1 64 A HISTORY OF 



luxuiiancu of the warm climates, or the sterility of the poles, ne has 

 spread his habitations over the whole earth ; and finds subsistence as 

 well amidst the ice of the north as the burning deserts under the line. 

 All creatures of an inferior nature, as has been said, have peculiar 

 propensities to peculiar climates; they are circumscribed to zones, and 

 confined to territories where their proper food is found in the greatest 

 abundance; but man may be called the animal of every climate, and 

 suffers but very gradual alterations from the nature of any situation. 



As to animals of a meaner rank, whom man compels to attend hin 

 in his migrations, these being obliged to live in a kind of constraint, 

 and upon vegetable food often different from that of their native soil, 

 they very soon alter their natures with the nature of their nourish- 

 ment, assimilate to the vegetables upon which theyfced,and thus as- 

 sume very different habits as well as appearances. Thus man, unaf- 

 fected himself, alters and directs the nature of other animals at his 

 pleasure ; increases their strength for his delight, or their patience 

 for his necessities. 



This power of altering the appearances of things, seems to have 

 been given him for very wise purposes. The Deity, when he made 

 the earth, was willing to give his favoured creature many opponents, 

 that might at once exercise his virtues, and call forth his latent abili- 

 ties. Hence we find, in those wide uncultivated wildernesses, where 

 man, in his savage state, owns inferior strength, and the beasts claim 

 divided dominion, that the whole forest swarms with noxious animals 

 and vegetables ; animals as yet undescribed, and vegetables which 

 want a name. In those recesses, nature seems rather lavish than 

 magnificent in bestowing life. The trees are usually of the largest 

 kinds, covered round with parasite plants, and interwoven at the tops 

 with each other. The bouglis, both above and below, are peopled ' 

 with various generations ; some of which have never been upon the 

 ground, and others have never stirred from the branches on which 

 they were produced. In this manner millions of minute and loath- 

 some creatures pursue a round of uninterrupted existence, and enjoy 

 a life scarcely superior to vegetation. At the same time, the vegeta- 

 bles in those places are of the larger kinds, while the animal race 

 is of the smaller : but man has altered this disposition of nature ; 

 having, in a great measure, levelled the extensive forests, cul- 

 tivated the softer and finer vegetables, destroyed the numberless 

 tribes of minute and noxious animals, and taken every method to in- 

 crease a numerous breed of the Isfrger kinds. He thus has exercised 

 a severe control ; unpeopled nature, to embellish it ; and diminished 

 the size of the vegetable, in order to improve that of the animal 

 kingdom. 



To subdue the earth to his own use, was, and ought to be, the aim 

 of man ; which was only to be done by increasing the number of 

 plants, and diminishing that of animals : to multiply existence, alone, 

 was that of the Deity. For this reason, we find, in a state of nature, 

 that animal life is increased to the greatest quantity possible ; and we 

 can scarcely form a system that could add to its numbers. First, 

 plants, or trees, are provided by nature of the largest kinds ; and, 

 conseouently, the nourishing surface is thus extended. In the second 



