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spilling of blood that goes on all day and every day in Nature's kingdom, so that appetites may be satisfied, still it must be remembered that under the present order of things, the flesh-eaters ere playing a big and useful part in keeping down numbers and in balancing the scales of prolific life.
The argument that there are countries like the polar regions where no other food except flesh is available, is as irrelevant as the argument that life lives upon life, that wolves and tigers, cats and dogs, eagles and crows, fish and fowl, snakes and lizards etc., are all purely carnivorous; and hence Himsa is inevitable in the world. It may be inevitable in some circumstances; but those circumstances do not apply to us. We must look to our immediate surroundings. Irrelevant speculation, supposititious arguments, and discussions as to what happens elsewhere, what happened in the past, and as to what may possibly happen in the future, lead not only to a sheer waste of time and energy, are not only an abuse of intellect, but are positively injurious and harmful. Again, in a similar strain exclaims a carping critic, that the present cities have been turned into safe and secure, sanitary and sacred habitations as a consequence of the killing of wild and ferocious beasts, the destruction of death-dealing poisonous reptiles and the clearing a way of thick forests and vegetable undergrowth, which involved gross Himsa on an extensive scale; and that if man would cease io kill the ferocious beasts, the venomous reptiles, and the vermin which destroy human life, domesticated animals, agriculture, and horticulture, life would become intolerable and impossible. Such speculations are advanced, not only by men of science, but by men of religion, as well. They may or may not be excusable for the purpose of advancing honest scientific research, but they are quite out of place when indulged in by persons discussing religious principles. The essential truths, the universal principles, the basic axioms, do not admit of changing circumstances. They are eternal, everlasting, true in all circumstances, at ail times, under all conditions. Himsa would not cease to be Himsa by force-of circumstances. Its
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