STUDY VI. 327 



animals to die of old age ; nay, I believe, that (he 

 permits Man alone to complete his career of life, 

 becaufe his old age alone can be ufeful to his fel- 

 low-creatures. To what purpofe would ferve, 

 among the brute creation, grandfires deftitute of 

 reflection, to progeny brought into exiftence in 

 the maturity of their experience ? On the other 

 hand, what affiftance could decrepit parents find 

 among children, which abandon them, the inftant 

 they have learned to fwim, fly, or walk ? Old age 

 would be to them a burthen from which they are 

 delivered by the ferocious animals. Befides, from 

 their unobftrudted generations would arife a pofle- 

 rity without end, which the Globe is not fufficient 

 to contain. The prefervation of individuals would 

 involve the extindion of fpecies. 



Animals might always live, T fliall be told, in a 

 proportion adapted to the places which they inha- 

 bit ; but in that cafe they muft ceafe to multiply ; 

 and from that moment farewel the loves, the nefts, 

 the alliances, the forefight, and all the harmonies 

 which fubfift among theiïi. Every thing that is 

 born is doomed to die. But Nature, in devoting 

 them to death, takes from them that which could 

 render the inftant of it cruel. It is ufually" in the 

 night-time, and in thehourof fleep, that they fink 

 under the fangs and the teeth of their deftroyers. 

 Twenty fl:rokes, fent home in one inflant to the 



Y 4 fources 



