MIGRATIONS. 93 



a scarcity of food, or straitened circumstances or 

 accommodations may be the impelling motives, 

 yet these are produced by an unusual increase in 

 the numbers of the migrating species, so that 

 they are driven to seek an outlet by which their 

 supernumeraries may pass off and relieve them 

 from the pressure, or the whole population, de- 

 serting an exhausted country, may establish 

 themselves in better quarters. 



In all the instances that I have here adduced, 

 the object, at the first blush, as far as the Deity 

 may be supposed to be concerned in these out- 

 breaks, appears rather punitive than beneficent, 

 but when we dip below the surface, and look to 

 ultimate consequences, what appears to be alto- 

 gether an evil, instead of a dark side, turns 

 round and shews one bright with good. It is 

 true, in some cases, the object is punishment of 

 an offender, and in hopeless cases, the sentence 

 is pronounced, " Cut it down, why cumber eth it 

 the ground." But before this, Divine Mercy, 

 which willeth not that any should perish, employs 

 those correctives, which at the same time that 

 they give pain, and wear the appearance of evil 

 and punishment, tend to produce that change of 

 the mind and conversion of the heart, that will 

 reconcile the sinner to God, and ensure to him 

 the blessed inheritance of his children. But 

 temporal good, as well as spiritual, is often the 

 result of these visitations, the devastations of 



