120 (ECONOMY 
54 frogs are generated in fuch numbers there,, 
“ that did not the forks devour them, they 
“ would over-run every thing. Befides they 
cc alfo catch, and eat ferpents. Between Belba, 
“ and Gaza the fields of Paleftine are often 
u defert on account of the abundance of mice , 
46 and rats ; and were they not deflroyed by the 
falcons , that come here, by inftindt, the in- 
46 habitants could have no harveft. 
The white fox S. N. 8. 7. is of equal advantage 
in the Lapland alps ; as he deftroys the Norway 
rats , F. N. 26. which are generated there in great 
abundance ; and thus hinders them from in- 
creafing too much in proportion, which would 
be the deftrudtion of vegetables. 
It is fufficient for us, that nothing is made 
by Providence in vain, and that whatever is 
made, is made with fupreme wifdom. For it 
does not become us to pry too boldly into all the 
defigns of God. Let us not imagine, when 
thefe rapacious animals fometimes do us mif- 
chief, that the Creator planned the order of na- 
ture according to our private principles of eeco- 
nomy ; for the Laplanders have one way of 
living*, the European hufbandman another; 
the Flottentots and favages a third, whereas 
the ftupendous oeconomy of the Deity is one 
through- 
