12 CREATION OF ANIMALS. 



work of destruction, and impel them to attack 

 and devour without pity, those amongst the 

 weaker animals, that were likely to increase in 

 a degree hurtful to the general welfare, thus ful- 

 filling his great purpose of generally maintaining 

 those relative proportions, as to number, of in- 

 dividual species, that would be most conducive 

 to the health and mutual advantage of all parts 

 of the system of our globe. 



This too is the place to consider another cir- 

 cumstance connected with the appointment by 

 Providence of certain animals to certain ends. 

 There are, as must be evident to every one who 

 thinks or observes at all, large numbers of the 

 animal kingdom, which, considered in their in- 

 dividual capacities, maybe regarded as positively 

 injurious to man ; and seem to have been created 

 with a view to his punishment, either in his per- 

 son or property. Of this description are those 

 predatory tribes of which I have just spoken : 

 but I here mean, more particularly, to advert 

 to those personal pests, that not only attempt to 

 derive their nutriment from him by occasionally 

 sucking his blood when he comes in their way, 

 as the flea, the horse-fly, and others, but those 

 that make a settlement upon him or within him, 

 selecting his body for their dwelling as well as 

 their food, and thus infesting him with a double 

 torment. 



