88 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



same system, and reflecting on its necessary existence among 

 the inhabitants of the deep. The sea does not, like the land, 

 afford a profusion of vegetable food for the support of animal 

 life, and consequently, without some other supply, the immense re- 

 gions of water must have remained uninhabited, and have present- 

 ed nothing more than one vast extent of inanimate matter. This 

 immense vacuum in the system of animated nature, infinite wis- 

 dom and goodness has prevented, by ordaining that the natives 

 of the deep should support one another's existence in a situation 

 which produces no other aliment. Here we plainly perceive 

 the wonderful economy of Nature, and how justly Creative Wis- 

 dom has balanced circumstances, and provided against all pos- 

 sible consequences. 



The greatest part of quadrupeds and volatiles are supported 

 by those vegetable aliments which the earth abundantly pro- 

 duces : the rest prey upon those which might multiply so as to 

 become a nuisance ; and the fecundity of each species is, with 

 an admirable justness and calculation, proportioned to its ex- 

 posure to destruction. Among the finny inhabitants of the 

 ocean, this system, which seems so mysterious among land ani- 

 mals, appears far more luminous, far more easy to comprehend, 

 and perfectly reconcileable with the beneficence of the Universal 

 Parent. Fishes, being destitute of those resources which quad- 

 rupeds and volatiles possess, have no other means of subsistence 

 than that of devouring one another, and consequently are all 

 predaceous : the larger devour the smaller, and the smallest of 

 all support themselves by the spawn which the others produce. 

 For the supply of this continual demand, Nature has rendered 

 the finny tribes extremely prolific, so that among them propaga- 

 tion and destruction keep as nearly as possible an equal pace, 

 and counterbalance each other. 



By this wonderful arrangement, which, on strict examination, 

 will appear both wise and beneficent, myriads of creatures which 

 could not otherwise have had a place in the scale of existence, 

 enjoy for a season their portion of life with a degree of happi- 

 ness suited to their faculties, and then serve for the support of 

 otheis; and in this manner the blessing of existence is perpetu- 

 ated in the deep recesses of the ocean, which, without this wise 

 regulation, must have afforded no means of subsistence to any 

 kind of living inhabitants. Thus, a disposition which seems, on 

 a superficial view, incompatible with our confined ideas of the 

 goodness of the Author of Nature, appears, after a more accu- 

 rate examination, to be nothing less than a grand display of his 

 infinite wisdom and extensive beneficence. 



The senses of fishes are very imperfect, when compared with 

 those of the generality of land animals ; and, indeed, that of 



