from all other Beings. 613 



to him ? They would perish. To dame Nature these creatures 

 are, perhaps, as precious as any others, as even the largest, the 

 most active, or the most beautiful. 



" Wherever man appears, with his faculties at all developed, 

 the aspect of the surface becomes changed ; forests yield to 

 his persevering labours ; the marshes are drained, and con- 

 verted into fertile lands ; the very climate accordingly changes 

 under his influence, and oftentimes to the extinction of some 

 of the indigenous products of the soil." 



Some changes in the disposition of the works of nature, in 

 their appearances, in their habits, and geographic distribution, 

 do most assuredly take place without the direct agency of 

 man. And such changes seem to be a part of the system. 



bns «3j£te laioftitis un oi aahinuoo &] rag 



...;,. « Nothing retaioeth the same form and face 



Hardly the half of half-an-hour's space. Du Bartas. 



Has Mr. Blyth never read of the agency of lichens in 

 reducing even rocks ; and of forests being destroyed by the 

 ravages of lemmings, and even by swarms of insects? As for 

 man being the only creature that causes the extinction of other 

 species, the contrary has been already shown, in the instances 

 of the brown rat and red-legged partridge. 



" Does not, then, all this intimate that the human race is 

 no part of the mundane system; that its agency tends rather 

 to supersede, and is opposed to, that of the rest of organic 

 nbture ?" ndj kmine ^Ino sriJ ion ei ^bsviaado <>d c 



This seems to be hardly more than an echo of Mr. Swain- 

 son's observation, that man is of no use to the creation. (See 

 his Discourse on Nat. Hist.) However, I think it intimates 

 no such thing ; for, as I have shown, his existence is necessary 

 to the existence of other creatures, his parasites. Whenever 

 man opposes his agency to organic nature, whenever he de- 

 stroys one class of animals, he advances the interests of some 

 other. For example, were he to destroy all the ant-eaters, 

 he would favour the ants, of which the former is the enemy. 



" Does not then all this intimate that a time must come, 

 should nought intervene of what in physics we can take no 

 cognisance, when the human race, having peopled all lands, 

 shall have increased beyond the means of subsistence ? 

 '■;** But," continues Mr. Blyth, " who can dive into futurity ? 

 The same awful Being, who first awakened man into existence, 

 in common with the meanest atom, who appointed his destiny 

 on earth to be so diverse from that of his other creatures, who 

 endowed him alone with a capacity to reflect upon his Maker's 

 goodness and power," (Surely, we cannot be positive that animals 

 nave no knowledge of their Maker.) "may (I make no appeal 



