OV NATURAL HISTORY. 393 



extended to the greateft poffible degree. In this viev/, Nature, in- 

 ftead of being cruel and oppreffive, is highly generous and benefi- 

 cent. 



To diminifh the number of noxious animals, and to augment that 

 of ufeful vegetables, has been the uniform fcope of human induftry. 

 A few fpecies of animals only are of immediate utility to man. Thefe 

 he either cultivates with care, or hunts for his prey. The ox, the 

 flieep, the goat, and other animals which are under his peculiar pro- 

 tedion, he daily ufes for food. This is not cruelty. He has a right 

 to eat them : For, like Nature, though he occafionally deftroys do- 

 meftic animals, a timid and docile race of beings, by his culture and 

 proteftion he gives life and happinefs to millions, which, without 

 his aid, could have no exiftence. The number of individuals, among 

 animals of this defcription, if they were not cherifhed and defended 

 by man, would be extremely limited ; for, by the mildnefs of their 

 difpofitions, the comparative weaknefs of their arms, and the uni- 

 verfal and ftrong appetite for them by rapacious quadrupeds and 

 birds of prey, though the fpecies might, perhaps, be continued, the 

 number of individuals would, of neceffity, be very fmall. 



There is a wonderful balance in the fyftem of animal deftrudion. 

 If the general profufion of the animated produdtions of Nature had 

 no other check than the various periods to which their lives, whea 

 not extinguifhed by hoftilities of one kind or another, are limited, 

 the whole would foon be annihilated by an univerfal famine, and 

 the earth, inftead of every where teeming with animals, would, un- 

 lefs re-peopled by a- new creation, exhibit nothing but a mutp, a 

 lifelefs, and an inaflive fcene. If. even a fingle fpecies were permits 

 ted to multiply without difturbance, the food of other fpecies would 

 be exhaufted, and, of courfe, a period would be put to their ex- 

 iftence. The herbivorous and frugivorous races, if not leftralned by 

 t 3D the 



