HOSTILITIES OP ANIMALS. 



cious animals, on the contrary, by frequent disappointment, 

 are obliged to provide against the cunning and alertness of 

 their prey. Herbivorous animals, as they have little difficulty 

 in procuring food, are proportionally stupid ; but they would 

 be still more stupid if they had no enemies to annoy them. 

 Man, if his attention and talents were not excited by the ani- 

 mosities of his own species, by the attacks of ferocious 

 animals, and even by those of insect tribes, would be an in- 

 dolent and incurious, a dirty and an ignorant animal. Those 

 of the human race, accordingly, who procure their food with 

 little or no industry, as we learn from a multitude of travellers 

 ami voyagers, are perfectly ignorant and brutishly stupid. 

 Tirnid animals never use the arts of defence, or provide 

 against danger, except from three causes, pure instinct, 

 which is implanted in their natures, imitation, and experience. 

 By experience, timid animals are taught the arts of evasion. 

 Flight is instinctive ; but the modifications of it are acquired 

 by imitation and experience. 



Hostilities, in some instances, seem to arise, not from a 

 natural antipathy of one species to another, but from a scar- 

 city of food. The celebrated Captain Cook informs us, that, 

 in Staten Island, birds of prey assemble promiscuously with 

 penguins and other birds, without the one offering any injury, 

 or the other discovering the smallest symptom of terror. In 

 that island, the rapacious birds, perhaps, find plenty of food 

 from dead seals, sea-lions, and fishes. 



A profusion of animal life seems to be the general intention 

 of nature. For this purpose, when not modified or restrained 

 by the industry and intelligence of man, she uniformly covers 

 the surface of the earth with trees and vegetables of every 

 kind, which supply myriads of animated beings with food. 

 But the greatest possible extension of life would still be want- 

 ing, if animals did not prey upon each other. If all animals 

 were to live on vegetables alone, many species, and millions 

 of individuals, which now enjoy life and happiness, could have 

 no existence ; for the productions of the earth would not be 

 sufficient to support them. But, by making animals feed 

 upon each other, the system of animation and of happiness 

 is extended to the greatest possible degree. In this view, 

 Nature, instead of being cruel and oppressive, is highly gen- 

 erous and beneficent. 



To diminish the number of noxious animals, and to aug- 

 ment that of useful vegetables, has been the uniform scope of 

 hunmn industry. A few species of animals only are of imme 



