DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERS Of ANIMALS. 181 



SO rapidly and dexterously will they destroy, in less bodies, food, furniture, 

 books, clothes, and timber of whatever magnitude, leaving in every instance 

 the merest thin surface, that a large beam will in a few hours be eaten to a 

 shell not thicker than a page of writing paper. 



It was my intention to have finished our survey of the Linnaean system in 

 the course of the present lecture ; but the prospect svt^ells so widely before 

 us that it is impossible ; and the remaining four classes of fishes, amphibials, 

 birds, and mammals must be reserved for another study. 



In the mean time, allow me to remark, that low and little as the tribes we 

 have thus far contemplated may appear, they all variously contribute to the 

 common good of animal being, and aid, in different ways, the harmonious cir- 

 cle of decomposition, renovation, and maturity of life, health, and enjoyment. 

 The insect tribes, beautiful as they are in their respective liveries, may be 

 regarded as the grand scavengers of nature. Wherever putridity is to be found, 

 they are present to devour the substance from which it issues ; and such is 

 the extent and rapidity of their action, that it has been calculated by some na- 

 turalists that the progeny of not more than a dozen flies will consume a dead 

 carcass in a shorter space than a hungry lion. Thus, while they people the 

 atmosphere they purify it ; and in many instances, perhaps, and by tribes 

 invisible to the naked eye, purge it of those noxious particles with which it 

 is often impregnated, and which, at certain seasons, are apt to render it pesti- 

 lential. 



The indefatigable labour of the worm-tribes in promoting the general good 

 is still more striking and manifest. The gordius or hair-worm perforates 

 clay to give a passage to springs and running water ; the lumbricus or earth- 

 worm pierces the soil that it may enjoy the benefit of air, light, and moisture ; 

 the terebella and terredo, the naked ship-worm and the shelly ship-worm, 

 penetrate dead wood, and the pliloas and mytilus, rocks, to eff'ect their disso- 

 lution ; while the termes or white ant, as we have just observed, attacks 

 almost every thing within its reach, animal, vegetable, or mineral, with equal 

 rapacity, and reduces to its elementary principles whatever has resisted the 

 assault of every other species. The same system of warfare is, indeed, pur- 

 sued among themselves ; yet it is pursued, not from hate, as among mankind, 

 but from instinct, and as the means of prolonging and extending as well as 

 of diminishing and cutting short the term of life and enjoyment. 



It has often been urged against the goodness, and sometimes against the 

 existence, of the Deity, that the different tribes of animals are, in this manner, 

 allowed to prey upon one another as their natural food, and that a large part 

 of the globe is covered with putrid swamps, or wide inhospitable forests, or 

 merely inhabited by ravenous beasts and deadly serpents. 



Presumptuous murmurers ! and what would your wisdom advise, were 

 Providence to consult you upon so glaring an error ? Would you then leave 

 every rank of animals to perish by the mere effects of old age 1 With the 

 example so often before you of the misery endured by a favourite horse or a 

 favourite dog when suffered to drain out the last dregs of existence in the 

 midst of ease he cannot enjoy, and of food he cannot partake of, — a misery 

 which often compels us," as an act of mercy, to anticipate his fate, even at 

 last, by the aid of violence, — would you abandon every animal to the same 

 wretchedness, only a hundred-fold multiplied by the horrors of want and 

 hunger, which he must, by growing every day more infirm, be every day 

 growing more incapable of appeasing 1 — Or would you cut short the evil at 

 once, by destroying death itself, and thus rendering every animal immortal ? 

 They would not thank you for such an interference, nor applaud the vain 

 benevolence that might dictate it ; an interference which, by preventing the 

 necessity for offspring, would extirpate from the animal frame its best feel- 

 ings ; which would extinguish the wise and harmonious distribution into 

 sexes ; and make an equal inroad on the pleasures of sense and the endear- 

 ments of instinct. 



It is granted, that a great part of the globe is an inhospitable wilderness ; 

 that it consists, to a considerable extent, of waste inaccessible jungle overrun 



