OF NATURAL HISTORY. 39? 



and other animals which are under his peculiar prote£lion, 

 he daily ufes for food. This is not cruelty. He has a right 

 to eat them : For, like Nature, though he occaiionally de- 

 ftrovs domeftic animals, a timid and docile race of beings, 

 by his culture and protection he gives life and happinefs to 

 millions, which, without his aid, could have no exiftence. 

 The number of individuals, among animals of this defcrip- 

 tion if they were not cheriflied and defended by man, would 

 be extremely limited-, for, by the mildnefs of their difpofitions, 

 the comparative weaknefs of their arms, and the univerfal 

 and ftrong appetite for them by rapacious quadrupeds and 

 birds of prey, though the fpecies might, perhaps, be contin- 

 ued, the number of individuals would, of neceility, be very 

 fmall. 



There is a wonderful balance in the fyflem of animal de- 

 il:ru6lion. If the general profusion of the animated produc- 

 tions of Nature had no other check than the various periods 

 to which their lives, when not extinguifhed by hoftilities of 

 one kind or another, are limited, the whole would foon be 

 annihilated by an univerfal famine, and the earth, inftead of 

 every where teeming with animals, would, unlefs re-peopled 

 by a new creation, exhibit nothing but a mute, a lifelefs, and 

 an inaflive fcene. If even a fingle fpecies were permitted to 

 multiply without difturbance, the food of other fpecies 

 would be exhaufted, and, of courfe, a period would be put 

 to their exiftence. The herbivorous and frugivorous races, 

 if not reftrained by the carnivorous, would foon increafe to a 

 hurtful degree. Carnivorous animals are the barriers fixed 

 by Nature to noxious inundations of other kinds. The 

 carnivorous tribes may be compared to the hoe and the prun- 

 ing hook, which, by diminifhing the number of plants when 

 too clofe, or lopping off their luxuriancies, make the others 

 grow to greater perfection. To thofe fwarms of infecfls 

 which cover the furface of the earth, are oppofed an army of 



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