140 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 



But, in all this, we see the wisdom and fore- 

 thought of the Creator. We see how exactly, 

 by this mutual inversion, each class of beings is 

 fitted for its station and functions. The plant 

 to take root in, invest and ornament the earth, 

 and keep the atmosphere pure by a constant 

 supply of vital air ; the animal to browse and trim 

 the vegetable, and by checking its luxuriance 

 promote its welfare, to furnish it with a product 

 calculated for its health and necessary to its 

 existence ; and by the manure, various in kind 

 as the animals themselves, which it produces, 

 supplying to the earth fresh pabulum for its 

 vegetable tribes, and making good what it lost 

 by the exhaustion, occasioned by the infinite 

 myriads that, investing it on all sides like a 

 garment, derive their nutriment from it, some 

 plunging deep, and others, as it were, skim- 

 ming the surface: if we contrast this with the 

 returns they make, we shall be convinced that, 

 in this case, the expenditure would vastly exceed 

 the income, and that a class of beings was 

 essentially necessary as a counterpoise, which, 

 by taking little or nothing immediately from 

 the soil, at the same time that they added to it, 

 some in a greater and some in a less degree, 

 might afford a sufficient supply of those princi- 

 ples which are indispensably requisite for the 

 due nutriment and developeinent of the various 

 members of the vegetable kingdom, and thus 



