302 



DOG. 



suppose that there is no purpose here ? Is it con- 

 sistent with any thing else which we see in nature, 

 that that animal, which is endowed and furnished 

 above all other animals, should be the only one 

 which the Almighty has thus bountifully endowed and 

 furnished, but all in vain ? 



It is impossible to come to any conclusion so absurd 

 as this, and therefore we must look abroad in nature, 

 and examine what purpose those animals are intended 

 to serve in wild nature, or in countries which have all 

 the richness of virgin soil. Then, if we are able to 

 see our way clearly in this part of the inquiry, we 

 have still another branch remaining, which is highly 

 important, as tending to prove that usefulness to man 

 forms part of the original design which runs through 

 the whole system of nature : and, besides its value in 

 a merely natural history point of view, it is a very 

 strong collateral proof of the truth of the book of 

 Revelation, because it shows that the dominion said 

 to have been given to man is no emanation of human 

 vanity, but a real declaration by Him who cannot lie : 

 " God said, Let us make man in our image, after our 

 . likeness : and let them have dominion over the fish 

 of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the 

 cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping 

 thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created 

 man in his own image, in the image of God created 

 lie him ; male and female created he them. And 

 God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be 

 fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and 

 subdue it : and have dominion over the fish of the 

 sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every 

 Jiving thing that moveth upon the earth. And God 

 .said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing 

 seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and 

 very tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding 

 seed ; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast 

 of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every 

 . thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is 

 life, I have given every green herb for meat : and it 

 was so. And God saw every thing that he had 

 made, and behold, it was very good." 



Such is the original declaration ; and the benedic- 

 tion of the whole being " very good" involves in it 

 the notion of the general purpose and adaptation 

 running through the whole, fitting all the individual 

 parts for each other, and the aggregate for rational 

 man, as the means of knowledge and the subject of 

 enjoyment. 



From what we know of countries in a state of 

 nature, we observe, that in them the working of 

 nature is everywhere in excess ; they are clothed 

 with thick forests, the action of which keeps up a 

 continual evaporation and precipitating of moisture 

 by the air ; and as the whole of the vegetation which 

 results from this great energy of the powers of nature 

 is adapted for being food to some living creature or 

 other, the quantity of life existing in such countries 

 is beyond what we can well imagine, if we did not 

 actually see it. It is not the mere surface only which 

 is inhabited, for the trees of the forests are tenanted 

 to their very tops, not only with the smaller kinds of 

 living creatures, but with tree birds and tree mammalia, 

 up to the rnaccavv, which feeds on the topmost fruits, 

 and the sloth, which keeps down the exuberance of 

 the topmost leaves, clinging to the twigs, and back 

 undermost, grazing against the sky, as if it were a 

 sort of ruminating animal turned upside down. 

 It would be impossible to enumerate all the details 



of this exuberance of nature in the early ages of 

 countries, and in all probability before they became 

 the abodes of the human race ; but we have, in those 

 memorials which remain buried in the ground, the 

 clearest evidence that such has been the state of 

 many parts of the world in which the natural vegeta- 

 tion has given place to that which man cultivates for 

 his use ; and the elephant, the rhinoceros, the large 

 species of stag, and those older animals of more 

 singular forms, and some of them of more ample 

 dimensions, together with those remains of plants 

 which are buried in the soil, clearly show that, even 

 to high latitudes, even the northern hemisphere, this 

 vast exuberance of nature has at one time been 

 general ; and, as the remains of man have never been 

 met with in those sepulchres of the times of old, we 

 may reasonably conclude that this state of things was 

 actually anterior to the peopling of the several 

 regions with human beings. 



In a state of things where production was so much 

 in excess, it is natural to suppose that destruction 

 must have been equally so, for the two go hand 

 in hand ; and the excess of life is really an excess of 

 change, the transference of organic matter from the 

 body of one living creature to that of another. Now, 

 as the earth can be cleared of animal matters only by 

 the labours of animals which prey upon animal 

 substances, and as the habit of the cat family is to 

 lie in wait and prey chiefly upon living animals ; 

 and further, as their structure adapts them rather for 

 great momentary efforts than for continued exertion, 

 they are fit only for keeping down the excess of 

 living animals, and that only in particular situations. 

 But, in such a state of things as that which we are 

 considering, the number of dead animal substances 

 with which the earth must have been strewed, and 

 some of which must have been buried under the 

 earth by the deposits left by the waters, there 

 appears a very obvious necessity for a large supply 

 and general distribution of those animals which 

 belong to the dog tribe, and the other divisions of the 

 great genus Cants, the fox, the hyaena, the jackall, and 

 the wolf. We accordingly find that these animals 

 have been very numerous in almost every part, at 

 least of the eastern world, though some of them, as 

 the hysna, have long perished from the northern 

 parts, and others, as the wolf, are fast disappearing. 



But, when we take note of the places where 

 these animals are still to be found, we perceive that 

 they are, general!}' speaking, countries in which there 

 is a strong action in nature, and a proneness to 

 return to the wild state. We are, in the meantime, 

 concerned only with the dog ; and the chief places 

 where dogs are found in a wild state are those in 

 which, if culture is even for a short time neglected, 

 in consequence of hostile devastation or of any other 

 cause, the surface is speedily overrun by thick forests 

 or tangled jungles. Those places are India, some of 

 the eastern isles, and many of those in the Pacific. 

 Every one who has at all attended to the subject must 

 be aware how speedily every neglected spot of India, 

 which is at all within the reach of the periodical rains, 

 is converted into jungle. A single year suffices in 

 many situations to bring a covering of bamboos at 

 least sixty feet high ; and as the larger species of cats 

 are adapted for acting on the margin, and in the open 

 glades of the forests, where, though they require cover 

 for their concealment, they also require scope for their 

 priug, it follows that the beating of the forest must 



