Let us, therefore, endeavour to ascertain what are the real facts on which these tremendous accusations are founded.
In the first place, we must remember that animals are entirely spared the pain we suffer in the anticipation of death--a pain far greater, in most cases, than the reality.

This leads, probably, to an almost perpetual enjoyment of their lives; since their constant watchfulness against danger, and even their actual flight from an enemy, will be the enjoyable exercise of the powers and faculties they possess, unmixed with any serious dread.

There is, in the next place, much evidence to show that violent deaths, if not too prolonged, are painless and easy; even in the case of man, whose nervous system is in all probability much more susceptible to pain than that of most animals.

In all cases in which persons have escaped after being seized by a lion or tiger, they declare that they suffered little or no pain, physical or mental.

A well-known instance is that of Livingstone, who thus describes his sensations when seized by a lion: "Starting and looking half round, I saw the lion just in the act of springing on me.