68 EXCURSIONS ROUND LONDON, 



Animals, endowed -with instinct, require 

 not the lessons of experience } while man, 

 who is destined to exercise dominion over 

 them by his Maker, who has the blessing of 

 reason bestowed on him, and to whose wants 

 and pleasures all nature is tributary, would 

 perish through mere helplessness and igno- 

 rance, if, on coming into existence, he were 

 abandoned to himself. 



Short-sighted mortals are sometimes indu- 

 ced impiously to arraign the wisdom of 

 Providence, for having introduced man into 

 life in such a dependant and impotent state. 

 Thrown naked as it were upon the earth, if 

 I may use the expression of Pliny, 

 he cannot at first solve the riddle of 

 existence. 



It is, however, this helplessness and impo- 

 tence, which mark the entrance of man into 

 life, that we must regard as the first bond of 

 social happiness. It affords the strongest 

 motive to parents, to cherish and take care 

 of their offspring. Besides, the affection 



which 



