114 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



(happily for themselves) they do not possess. A 

 hare, notwithstanding the number of its dangers 

 and its enemies is as playful an animal as any 

 other. 



3. But, to do justice to the question, the system 

 of animal destruction ought always to be consider- 

 ed in strict connexion with another property of 

 animal natm^e, viz. superfecundity . They are 

 countervailing qualities. One subsists by the cor- 

 rection of the other. In treating, therefore, of the 

 subject under this view, (which is, I believe, the 

 true one,) our business will be, first, to point out 

 the advantages which are gained by the powers 

 in nature of a superabundant multiplication ; and 

 then to show, that these advantages are so many 

 reasons for appointing that system of national 

 hostilities, which we are endeavouring to account 

 for. 



In almost all cases, nature produces her supplies 

 with profusion. A single cod-fish spawns, in one 

 season, a greater number of eggs than all the in- 

 habitants of England amount to. A thousand 

 other instances of prolific generation might be sta- 

 ted, which, though not equal to this, would carry 

 on the increase of the species with a rapidity 

 which outruns calculation, and to an immeasura- 

 ble extent. The advantages of such a constitu- 

 tion are two; first, that it tends to keep the world 

 always full ; whilst, secondly, it allows the pro- 

 portion between the several species of animals to 

 be diflJerently modified, as different purposes re- 



