GEOGRAPHY OF ANIMALS 11« SOUTH DETON* 123 



of his passions, than of bis judgement, and to be the 

 consequence of inertion, and depreciated humanitjr, 

 rather than of praiseworthy industry, and of tfie 

 elevated character of our race. We cannot, there- 

 fore, properly class this with the other conditions of 

 our county ; melioration and cultivation will con- 

 tinue to progress, and must form a most important 

 influence on the distribution and numbers of our 

 animals ; but our hostility to certain of the brute 

 creation may, possibly, hereafter, be displaced by a 

 lai^er assumption of that refinement and elevation, 

 for which we were most likely destined. We ought, 

 however, here to state a most important qualification 

 of this remark. It is quite evident, that all those 

 operations which we have implied by the word me- 

 lioration, and that the circumstances of cultivation, 

 and planting of the soil, have caused the undue 

 increase of certain kinds hurtful to our interests. 

 It seems also that there are others, which, though 

 not increased in numbers, are yet incompatible with 

 the security of our property and work. Lastly, there 

 are a few, which, though not designed to commit 

 injuries on our persons, and still less for our des- 

 truction, require to be restrained to districts unin- 

 habited by man, or to be restricted to a limited 

 number, or even to be consigned to extirpation. It 

 would be a task of some difficulty to calculate the 

 inconveniences which would result to us from the 

 unlimited increase of some animals, and the un- 

 limited aggressions of others. The partial or total 

 destruction 4>f these appears therefore justifiable. 

 At the same time, although the destruction of super- 

 fluous numbers in the case of those animals which 

 have been as it were excited to excessive multipli- 

 cation, by the accommodations afforded them by 

 man, seems agreeable and conformable to the de- 

 signs of nature ; yet, is it rational to suppose, that 

 the polity of nature has been interfered with by our 

 attacks generally. By this way of entertaining the 

 subject, we perseive directly, the nature of its 



