from unclean and putrid substances, that is not cleansed and purified by some animals that are either its constant or nomadic inhabitants. Thus life, a life attended in most cases, if not all, with some enjoyment, swarms every where-in the air, in the earth, under the earth, in the waters-there is no place in which the will of an Almighty Creator is not executed by some being that hath animal life. What Power is manifested in the organization and structure of these infinite hosts of existences! what Wisdom in their adaptation to their several functions! and what Goodness and stupendous Love in that universal action upon all these different and often discordant creatures compelling them, while they are gratifying their own appetites or passions, and following the lead of their several instincts, to promote the good of the whole system, combining into harmony almost universal discord, and out of seeming death and destruction bringing forth life and health and universal joy! He who, as an ancient writer speaks, "Contains all things,", can alone thus act upon all things, and direct them in all their ways to acknowledge him by the accomplishment of each wise and beneficent purpose of his will. Philo Judæus, in his book upon agriculture, speaking of those words. of the Psalmist, "The Lord is my shepherd, therefore can I lack nothing," has the following sublime idea, illustrative of this subject. "God, like a shepherd and king, leads, according to right and law, the earth, and the water, and the air, and the fire, and whatever plants or animals are therein, things mortal and things divine; the physical structure also of the heavens, and the circuit of the sun and moon; the revolutions and harmonious choirs of the other stars; placing over them his right Word the first born Son, who hath inherited the care of this Holy Flock, as the Viceroy of a mighty King."

1 Hermas.

2 Пept gecopy25. 152. A. Ed. Col. Aliob.

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CHAPTER III.

Functions and Instincts of Animals.

HAVING, in the last chapter, stated how the dispersion and distribution of animals, under the Divine superintendence and direction, probably took place after the Deluge; and having likewise considered those temporary changes of place, either casual or periodical, which are still in operation, I shall next endeavour to give a general sketch of the animal kingdom, its classes and larger groups, and so much of their history, habits, and instincts, as may be necessary to indicate their several functions and offices in the general plan of creation, so as to illustrate more strikingly the GOODNESS that willed, the WisDOM that planned, and the PoWER that executed the wondrous whole; so that each in its place and station, by employing the faculties and organs, with which he has gifted it, in accomplishing his will, praises, though unconsciously, its Almighty and Beneficent Creator, thus loudly calling upon man, the rational head of the creation, to take up the strain and lead the general choir.

Before I descend to particulars, I must say a few words upon the general functions of the animal kingdom. These, like Janus, have a double aspect;-on one side they affect the vegetable world, and on the other their own body.

There is a singular contrast and contrariety between the majority of animals and vegetables. The head of the animal and the root or base of the vegetable perform the same office, that of collecting and absorbing the nutriment of each. The animal derives this nutriment from organic matter, the vegeta. ble from inorganic. The plant gives oxygen to the heaven, and falling leaves and other matters to the earth. The ani mal gives nitrogen to the former, and the rejectamenta of its food to the latter. The most beautiful and admired, and odorous and elevated parts of the plant are its reproductive organs and their appendages, while in the animal they are the very reverse of this.

But, in all this, we see the wisdom and forethought of the Creator. We see how exactly, by this mutual inversion, each

The

class of beings is fitted for its station and functions. plant to take root in, invest and ornament the earth, and keep the atmosphere pure by a constant supply of vital air; the animal to browse and trim the vegetable, and by checking its luxuriance promote its welfare, to furnish it with a product calculated for its health and necessary to its existence; and by the manure, various in kind as the animals themselves, which it produces, supplying to the earth fresh pabulum for its vegetable tribes, and making good what it lost by the exhaustion, occasioned by the infinite myriads that, investing it on all sides like a garment, derive their nutriment from it, some plunging deep, and others, as it were, skimming the surface: if we contrast this with the returns they make, we shall be convinced that, in this case, the expenditure would vastly exceed the income, and that a class of beings was essentially necessary as a counterpoise, which, by taking little or nothing immediately from the soil, at the same time that they added to it, some in a greater and some in a less degree, might afford a sufficient supply of those principles which are indispensably requisite for the due nutriment and development of the various members of the vegetable kingdom, and thus maintain an equilibrium, and make good the deficiency just stated.

There is another function which is devolved upon animals, with respect to the vegetable kingdom; to keep the members of it within due limits, and to hinder them from encroaching too much upon each other. All organized beings have a natural tendency to increase and multiply; and while there is space this tendency is beneficial; but when plants or animals exceed certain limits, they stand in each other's way, and prevent all farther growth or healthy progress. The herbivorous animals, in various ways, serve as a countercheck to this tendency, and keep the vegetable tribes from encroaching too much upon each other. As I have detailed the effects of this when I spoke of the ravages of the locusts, and shall have occasion again to notice it, I shall not now enlarge farther upon it. I am next to consider another general function of animals, or the effects they produce upon their own body and here the reason just alluded to, their constant tendency to multiply so as to be injurious to each other, and also to vegetable productions, especially those that are important to man or beast, which in the present state of things is so constantly recurring, renders it necessary that some bounds should be set to their increase, which Providence effects by letting them loose against each other. The great object of the Creator is the maintenance of the whole system of creation in order and beauty, and

this he is pleased to accomplish, not always by the concord, but by the seeming discord of the agents he employs.

When we take a first view of nature we are struck by a scene which seems to be one of universal conflict, for the very heavens appear not clear from the charge: the philosopher who studies them tells us of antagonist powers, that are perpetually striving with each other, the one to absorb all things in a common centre, the other to dissever them, and scatter them in illimitable space, and when we turn to the earth, what a scene of destruction is before us! The king of the terrestrial globe, man, constantly engaged in a struggle with his fellow man, often laying waste the earth, slaughtering its inhabitants, and deforming its productions-his subjects of the animal kingdom following the example of their master, and pitilessly destroying each other-the strong oppressing the weak, and most seeming bent to annihilate the races to which they are opposed; so that, humanly speaking, in the lapse of ages, we might expect that one species of animals would be annihilated after another, till the whole were obliterated from the face of creation, and the sublime language of the prophet literally verified; "I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the air were fled."

But if, with our spirits depressed, by the prospect of so universal a scene of mutual struggles and destruction, we listen again to the philosopher, he will tell us that the ceaseless struggle of the antagonist powers of the heavens prevents, instead of causing disorder and confusion, that by the powerful and mutual counteraction of these mighty opponents, all the heavenly bodies of our system are prevented from rushing to the centre, or being driven, dispersed into their atoms, beyond the flammantia mania mundi; that thus their annual and diurnal revolutions are maintained, that each observes its appointed course, keeps its assigned station, and ministers to the good and well-being of the whole system. If then we turn our view again to the earth, and take a nearer survey of thingsif we consider the present tendency to multiply, beyond measure, of all things that have life, we shall soon be convinced that, unless this tendency was met by some check, the world of animated beings would be perpetually encroaching upon each other, and would finally perish for want of sufficient food; and that the partial evils inflicted by one individual or one class upon another, to borrow a term from the Political

Economist, proportions the demand to the supply; that thus both vegetables and animals are so accurately distributed, weighed so nicely against each other, as never to go a step beyond what God decrees, and what is most beneficial to the whole system; and that the actual number of every kind bears due relation to the work it has to do; and, upon closer inquiry, we find, that though since the creation, probably in consequence of the great change in the moral state of the world, superinducing physical changes also, some species no longer necessary may have perished, yet that, in general, they have maintained their ground from age to age, in spite of the attacks of the great army of destroyers. To maintain things in this state, thus to "order all things in measure, number, and weight," as the wise man speaks, to cause all so to harmonize, and so out of death and destruction to bring forth life, indicates still more strongly the constant and wise superintendence, and powerful arm of a watchful Providence, and demonstrates irrefragably that there is a Great Being constantly at work, either mediately or immediately, to produce effects that without his constant superintendence and intervention, could never take place. And thus, as sings the bard of Twickenham,

"All nature is but art unknown to thee,

All chance direction which thou canst not see,

All discord harmony not understood,

All partial evil, universal good.”

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