54 THE VITAL FUNCTIONS. 



which secure, on the whole, the greatest and most permanent 

 good. There can he no douht that the sclieme, hy which 

 one animal is made directly conducive to the subsistence of 

 another, leads to the extension of the benefits of existence 

 to an infinitely greater number of beings than could other- 

 wise have enjoyed them. This system, besides, is the spring 

 of motion and activity in every part of nature. While the 

 pursuit of its prey forms the occupation, and constitutes the 

 pleasure of a considerable part of the animal creation, the 

 employment of the means they possess of defence, of flight, 

 and of precaution, is also the business of a still larger part. 

 These means are, in a great proportion of instances, success- 

 ful; for, wherever nature has inspired sagacity in the percep- 

 tion of danger, she has generally bestowed a proportionate 

 degree of ingenuity in devising the means of safety. Some 

 are taught to deceive the enemy, and to employ stratagem 

 where force or swiftness would have been unavailing: many 

 insects, when in danger, counterfeit death, to avoid destruc- 

 tion; others, among the myriapoda, fold themselves into the 

 smallest possible compass, so as to escape detection. The 

 tortoise, as we have already seen, retreats within its shell, 

 as within a fortress; the hedge-hog rolls itself into a ball, 

 presenting bristles on every side; the diodon inflates its glo- 

 bular body for the same purpose, and floats on the sea, armed 

 at all the points of its surface; the cuttle-fish screens itself 

 from pursuit by efiusing an intensely dark coloured ink, 

 which renders the surrounding waters so black and turbid 

 as to conceal the animal, and favour its escape; the torpedo 

 defends itself from molestation by reiterated discharges from 

 its electric battery; the butterfly avoids capture by its irre- 

 gular movements in the air, and the hare puts the hounds at 

 fault hy her mazy doublings. Thus does the animated crea- 

 tion present a busy scene of activity and employment: thus 

 arc a variety of powers called forth, and an infinite diversity 

 of pleasures derived from their exercise; and existence is, on 

 the whole, rendered the source of incomparably higher de- 

 grees, as well as of a larger amount of enjoyment, than ap- 



