RELIGION, SUPERSTITION, ETC. 49 



far as we have been able to penetrate this curious dis- 

 cussion, we find that the proofs of this theory are of 

 two kinds a priori, and a posteriori stamp. The 

 main proposition of the first class of a priori arguments 

 was, that Fish did not stand in the order of creation 

 in any considerable relation to man, as a social and 

 domestic being ; they could not influence his temporal 

 destiny or happiness in any perceptible degree. They 

 inhabited altogether a different element from man; 

 and could in no way come in contact with either his 

 virtues or vices, his passions or desires. The whole of 

 animated nature was placed in a different position; a 

 great portion of animal existence was in direct hostility 

 to human life and health ; and was ever assuming that 

 offensive attitude, calculated to remind our race of their 

 dependant and fallen condition, by the unextinguishable 

 and mortal enmity which subsisted between it and them. 

 One of the essential conditions of man's social and 

 intellectual progress, imposed upon him by the very 

 necessities of his being, was, the utter and complete 

 extinction of a great portion of animated life. This was 

 one of the first and onerous duties he had to perform, 

 the primary obstacle which he had to remove from his 

 path of progression. The general argument on this point 

 is carried out by some writers with great ingenuity 

 and dexterity. Indeed, any reader, to whom abstract 

 speculations of any kind are in some degree familiar, 

 will readily perceive that the subject opens up a wide 



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