ANIMALS. 357 



wiore beneficial creatures might possess, and in- 

 commode him rather with their numbers than 

 their enmities. Thus, in a catalogue of land 

 animals that amounts to more than twenty thou- 

 sand, we can scarcely reckon up a hundred that 

 .are any way useful to him ; the rest being either 

 all his open or his secret enemies, immediately 

 attacking him in person, or intruding upon that 

 food he has appropriated to himself. Vegetables, 

 on the contrary, though existing in greater variety, 

 are but few of them noxious. The most deadly 

 poisons are often of great use in medicine ; and 

 even those plants that only seem to cumber the 

 ground, serve for food to that race of animals 

 which he has taken into friendship or protection. 

 The smaller tribes of vegetables, in particular, 

 are cultivated as contributing either to his neces- 

 -sities or amusement ; so that vegetable life is as 

 much promoted by human industry, as animal 

 life is controlled and diminished. 



Hence, it was not without a long struggle, and 

 various combinations of experience and art, that 

 man acquired his present dominion. Almost every 

 good that he possesses was the result of the con- 

 test ; for every day, as he was contending, he was 

 growing more wise, and patience and fortitude 

 were the fruits of his industry. 



From hence, also, we see the necessity of some 

 animals living upon each other, to fill up the plan 

 of Providence ; and we may, consequently, infer 

 the expediency of man's living upon all. Both 

 animals and vegetables seem equally fitted to his 

 appetites j and were any religious or moral mo- 



