100 RELATIONS OF ANIMALS 
With respect to the animal kingdom, we 
acknowledge with gratitude, that among the 
higher classes, there is a certain number of 
living species, which are mdispensable to the 
supply of human food and raiment, and to the 
aid of civilized man in his various labours and 
occupations; and that these are endowed with 
dispositions and faculties which adapt them in 
a peculiar degree for domestication :* but their 
number bears an extremely small proportion to 
the total amount of existing species ; and with 
regard to the lower classes of animals, there are 
but very few among their almost countless multi- 
tudes, that minister either to the wants or luxuries 
Nevertheless, we may so far acknowledge all things made for 
man as that his uses are regarded conjointly with those of other 
creatures, and that he has an interest in every thing reaching his 
notice, and contributing either to the support of his body, the 
improvement or entertainment of his mind. The satellites that 
turn the night of Jupiter into day, assist him in ascertaining the 
longitude, and measuring the velocity of light: the mighty sun, 
that like a giant holds the planets and comets in their orbits, 
enlightens him with its splendour, and cherishes him with its 
warmth: the distant stars, whose attraction probably confines 
other planets within their vortices, direct his course over the 
boundless sea, and the inhospitable desert."- — Tucker's Light of 
Nature, book iii. chap. ix. p. 9. 
See an excellent note on prospective provisions, to afford ma- 
terials for human arts, and having reference to the future disco- 
veries of human sciences, in Rev. W. D. Conybeare's Inaugural 
Address to Bristol College, 1831. 
* See LyelTs Principles of Geology, 3rd edit. vol. ii. book 3, 
c. 3. 
