Nature's riddles, or, the battle of the beasts / H.W. Shepheard-Walwyn.

  • Hugh Wallwyn Shepheard-Walwyn
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Nature's riddles, or, the battle of the beasts / H.W. Shepheard-Walwyn. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    until one day, under an unlucky star, swift retri- bution overtakes him in the form of some strange beast who is too strong for him ; and then he in his turn has to pay the penalty for his crimes by experiencing the not over-agreeable sensation of being swallowed. I made use just now of the expression “in a state of Nature,” and I used the term advisedly, intending thereby to distinguish between animals which are naturally and actually wild and those which have become domesticated. The latter must, of course, be excluded in laying down this natural law of universal battle, and for obvious reasons; for domestic animals, after generations of servitude, have practically acquired a different nature, and the natural weapons with which they were originally endowed have, owing to a long period of inaction, become gradually lost, or, at any rate, greatly dimin- ished, and of little use for practical purposes. Such animals, in fact, have become mere chattels or slaves of man, and exist only to gratify his desires and to minister to his wants, their sole object in life being to eat and grow fat, in order eventually to supply nourishment and strength to the hand that fed them. A pitiful existence ! Look at the average London tram-horse, as he drags along on his daily round of monotonous misery, often with no higher goal than the slaughter-house, by