858 HISTORY OF 



lives to restrain him from taking away life upon 

 any account, he would only thus give existence 

 to a variety of beings made to prey upon each 

 other ; and, instead of preventing, multiply mu- 

 tual destruction. 



CHAPTER XXIV, 



OF THE GENERATION OF ANIMALS. 



BEFORE we survey animals in their state of ma- 

 turity, and performing the functions adapted to 

 their respective natures, method requires that we 

 should consider them in the more early periods of 

 their existence. There has been a time when the 

 proudest and the noblest animal was a partaker 

 of the same imbecility with the meanest reptile ; 

 and, while yet a candidate for existence, equally 

 helpless and contemptible. In their incipient 

 state, all are upon a footing ; the insect and the 

 philosopher being equally insensible, clogged with 

 matter, and unconscious of existence. Where 

 then are we to begin with the history of those 

 beings that make such a distinguished figure in 

 the creation ? Or where lie those peculiar charac- 

 ters in the parts that go to make up animated 

 nature -that mark one animal as destined to creep 

 in the dust, and another to glitter on the throne ? 

 This has been a subject that has employed the 

 curiosity of all ages, and the philosophers of every 

 age have attempted the solution. In tracing na- 

 ture to her most hidden recesses, she becomes too 



