586 THE PHILOSOPHY 



Both the earth and the air furnifli examples of rapacious 

 animals. In thefe elements, however, the number of carni- 

 vorous animals is comparatively fmall. But every inhabi- 

 tant of the waters depends for its exiftence upon rapine and 

 deftrudtion. The life of every ji^ from the fmalleft to the 

 greateft, is one continued fcene of hoftility, violence and eva- 

 lion. Their appetite for food is almoft infatiable. It impels 

 them to encounter every danger. They are in continual 

 motion -, and the object of all their movements is to devour 

 other fifhes, or to avoid their own de{lru(Sl:ion. Their de- 

 lire for food is fo keen and undiftinguifhing, that they gree- 

 dily fwallow every thing which has the appearance of ani- 

 mation. Thofe that have fmall mouths feed upon worms 

 and the fpawn of other fifhes ; and thofe whofe mouths are 

 larger devour every animal, their own fpecies not excepted, 

 that can pafs through their gullet. To avoid deflru(Stion, 

 the fmaller fry retire to the ihallows, where the larger kinds 

 are unable to purfue them. But, in the watery element, no 

 iituation is abfolutely fafe ; for, even in the fh allows, the 

 oyfter, the fcallop, and the mufcle, lie in ambulh at the bot- 

 tom, with their fhells open, and, when a fmall fifh comes in- 

 to contact with them, they inflantly clofe their fhells upon 

 him, and devour at leifure their imprifoned prey. Neither 

 is the hunting or purfuit of fifhes confined to particular re- 

 gions. Shoals of one fpecies foUov/, with unwearied ardour, 

 thofe of another through vafl tratSls of the ocean. The cod 

 purfues the whiting from the banks of Newfoundland to the 

 fouthern coafts of Spain. 



It is a remarkable circumftancc in the hiflory of animated 

 Nature, that carnivorous birds and quadrupeds are lefs proli- 

 fic than the inoffenfive and afTociating kinds •, but, on the 

 contrary, that the inhabitants of the waters, who are all car- 

 nivorous, are endowed with a mofr aftonifhing fecundity. 

 AH kinds of fifhes^ a few only excepted, are oviparous. No;- 



