evil, into an example of subserviency to universal
good.
Under the existing system, not only is the
aggregate amount of animal enjoyment much
increased, by adding to the stock of life all the
races which are carnivorous, but these are also
highly beneficial even to the herbivorous races,
that are subject to their dominion.
Besides the desirable relief of speedy death
on the approach of debility or age, the carnivora
confer a further benefit on the species
which form their prey, as they control their
excessive increase, by the destruction of many
individuals in youth and health. Without this
salutary check, each species would soon multiply
to an extent, exceeding in a fatal degree
their supply of food, and the whole class of
herbivora would ever be so nearly on the verge
of starvation, that multitudes would daily be
consigned to lingering and painful death by
famine. All these evils are superseded by the
.establishment of a controlling Power in the
carnivora; by their agency the numbers of
each species are maintained in due proportion
to one another—the sick, the lame, the aged,
and the supernumeraries, are consigned to
speedy death; and while each suffering individual
is soon relieved from pain, it contributes
its enfeebled carcase to the support of its
carnivorous benefactor, and leaves more room
for the comfortable existence of the healthy
survivors of its own species.
The same “ police of Nature,” which is thus
beneficial to the great family of the inhabitants
of the land, is established with equal advantage
among the tenants of the sea. Of these also,
there is one large division that lives on vegetables,
and supplies the basis of food to the
other division that is carnivorous. Here again
we see, that in the absence of carnivora, the
uncontrolled herbivora would multiply indefi-
nitely, until the lack of food brought them also
to the verge of starvation; and the sea would
be crowded with creatures under the endurance
of universal pain from hunger, while death by
famine would be the termination of ill fed and
miserable lives.
The appointment of death by the agency of
carnivora, as the ordinary termination of animal
existence, appears therefore in its main results
to be a dispensation of benevolence; it deducts
much from the aggregate amount of the pain
of universal death; it abridges, and almost
annihilates, throughout the brute creation, the
misery of disease, and accidental injuries, and
lingering decay; and imposes such salutary
restraint upon excessive increase of numbers,
that the supply of food maintains perpetually
a due ratio to the demand. The result is,
that the surface of the land and depths of the