298 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IV. 



out the deftru£lion of other annuals. But we fliould confider that 

 a fyftem, fo perfedl as that of the univerfo, muft be complcat, and 

 have every thing in it that is polhble to cxift but which does not 

 tend to the deflrudlion of the fyftem. Now, if there had not been 

 animals that fed upon the flefh of other animals as well as upon the 

 fruits of the earth, the fyftem would have been defedlive, and 

 wanting that variety (which muft be in every perfect fyftem) of 

 animals feeding upon the flefli of other animals, as well of thofe that 

 feed upon the fruits of the earth. And I fay further, that as the in- 

 creafe of animals on this earth is fo great that all the fruits of the 

 earth could not maintain them, it is proper that thefe other animals 

 fliould die before their time ; and it is better that by their death they 

 fliould fupport other animals, than that they fhould die of old age 

 or accidents. If indeed all the animals, that are deftined for the food 

 cf other animals, were to be thereby deftroyed, and the fpecies of 

 them annihilated, it would certainly be an imperfedion in the fyf- 

 tem. But that is not the cafe : For the beafts of prey are but few in 

 number ; whereas the animals, they feed upon, are very nume- 

 rous, and, I am perfuaded, would multiply too faft if they were 

 not fed upon by tlie wild beafts. The country of India is a proof 

 that the fpeciefes of beafts, which the carnivorous animals feed upon, 

 are not thereby annihilated nor even decreafed in number more 

 than in other countries : There the animals live more in the na- 

 tural ftate than in any country in Europe ; for the Indians neither 

 hunt, nor eat flefti, nor kill any animals except a few kids for fa- 

 crifice. And in Britain there is one animal which is not only the 

 prey of carnivorous animals, fuch as the fox, but of man, more 

 than any other wild animal j I mean the hare : And yet the race 

 of hares does not appear to be in any hazard of being extinguifli- 

 ed ; though fo many ways are ufed by men to deftroy them, that 

 they are taken under the proteftion of the law. 



But 



