THE GOODNESS OP THE DEITY. 267 



We complain of what we call the exorbitant multiplication 

 of some troublesome insects, not reflecting that large por- 

 tions of nature might be left void without it If the ac- 

 counts of travellers may be depended upon, immense tracts 

 of forest in North America would be nearly lost to sensitive 

 existence if it were not for gnats. " In the thinly inhabit- 

 ed regions of America, in which the waters stagnate, and 

 the chmate is warm, the whole air is filled with crowds of 

 these insects." Thus it is, that where we look for solitude 

 and deathlike silence, we meet with animation, activity, 

 enjoyment ; with a busy, a happy, and a peopled world. 

 Again ; hosts of 7n{ce are reckoned amongst the plagues of 

 the northeast part of Europe ; whereas vast plains in Sibe- 

 ria, as we learn from good authority, would be lifeless with- 

 DUt them. The Caspian deserts are converted by their 

 presence into crowded warrens. Between the Volga and 

 he Yaik, and in the country of Hyrcania, the ground, says 

 Pallas, is in many places covered with little hills, raised by 

 the earth cast out in forming the burrows. Do we so 

 envy these blissful abodes, as to pronounce the fecundity 

 by which they are supplied with inhabitants, to be an evil ; 

 a subject of complaint, and not of praise ? Further ; by 

 virtue of this same superfecundity, Vt^hat we term destruc- 

 tion, becomes almost instantly the parent of life What we 

 call blights, are oftentimes legions of aniiuated beings, 

 claiming their portion in the bounty of nature. What cor- 

 rupts the produce of the earth to us, prepares it for them. 

 And it is by means of their rapid multiplication, that they 

 take possession of their pasture : a slow propagation would 

 not meet the opportunity 



But in conjunction with the occasional use of this fruit- 

 fulness, we observe, also, that it allows the proportion be- 

 tween the several species of animals to be differently modi- 

 fied, as different purposes of utility may require. When 

 the forests of America come to be cleared, and the swamps 

 drained, our gnats will give place to other inhabitants. If 

 the population of Europe should spread to the north and 

 the east, the mice will retire before the husbandman and 

 the shepherd, and yield their station to herds and flocks. In 

 what concerns the human species, it may be a part of the 

 scheme of Providence that the earth should be inhabited 

 by a shifting, or perhaps a circulating population. In this 

 economy it is possible that there may be the following ad- 

 vantages : When old countries are become exceedingly 

 corrupt, simpler modes of life, purer morals, and better in- 



