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.