264 
THE GOODNESS OF THE DEITY. 
the shepherd, and yield their station to herds and flocks. In 
what concerns the human species, it may be a part of the 
scheme of Providence, that the earth should be inhabited 
by a shifting, or perhaps a circulating population. In this 
economy, it is possible that there may be the following ad¬ 
vantages: When old countries are become exceedingly 
corrupt, simpler modes of life, purer morals, and better in¬ 
stitutions, may rise up in new ones, whilst fresh soils reward 
the cultivator with more plentiful returns. Thus the differ¬ 
ent portions of the globe come into use in succession as 
the residence of man; and, in his absence, entertain 
other guests, which, by their sudden multiplication, fill the 
chasm. In domesticated animals, we find the effect of their 
fecundity to be, that we can always command numbers; 
we can always have as many of any particular species as 
w r e please, or as we can support. Nor do we complain of 
its excess; it being much more easy to regulate abundance, 
than to supply scarcity. 
But then this superfecundity, though of great occasional 
use and importance, exceeds the ordinary capacity of nature 
to receive or support its progeny. All superabundance 
supposes destruction, or must destroy itself. Perhaps there 
is no species of terrestrial animals whatever, which would 
not overrun the earth, if it were permitted to multiply in 
perfect safety; or of fish, which would not fill the ocean: at 
least, if any single species were left to their natural increase 
without disturbance or restraint, the food of other species 
would be exhausted by their maintenance. It is necessary, 
therefore, that the effects of such prolific faculties be cur¬ 
tailed. In conjunction with other checks andTimits, all sub¬ 
servient to the same purpose, are the thinnings which take 
place among animals, by their action upon one another. In 
some instances we ourselves experience, very directly, the 
use of these hostilities. One species of insects rids us of 
another species; or reduces their ranks. A third species, 
perhaps, keeps the second within bounds; and birds or liz¬ 
ards are a fence against the inordinate increase by which 
even these last might infest us. In other more numerous, 
and possibly more important instances, this disposition of 
things, although less necessary or useful to us, and of course 
less obsei ved by us, may be necessary and useful to certain 
other species; or even for the preventing of the loss of cer¬ 
tain species from the universe: a misfortune which seems 
to be studiously guarded against. Though there may be 
the appearance of failure in some of the details of Nature’s 
