226 A N T I E N T METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



plant in a hot-houfe will produce leaves, bloiroms, and fruit, much 

 fooner, and in greater quantity, than in the open air. 



But, though I believe all animals breed very much farter in the 

 tame and houfed life than in the vvrild, the breed is not near fo 

 good. For we know that many of the offspring of the animals I 

 have mentioned, viz. cows, dogs, and frine, are weak and fickly, 

 and very often die before they come to maturity ; and it is well 

 known what numbers of our fpecies die under age : Whereas, in the 

 natural ftate, the offspring of no animal dies when it is young, unlefs 

 it be by fome accident. 



There is a tbird reafon which makes me think that a country, in- 

 habited by men living in that flate, never can be overflocked ; 

 and it is this, That, as Nature has provided wonderfully for the pre- 

 fervation of the feveral fpeciefes of animals, fo fhe appears to me to 

 have been equally careful to prevent the too great increafe of any 

 one, and to have adled the part of a kind mother to all, not of a 

 ftepmother to any ; which would not have been the cafe if Ihe had 

 fuffered any one fpecies to overgrow much ; for that neceffarily 

 muft have been to the hurt, if not to the total extindion of fome o- 

 ther. 



Of* the impartiality of this maternal care of Nature, the country of 

 India is a flrong proof. Before the entry of the Tartars and Maho- 

 medans into that country, there was no animal killed by Man, not 

 even tygers, except in felf-defence ; yet we do not hear of India ha- 

 ving ever been over- run with animals of any kind, or infefled by wild 

 beads, more than other countries. Thefe have been exterminated by 

 Men, in many countries, as wolves in Britain, and lions and wild 

 boars in Greece and Afia Minor, where they certainly abounded 

 very much in the days of Homer. But, even where they are not de- 



ftroyed, 



