OF NATURAL HISTORY. 37^ 



Vantages as refult from this apparently cruel inftitution of 

 Nature. On the laft branch of the fubjedt, however, the 

 reader muft not expert to have every difficulty removed, and 

 every queftion folved. Like all the other parts of the oecon- 

 omy of Nature, the neceffity, or even the feeming cruelty 

 and injuftice, of allowing animals to prey upon one another, 

 is a myftery which we can never be enabled completely to 

 unravel. But we are not entirely without hopes of fhowing 

 feveral important utilities which refult from this alraofl uni- 

 verfal fcene of animal devaflation. 



Of all rapacious animals, Man is the moft univerfal de- 

 ftroyer. The dertrudlion of carnivorous quadrupeds, birds, 

 and infe£ls, is, in general, limited to particular kinds. But 

 the rapacity of man has hardly any linjitation. His empire 

 over the other animals which inhabit this globe is almoft 

 univerfal. He accordingly employs his power, and fubdues 

 or devours every fpecies. Of fome of the quadruped tribes, 

 as the horfe, the dog, the cat, he makes domeftic flaves j 

 and, though in this country, none of thefe fpecies is ufed. 

 for food, he either obliges them to labour for him, or keeps 

 them as fources of pleafure and amufement. From other 

 quadrupeds, as the ox, the flieep, the goat, and the deer 

 kind, he derives innumerable advantages. The ox-kind, in 

 particular, after receiving the emolunients of their labour and 

 fertility, he rewards with death, and then feeds upon their 

 carcaffes. Many other fpecies, though not commonly ufed 

 as food, are daily malTacred in millions for the purpofes of 

 commerce, luxury, and caprice. Myriads of quadrupeds arc 

 annually deftroyed for the fake of their furs, their hides, 

 their tulks, their odoriferous fecretions, &c. 



Over the feathered tribes the dominion of man is not lefs 

 extenfive. There is not a fingle fpecies in the numerous 

 and diverfified clafs of birds, which he either does not, or 

 may not, employ for the nourifhment of his body. By his 



