CARNIVOROUS ANIMALS. 211 



the emoluments of their labor and fertility, he rewards with 

 death, and then feeds upon their carcasses. Many other 

 species, though not commonly used as food, are daily mas- 

 sacred in millions for the purposes of commerce, luxury, and 

 caprice. Myriads of quadrupeds are annually destroyed for 

 the sake of their furs, their hides, their tusks, their odorifer- 

 ous secretions, &c. 



Over the feathered tribes the dominion of man is not less 

 extensive. There are few species in the numerous and diver- 

 sified class of birds, which he either does not, or may not, 

 employ for the nourishment of his body. By his sagacity and 

 address he has been enabled to domesticate many of the more 

 prolific and delicious species, as turkeys, geese, and the vari- 

 ous kinds of poultry. These he multiplies without end, and 

 devours at pleasure. 



Neither do the inhabitants of the waters escape the rapacity 

 of man. Rivers, lakes, and even the ocean itself, feel the 

 power of his empire, and are forced to supply him with pro- 

 visions. Neither air nor water can defend against the ingenu- 

 ity, the art, and the destructive industry of the human species. 

 Man may be said even to have domesticated some fishes. In 

 artificial ponds, he feeds and rears carp, tench, perch, trout, 

 and other species, and with them occasionally furnishes his 

 table. 



It might have been expected, that insects and reptiles, some 

 of which have a most disgusting aspect, would not have exci- 

 ted the human appetite. But we learn from experience, that, 

 in every region of the earth, many insects which inhabit both 

 the earth and the waters, are esteemed as delicate articles of 

 luxury. Even the viper, though its venom be deleterious, 

 escapes not the all-devouring jaws of man. 



Thus man holds, and too often exercises, a tyrannical do- 

 minion over almost the whole brute creation ; not because 

 he is the strongest of all animals, but because his intellect, 

 though of a similar nature, is vastly superior to that of the 

 most sagacious of the less-favored tribes. He reigns over the 

 other animals, because the powers of his mind are more ex- 

 tensive. He overcomes force by ingenuity, and swiftness by 

 art and persevering industry. But the empire of man over 

 the brute creation is not absolute. Some species elude his 

 power by the rapidity of their flight, by the swiftness of their 

 course, by the obscurity of their retreats, and by the element 

 in which they live. Others escape him by the minuteness of 

 their bodies; and, instead of acknowledging their sovereign, 



