138 ON ZOOLOGY. 



those animals that we take immediately under 

 our protection, whether for utility, or as domestic 

 companions ; and if it be requisite that their 

 lives be sacrificed to our use, to take care that 

 so violent an expedient never be wantonly exer- 

 cised, and that it be executed in the speediest 

 and most merciful manner that human ingenuity 

 can suggest. 



In taking this general view of the animal king- 

 dom, we cannot but be struck with the utility the 

 greater proportion of it has been made to confer 

 upon the human species, and how comprehensive- 

 ly the particular existence and enjoyment of 

 each individual, has been brought within the 

 scale of Providence. 



In every part of the world where man has fixed 

 his residence, we find those animals most neces- 

 sary to his support and accommodation, accom- 

 panying his progress, multiplying in proportion 

 to his wants, and their quality adapted to the cli- 

 mate under which he lives. Thus, in tropical 

 countries where a vegetable diet is better calcu- 

 lated for his constitution than a large proportion 

 of animal food, we find vegetables and fruits in 

 their highest perfection, abounding to a most 

 luxurious degree ; while the domestic animals 

 are small in stature, and affording a diet less 

 stimulating than in northerly countries, in which, 

 from the increased tone of the digestive organs, 

 and from the more active occupations of the 



