HOSTILITIES OF ANIMALS. 



depends not, more or less, upon the death or destruction of 

 others. Every animal, when not prematurely deprived of life 

 by those who are hostile to it, or by accident, enjoys a tem- 

 porary existence, the duration of which is longer or shorter, 

 according to its nature, and the rank it holds in the creation 

 and this existence universally terminates in death and disso- 

 lution. This is an established law of nature, to which every 

 animal is obliged to submit. But this necessary and universal 

 deprivation of individual life, though great, is nothing when 

 compared to the havoc occasioned by another law, which 

 impels animals to kill and devour different species, and some- 

 times their own. In the system of nature, death and dissolu- 

 tion seem to be indispensable for the support and continuation 

 of animal life. 



But, though almost every animal, in some measure, depends 

 for its existence on the destruction of others, there are some 

 species, in all the different tribes or classes, which are distin- 

 guished by the appellation of carnivorous or rapacious, be- 

 cause they live chiefly, or entirely, on animal food. In the 

 prosecution of this subject, therefore, we shall, in the first 

 place, mention some examples of animal hostility and ra- 

 pacity; and, in the next place, endeavor to point out such 

 advantages as result from this apparently cruel institution of 

 nature. On the last branch of the subject, however, the 

 reader must not expect to have every difficulty removed, and 

 every question solved. Like all the other parts of the econo- 

 my of nature, the necessity, or even the seeming cruelty and 

 injustice of allowing animals to prey upon one another, is a 

 mystery which we can never be enabled completely to unrav- 

 el. But we are not entirely without hopes of showing several 

 important utilities which result from this almost universal 

 scene of animal devastation. 



Of all rapacious animals, Man is the most universal de- 

 stroyer. The destruction of carnivorous quadrupeds, birds, 

 and insects, is, in general, limited to particular kinds. But 

 the rapacity of man has hardly any limitation. His empire 

 over the other animal^ which inhabit this globe, is almost 

 universal. Of some of the quadruped tribes, as the horse, 

 the dog, the cat, he makes domestic slaves; and though, in 

 this country, none of these species is used for food, he either 

 obliges them to labor for him, or keeps them as sources of 

 pleasure and amusement. From other quadrupeds, as the ox, 

 Ihe sheep, the goat, and the deer kind, he derives innumera- 

 ble advantages. The ox kind, in particular, after receiving 



