DURATION OF ANIMALS. 7 



while we eagerly explore the various methods employed by 

 the defenceless, to secure themselves from danger, and evade 

 the threatened death ; it is suitable for us likewise to contem- 

 plate the various means employed by carnivorous animals to 

 gain the means of their subsistence. When we see a hawk in 

 pursuit of a lark, we are apt to admire exclusively, the dex- 

 terity of the latter in avoiding destruction, and to triumph 

 when it has obtained the requisite protection in a thicket. 

 We seem to forget that the digestive organs of the hawk 

 are fitted only for carrion ; and we lose sight of the benevo- 

 lence and wisdom exhibited, in giving to its wings a power 

 of inflicting a deadly blow, and rendering the claws suited 

 for grasping, and the bill for tearing in pieces the quarry. 

 We are not therefore to take confined views of the animal 

 kingdom, if we wish to read the lessons concerning the Pro- 

 vidence of God which it teaches. He that causeth the 

 grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man ; 

 likewise giveth meat in due season to the young lions which 

 roar after their prey ; and feedeth the ravens, though they 

 neither sow nor reap. We see rapacious and defenceless 

 animals existing, yet we do not observe the former success- 

 ful in extirpating the latter. Limits are assigned to the 

 ravages of this universal war. The excess only of the po- 

 pulation is cut off, and this excess, on whose production 

 so many animals depend for subsistence, is as uniform as 

 the means used to restrain its limits. 



These various circumstances which we have now enume- 

 rated as limiting the duration of animals, preserve the ba- 

 lance of life, restrain within suitable bounds the numbers 

 of the individuals of a species, and give stability to that 

 system, the wise arrangements of which can only be dis- 

 covered by a close examination of the whole. 



