13 



CHAPTER 11. 



THE BALANCE OF NATURE. 



The part which beasts and birds of prey had 

 to play in the scheme of creation was clearly 

 to reduce the numbers of the creatures they 

 preyed upon ; and though at first this may 

 seem a cruel arrangement, it is difiicult to see 

 how any other could have been invented, 

 unless each bird and animal had been created 

 to die suddenly after a certain time, like an 

 eight-day clock which has run down. Most 

 animals' powers of reproduction are so great, 

 evidently with a view of directly or indirectly 

 affording food to man, that but for some such 

 check before the appearance of man upon the 

 scene, they would have crowded each other 

 cut, and have died miserably of starvation. 



