612 Distinctness of Man 



and can so communicate his attainments that each generation 

 shall rise in knowledge above the last." 



Man is not capable of communicating his attainments so 

 that each generation shall rise in knowledge above the last ; 

 for his successors will adopt or reject the attainments he has 

 bequeathed them, accordingly as their own judgments may 

 direct them. The preservation of ascertained facts is at the 

 mercy of the opinions and caprices of successive generations. 

 A generation born to-day are not a bit wiser than those born 

 in the earliest and most ignorant times. 



" He alone has the sense to sow that he may reap ; and 

 alone, intentionally and from observation and reflection, 

 opposes obstacles to the course of events in their natural pro- 

 gression ; reduces whole countries to an artificial state ; and 

 systematically increases vastly their capability of yielding 

 sustenance for him, and for those creatures he has taken under 

 his protection." 



The error of stating that man alone, intentionally and from 

 observation and reflection, opposes obstacles to the course of 

 events in their natural progression, is obvious, when we remem- 

 ber that the beaver will dam up a river so as to pervert the 

 course of its current; a spider lengthen or shorten his stay-lines 

 according to the strength of the winds, so as to prevent their 

 being snapt in twain by it, and it has been known to suspend 

 a small pebble to the web to steady it during a gale. Man, 

 it may also be observed, is not the only animal that takes other 

 creatures under his protection ; for the ants are known to keep 

 aphides confined in their ant-hills, just as we do cows in our 

 cow-houses, that they may secure their honey-dew. 



" Other races disappear before him, whose existence is at 

 all opposed to his interests, and those alone remain (but oh ! 

 how altered from their former condition) which minister to 

 his wants and comforts." 



Man is certainly not peculiar in making those animals whose 

 habits militate with his interests disappear before him. Ac- 

 cording to the statements of naturalists, the brown rat banishes 

 the black rat, and the red-legged partridge banishes the com- 

 mon partridge. 



" All other beings are mere creatures of locality, whose 

 agency tends to perpetuate the surrounding system.-. x>f which 

 they are members." .jjfeiws Jaiit odw «Tjnio£f IjjIwb smea sdT 



But does not man, also, in some degree tend to perpetuate 

 the surrounding system ? Without him would not some of 

 the screws of the grand machine be lost, some animals whose 

 existence depends upon his ? What would become of such 

 species of Entozoa, Culex, Pulex, Pediculus, &c, as are peculiar 



