Thus, a brilliant writer
says: "Pain, grief, disease, and death, are these the inventions of a
loving God? That no animal shall rise to excellence except by being
fatal to the life of others, is this the law of a kind Creator? It is
useless to say that pain has its benevolence, that massacre has its
mercy. Why is it so ordained that bad should be the raw material of
good? Pain is not the less pain because it is useful; murder is not less
murder because it is conducive to development. Here is blood upon the
hand still, and all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten it."[13]
Even so thoughtful a writer as Professor Huxley adopts similar views. In
a recent article on "The Struggle for Existence" he speaks of the
myriads of generations of herbivorous animals which "have been tormented
and devoured by carnivores"; of the carnivores and herbivores alike
"subject to all the miseries incidental to old age, disease, and
over-multiplication"; and of the "more or less enduring suffering,"
which is the meed of both vanquished and victor. And he concludes that,
since thousands of times a minute, were our ears sharp enough, we should
hear sighs and groans of pain like those heard by Dante at the gate of
hell, the world cannot be governed by what we call benevolence.
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