ; 
Death, lingering, raging, writhing, shrieking torture ; 
