1 8 INTRODUCTION. 



they do so, they remain ; and where there ceases to be a 

 necessity and an office for them in the economy of 

 nature, they cease to exist, and new races, adapted to 

 the change and circumstances of the place, occupy 

 their room. 



The means of production and destroying are also 

 balanced in a very wonderful manner. When man 

 takes possession, he becomes the grand destroyer, 

 his arts and arms, and especially the use of fire, of 

 which he is the only creature that can take advantage, 

 are superior to the strength of lions, the wings of 

 eagles, and the coilings and fangs of serpents ; and 

 accordingly, the wild beasts vanish before him, and 

 return again when he retires. The lion, which for 

 many ages had not been found in Bengal, is said to 

 have, of late years, reappeared in some parts of that 

 country, which have been depopulated and are degene- 

 rating into desarts. 



But, independently of any reference to man, there is 

 an admirable balance between the destroyer and the 

 prey ; both races thrive equally, and thus show that, 

 in the general purpose of creation, the one has been 

 made for the other. In the warmer parts of Asia and 

 Africa, where not burnt up and converted into sand, 

 large quadrupeds breed very fast, and are of numerous 

 kinds, and it is there that we find the most formidable 

 of the beasts of prey. In tropical America, large 

 quadrupeds are not so numerous; and the beasts of 

 prey are not so powerful, the puma is much inferior 

 to the lion, and so is the jaguar to the tiger. In 

 New Holland, where, from the sterile nature of the 

 country, there never could be many large animals, 



