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population is without some suited agent to check the evil. 
And the destroyers again are fitted in exactest adaptation to 
their work of limitation. If the horned snake of Egypt is 
fitted to hide himself amongst the sands of the desert, or from 
beneath his stony lair, “biteth the horses 5 heels, causing his 
rider to fall backward / 5 on the other hand, the python serpent 
suspending himself amid the giant primitive forests of the 
islands of the East, resembling the branch of some harmless 
vine, thence springs upon the passing herd, and dispenses 
death unlooked for, but not the less sure. 
Or if the gentle eye and elegant length of neck of the 
camelopard be suited to discern the foliage and take his 
pasture amid the branching forests of Southern Africa, and if 
his mottled form be so assimilated in colour to the aged and 
parti -coloured acacia as not to be easily distinguished — amidst 
all these beneficent provisions for his preservation, are there 
none for his destruction ? Yes ! the spring must be sought to 
quench his thirst at eventide, and there the gaunt destroyer, 
the king of beasts, with all appliances and aids for slaughter, 
shall drink his blood. 
“The king of beasts , 55 as we call him now, but what a 
diminutive creature compared to the destroyers of the primi- 
tive world, long ages before man trod upon its surface ! I 
will not cite as an example the Saurian race, for the aspect of 
that age is too appalling, and man was certainly absent from 
the scene ; but ask you to look upon the great cat of the 
caverns, and all the others with whose bones we are familiar; 
and who must have been ordained to limit the numbers of the 
quiet and peaceable behemah, or beasts of the field, lest these 
should overpopulate the earth. 
We need not go so far for illustration, as the whole feline 
race are by nature formed especially as destroyers, and, let me 
remark, are some of the most perfect creatures in bone and 
limb of all the handiwork of God. Moreover, their fierce 
delight in destruction, and even, as in the common cat, in 
prolonging the tortures of their victim, results from their 
organization. If we look again at another familiar race of 
creatures, the spiders, we find marvellous display of the 
manifold wisdom of God in these really beautiful animals, 
whose diversified habits of ensnaring and cunningly captivating 
their victims are so well known.* 
* “ Ainsi l’araignee, qui tisse sa toile et secrete un fil que nous ne 
saurions fabriquer avec toute notre science, est a elle seule une merveille de 
