34 



On fhe Dcdruclldn of Birch. 



III. 



contestible evidence of the mutability of ani- 

 mated nature. One generation tbllowingan- 

 cther, and one species giving place to anotli- 

 er, in continual succession for countless ages, 

 previous to the present adjustment of the earth. 

 The destruction of those animals whose fos- 

 sil remains are the only evidence of their 

 having had existence, cannot be attributed to 

 man, for he was not; neither to the imple- 

 ments of his inventive genius, for in all pro- 

 bability he had not been, and to conclude tliat 

 similar changes are now in progress cannot 

 be irrational, although they may be imper- 

 ceptible to us poor transient and short-sight- j 

 ed mortals ; for his laws are immutable " who 

 is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever." i 

 I was much pleased with the sympathetic, 

 feelings for the different species of birds, ex- 

 hibited, generally, throughout tiie essay of 

 the worthy correspondent alluded to; but 

 when I read, " some are of no use and others 

 decidedly injurious," and the recommenda- 

 tion to " destroy them in any manner which 

 in itself would not do more injury than it 

 would prevent if successful," I stopped short, 

 thought I had misunderstood the passage, read 

 it again, and find naught to extenuate, but a 

 kind of Benjamitic qualification in the latter 

 part of the sentence, which does not mitigate 

 the assertion nor the recommendation, nor 

 enable me to reconcile it with the general te- 

 nor of the production. But there it stands in 

 bold relief; the monument of a positive con- 

 tradiction of the expressed word of God as 

 delivered by Moses, and written in the 31st 

 verse of the 1st chapter of Genesis, in these 

 words, " And God saw every thing that he 

 had made, and behold it was very good." 

 The tender advice and instruction offered by 

 the said correspondent to the youth, would 

 appear to have emanated from one who felt 

 as he spoke, was feelingly alive to the ever- 

 lasting welfare of mankind, and whose faith, 

 as the apostle saith, would have kept him 

 whole. I am much mistaken, in human na- 

 ture if the destruction of one species of birds 

 would not, in all probability, "injure that dis- 

 position and those sensibilities which are so 

 lovely in the young" as another, and if It'll 

 for man to decide respecting their usefulness, 

 I doubt the number would be very small that 

 his ingenuity could not find excuse to slay. 

 And those, too, with whom the said writer 

 says he would " hold no terms," may have 

 young in their nests that are the workman- 

 ship of the hands of the same great Author 

 that breathed into the nostrils of Adam the 

 breath of life ; who have violated no law on 

 earth nor in heaven, and whose sole depend- 

 ence for sustenance is upon their earthly pa- 

 rents, and deprived of them the little inno- 

 cents must suffer the painful and protracted 

 death of starvation. "Because the fathers 



have eaten sour grapes shall the children's 

 teeth be set on edge," or, in other words, be- 

 cause their tender care-takers, in obedience to 

 the will of their Creator, have dared to pluck 

 a stalk or blade which, perhaps, had been the 

 object or attention of interloping and penuri- 

 ous man, who, having power, forgets right, 

 and will kill or destroy every thing which in 

 his weak estimation interferes with his ava- 

 ricious profits of gain. Must their helpless 

 offspring be doomed to pay the second edi- 

 tion of the penalty by the forfeiture of their 

 lives. If priority of occupancy gives right, 

 then is the title to the soil vested in the 

 beasts and birds, and man is the squatter. 

 And although man is the subsequent part of 

 creation, it was said unto him, " Be fruitful 

 and multiply and replenish the earth, and 

 subdue it and have dominion over tlie fish of 

 the sea and over the fowls of the air and over 

 every living thing that moveth upon the 

 earth," yet " the expression of a tyrannous 

 control can find no warrant there." The as- 

 sertion that man was exclusively herbiverous 

 before the flood, I think, will be difficult to 

 substantiate, for I am not aware of any law 

 in the pentateuch forbidding him to eat flesh, 

 and where there is no law there can be no 

 transgression, and immediately after Noah 

 and his family had gone forth out of tlie ark, 

 the Lord said unto them, "Every moving 

 thing that liveth shall be meat for you, even 

 as the green herb have 1 given you all things." 

 As the sacred historian does not inform us 

 that man underwent any material change m 

 his e.xternal form nor internal viscera, during 

 his sojourn in the ark, we therefore take it 

 for granted that the animal capacities which 

 he now possesses, are precisely similar to 

 those which he enjoyed previous to the flood, 

 as he was destined to inhabit every degree 

 of climate, and as physiologists, anatomists, 

 and philosophers all agree that his mouth, 

 teeth, and intestines indicate an animal form- 

 ed to subsist on all kinds of food, consoqucnt- 

 ly we are brought to the conclusion that it 

 was the intention of an infinitely wise, com- 

 manding, and controlling Intelligence, that 

 man by a due exercise of the reason with 

 which he is endued should be governed in 

 his diet as the circumstances of his situation 

 might require: be that as it may, let him 

 "Feed on the slain, but spare the living 

 brute." 



Mooreland, Montgomery eounty, \ 

 I'eiin. 7 mo., 3Ulh, 18.")8. ( 



The person who promises himself success 

 without endeators, or despairs at the sight of 

 difficulties, is alwnys disappointed; but, on 

 the contrary, he who is indefatigable, succeed* 

 even beyond his eirpectations. 



The economy of mall expenses lays tho 

 comer-stone of wealth. 



