ing horribly close to my ear, he shook me as
a terrier-dog does a rat. The shock produced a stupor similar to that
which seems to be felt by a mouse after the first shake of the cat. It
causes a sort of dreaminess, _in which there was no sense of pain or
feeling of terror_, though I was quite conscious of all that was
happening. It was like what patients partially under the influence of
chloroform describe, who see all the operation, but feel not the knife.
This singular condition was not the result of any mental process. The
shake annihilated fear, and allowed no sense of horror in looking round
at the beast."

This absence of pain is not peculiar to those seized by wild beasts, but
is equally produced by any accident which causes a general shock to the
system. Mr. Whymper describes an accident to himself during one of his
preliminary explorations of the Matterhorn, when he fell several hundred
feet, bounding from rock to rock, till fortunately embedded in a
snow-drift near the edge of a tremendous precipice. He declares that
while falling and feeling blow after blow, he neither lost consciousness
nor suffered pain, merely thinking, calmly, that a few more blows would
finish him. We have therefore a right to conclude, that when death
follows soon after any great shock it is as easy and painless a death as
possible; and this is certainly what happens when an animal is seized by
a beast of prey. For the enemy is one which hunts for food, not for
pleasure or excitement; and it is doubtful whether any carnivorous
animal in a state of nature begins to seek after prey till driven to do
so by hunger. When an animal is caught, therefore, it is very soon
devoured, and thus the first shock is followed by an almost painless
death. Neither do those which die of cold or hunger suffer much. Cold is
generally severest at night and has a tendency to produce sleep and
painless extinction. Hunger, on the other hand, is hardly felt during
periods of excitement, and when food is scarce the excitement of seeking
for it is at its greatest. It is probable, also, that when hunger
presses, most animals will devour anything to stay their hunger, and
will die of gradual exhaustion and weakness not necessarily painful, if
they do not fall an earlier prey to some enemy or to cold.[15]

Now let us consider what are the enjoyments of the lives of most
animals. As a rule they come into existence at a time of year when food
is most plentiful and the