19* 



There are mure butterflies than fowls, and more vint* 

 fit tiers 'han dogs. 



16. The magnificence of the creation slrines in no 

 part of it wiili greater lustre, .than in the prodigious fe- 

 cundity ot a great number of plants and animate.' One 

 single individual may give birih to thousands, or even 

 Uiiliiung of individuate like itself. Being formed agree- 

 able to those oioportions which are only known to that 

 ADORABLE WISDOM that has established them, this 

 .great people ua at first enclosed within the narrow 

 compast oi a rind or ovary. In ti-is dark abode they 

 receive l heir first; life, begin to grow, and a, e deposed 

 to appear on the vast theatre of the visible world. 



If we consider things in a general view, vegetables 

 will be fc-uj'd to be more fruitful than animals. We 

 v-r conviuced of this, by comparing trees 

 \vnh quadrupeds. 



Trees produce annual! v, sometimes for many ages, 

 <5nu'j their ^reductions are always very numerous. Large 

 quadrupeds, as the elephant, the mare, the hind, tlie 

 *&c. huve seldoiii jftore tjiau Ok-e at a time, rarely 

 tu<:, aiiii the nursiber tluy breed is always very mode- 

 rate. Leaser quadrupeds, such as the dog, the hare, the 

 cat, tlit rat, i crease in a much gitater degree; but 

 their v is but inconsiderable, when compared to 



tiiat of ligneous plants. The elm produces ye;.ily up- 

 wards o. ;hre' hundred thousand seeds; and tins asto- 

 nishing multiplication may continue above a century. 



Fix has and insects nearly resemble vegetables in fe- 

 cundity. A tench, lay I aboUl ien thousand eui,s : <, carp, 

 twenty thousand : i-ud a cot/, a million. An insect .-eh 

 produces ti e itch, i: ys fi/ui or fixe thousand e^ga, , ic- 

 inale iw, tort y-n've er rifty thousand. 



To this amazing fecundity is opposed that of the wild 



