382 T H E p. H I L O S O P H Y 



fpring, after they have become rivals, to approach the places which 

 the parents frequent. But all thofe birds, and all thofe quadrupeds, 

 vsrhich are nourifhed by the produdions of the earth, live in fami- 

 lies, are fond of fociety, and affemble in numerous flocks, without 

 quarrelling or difturbing one another. 



Both the earth and the air furnifh examples of rapacious animals. 

 In thefe elements, however, the number of carnivorous animals is 

 comparatively fmall. But every inhabitant of the ivaters depends 

 for its exiftence upon rapine and deftrudion. The life of every fijh, 

 from the fmalleft to the greateft, is one continued fcene of hoftility, 

 violence, and evafion. Their appetite for food is almoft infatiable. 

 It impels them to encounter every danger. They are in continual 

 motion ; and the objedl of all their movements is to devour other 

 fifhes, or to avoid their own deftrudion. Their defire for food is 

 fo keen and undiftinguifhing, that they greedily fwallow every thing 

 which has the appearance of animation. Thofe that have fmall 

 mouths feed upon worms and the fpawn of other fiflies ; and thofe 

 whofe mouths are larger devour every animal, their own fpecies not 

 excepted, that can pafs through their gullet. To avoid deftrudion, 

 the fmaller fry retire to the ftiallows, where the larger kinds are un- 

 able to purfue them. But, in the watery element, no fituation is 

 abfolutely fafe ; for, even in the fhallows, the oyfter, the fcallop, 

 and the mufcle, lie in ambufh at the bottom, with their fhells open, 

 and, when a fmall fifli comes into contad with them, they inftantly 

 clofe their fhells upon him, and devour at leifure their imprifoned 

 prey. Neither is the hunting or purfuit of fiflies confined to parti- 

 cular regions. Shoals of one fpecies follow, with unwearied ar- 

 dour, thofe of another through vafl trads of the ocean. The cod 

 purfues the whiting from the banks of Newfoundland to the fou- 

 thern cofls of Spain. 



It 



