OF NATURAL IIISTORr. 38 1 



Others boldly attack him with open hoftility. He Is ah'b 

 infulted and injured by the flings of infects, and by the poif- 

 onous bites of ferpents. In other refpedls, man's empire, 

 thoLinrh comparatively great, is very much limited. He has 

 no influence on the univerfe, on the motions and afFec- 

 tions of the heavenly bodies, or on the revolutions of the 

 globe which he inhabits. Neither has he a general domin- 

 ion over animals, vegetables, or minerals. His power reach- 

 es not fpecies, but is confined to individuals. Every order 

 of being moves on its courfe, perifhes, or is renewed, by the 

 irreflrtible power of Nature. Even man himfelf, hurried 

 along by the general torrent of time and of Nature, cannot 

 prolong his exiftence. He is obliged to fubmit to the uni- 

 verfal law •, and, like all other organized beings, he is born, 

 grows to maturity and dies. Though man has been enabled 

 to fubdue the animal creation by the fuperior powers of his 

 mind, his empire, like all other empires, could not be flrmly 

 eftablifhed previous to the inftitution of pretty numerous fo- 

 cieties. Almofl: the whole of his power is derived from fo- 

 ciety. It matures his reafon, gives exertion to his genius, 

 and unites his forces. Before the formation of large focie- 

 ties, man was perhaps the moft helplefs and the leaft formi- 

 dable of all animals. Naked, and deftitute of arms, to him 

 the earth was only an immenfe defert peopled with ftrong 

 and rapacious monflers, by whom he was often devoured. 

 Even long after this period, hiftory informs us, that the firfl 

 heroes were deftroyers of wild beafts. But, after the human 

 fpecies had multiplied, and fpread over the earth, and when, 

 by means of fociety and the arts, man was enabled to con- 

 quer a conliderable part of the globe, he forced the wild 

 beafts gradually to retire to the deferts. He cleared the 

 earth of thofe gigantic animals who, perhaps, now no longer 

 exift, but whofe enormous bones are flill found in different 



regions, and are preferved in the cabinets of the curious. He 



Z z 



