The Dominion. SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 1914. IS NATURE CRUEL?

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2109, 28 March 1914, Page 4

The Dominion. SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 1914. IS NATURE CRUEL?

AitE wild animals happy, or is existence for them a cruel burden i These questions are suggested by an article ifi yesterday's, issue of Tiik Dominion', in which the Prosi-. dent of the Wellington Zoological Society (the ikv. John Ckkwes) discusses in his characteristic manner certain phases of wild life, In reply to those- people who think it is wrong to keep wild animals in captivity. Mil CltEttfiS takes as illustrations the kea and the eagle, and after a graphic description of the murderous activities of these birds of prey, he contends that it is on the-, whole kinder to keep them in a zoo than to give them liberty to slaughter lambs, rabbitsj poultry, and other harmless victims. From the point of view of tho unfortunate prey, Mit. CJiewes certainly makes' out a good raise, and, after all, life in a zoo Cannot he callcd cruel. It may be a little monotonous for the eagle and the kca, but tho lack of excitement -is counterbalanced by the absence of anxiety as to food supply and a comfort able home in old. ago. When Me. Cbewes draws his harrowing piet-nro_ of "aa eagle in his glory . . . -breaking the pinion of a royal swn.n, or driving terrible talons, into the fluttering heart of a frightened liare, or tea-r----ing tho quivering fibres of_ defenceless fawnSi" one is apt to jump to the esnchision that wilct life Is a cruel business, and that the struggle for existence among the lower animals is attended by an appalling amount of fear a»d suffering, This idea has been created and kept alive by tho writings of some eminent scientists, who have described tho World as a vast-cockpit or gladiatorial show, and Tejtsysox endear • ours to convey a simjlar iftprcsjiion ; when he declares th-afc Nature ' is "red in. tooth and claw with rapine. "■

There are, however, many good reasotK for believing that this gruesome view of animal life is greatly exaggerated, and very one-sided,; Many people make the mistake of putting themselves in imagination in the place of the- victims of beasts of prey, and on this unstable foundation they build up a terrible conception of the crnclty of Nature. But this way of looking at the matter is entirely wrong. It is very improbable tlmti animals possess that wonderful human faculty of looking before a?jd after. They do not live in constant fear of. death-, but seem to enjoy themselves lip,to tlie very moment of disaster.' The lamb dosm not worry about' the, eagle and the kca until the fatal swoop comes, and a few .minutes afterwards its mates are gambolling as lightht' irtedly as ever on th« 'same hillside. Dr. A. R. Wallace tells us that "the widespread idirft of . the cruelty of Nature is almost ' wholly imaginary," and "our whole tendency to transfer nnr sensations of pain to- the other animals is grosslv misleading." The poet probably had in his mind a hti.inan being in tfis form of a beetle, and not a real tactic, when he wrote the mournful lines about »

The poor beetfcs that we -tread upim. In corporal snSeraneo- finds a {mug as great As when a giant diss.

Dr. WAtlACfi assures us that on tlie principle of evolution this idea of the beetle's agony is pure imagination. No ether animal, he- says., needs the pa-in-sensations ithat Wo Wecl,. and therefore they do not possess such sensations in more than it fractional degree of curs. A widespread misunderstanding of this celebrated Darwinian phrase "struggle for existence" is no doubt in a measure responsible for the exaggerated idea of the cruelty of Nature. It a is true, that DarwiS spoke of famine and deathj and the war of Nature as necessary factors in the production of tie higher animals ; but he also pointed out "that, the war of Nature is not incessant, that- no fear is .felt, that death is ■ generally prompt, and that the vig-.; orous, the healthy, and the happy ; survive and multiply." Some j people are shocked at tie enormous ] ' sacrifice of life which is always j going &n in the world. Far ewy ' survivor tons of thousands either ; die, or fail to get n start in life. Wo are told that the_ average American oyster produces sixteen million eggs. If all the progeny of one oyster survived and multiplied, its greatwould number ; sixty-sis with thirty-three naughts, after it, and tbo limp of shells; would bo eight times the size of the world, It is also stated that if.(he descendants of a .single green-fly all survived and multiplied they -would, at the end of summer, weigh down ■ the population of China. . Tho trenvmdoiis death roll which these facts indicate would imply a total amount of suffering that would bo appalling if every insect bad tins same pain-sensations as a huiYwn feeing, bat the probabilities are that the excessive multiplication of ani-

mals is prevented by what is practically an unconscious process of extinction. Tho "straggle for existence," as Daßwis understood it was something svore than an unending series of gladiatorial contests. fie used the- fcvrm i'n "a large and metaphorical sense." It means, as PiiOFKSsoK J. A. Thomson says, far more than an iiUeriieeine competition at tho margin of subsistence. It ineludes the endeavours of mate for mate and of parent for offsprings, as well as every detail of self-assertivencss, 'Existence for many an animal means the well-being of a socially-bound of kin-hound organism, in a social iiulieu." There is sociality and cooperation among animals as well as competition, and mutual aid and confidence are steps in intellectual development. It must be admitted, however, that even after giving full weight, to tho brighter view of things, these remain many painful facts which it is very difficult to explain away, and which afford some., justification for the verdict of the Scottish peasant that "Nature's deftvilish." Suffering: seems to have a jiarfc to play in animal existence ■as in human life. It is one of those mysteries of which a completes solution has.nover yet been found. It :is _a. phase of the great problem of evil which fas baffled tho minds of the profoundest thinkers of all t ages,