fested with lions, tigers, panthers, ounceës, leopards, jaguards, couguars, lynxes, wild cats, chacalls, wolves, hyaenas, foxes, polecats, martins, ferrets, ermines, gluttons, bats, &c. Though all these, and many other tribes of quadrupeds, live folely upon blood and carnage, yet fome of them, as the tiger, the wolf, the hyaena, and many other inferior fpecies are much more rapacious and deftructive. The lion, though furrounded with prey, kils no more than he is able to confume but the tiger is grofsly ferocious, and cruel without necesfity. Though fatiateëd with carnage, he perpetually thirfts for blood. He facrificees whole flocks of domestick animals, and all the wild beafts which come within the reach of his terrible claws. His predominant instinct is a perpetual rage, a blind and undistinguishing ferocity, which often impel him to devour his own young, and to tear their mother in pieceës, when the attempts to defend them. He tears the body for no other purpose than to plunge his head into it, and to drink large draughts of blood."* Smellies Pbilofopby of natural bistory, i, 375, &c. Though this fanguinary and ferocious monfter must be admited within the pale of nature, is it possible to conceive the necessity of its existence ? All these carnivorous and rapacious monsters are apt and eager to devour a inan whenever he comes within the reach. "The wolf, whofe usual and natural food is every liveing creature, when his hunger is extreme, lofeës all idea of fear, attacks women and children, and fometimes men. Wolves are even fond of human flesh. They have been known to follow armys, to come in troops to the field of battle, where bodys are carelessly inter'd, to tear them up, and devour them with an infatiable avidity; and, when once accustom'd to human flesh, they ever after attack men, prefer the fhepherd to the flock, devour women and carry off children."* "All birds of prey exhibit an obduracy and a ferociousness of dispofition, while the other kinds [upon which they prey] are mild, cheerful, and gentle, in their aspect and manners."+ "Every inhabitant of the waters depends for its existence upon rapine and deftruction. The life of every fish, from the smallest to the greatest, is one continue'd scene of hostility, violence and * Ibi. i. 380. †The flying fish which is provideëd with wings, to enable it to evade its marine perfecutors, the shark and albicore, upon its takeing to flight, is immediately asfail'd and devour'd by its aërial enemys, the pelican and albatrofs. evafion.... Even the oyster, the fcallop, and the muscle, lye in ambush, with their fhels open, and, when a small fifh comes in contact with them, instantly close their shels upon it, and devour at leisure their imprison'd prey....Shoals of one species of fish follow, with unweary'd ardour, those of another, through vast tracts of the ocean. The cod purfues the whiteing from the banks of Newfoundland to the fouthern coasts of Spain. Man is not the onely animal that makes war with his own fpecies. Quadrupeds, birds, fishes, infects, independently of their appetite for food, occafionally fight and kil each other."+ "The noxious multiplication of fhel-fishes, which are extremely prolifick, is check'd by numberlefs enemys. The animals call'd trochi fix themselves upon an oyster or a muscle, bore through the fhel with their trunk, and devour their prey at leisure. In this cruel occupation the trochus often continues for days, and even weeks, before the life of the animal attack'd is fully extinguifh'd." A fufficient proof there is neither benevolence nor intention in nature. Every animal, man, beast, fish, fowl, appears to be infefted by one or more fpecies of lice: not * Ibi. 382. + Ili. 383. ‡ Ibi. 396. less than three being natural and peculiar to man. He is indeed, occafionally, fubject to a disease call'd the morbus pediculofus, in which he is deyour'd by lice: of which there have been many inftanceës.In most if not all hot countrys, man is perpetually tormented by and the prey of divers infects, which render his existence miferable and precarious; the mosquitos, for instance, gnats, chigers, ants, and numberless others, equally fanguinary, poisonous, and malignant; without their helpless prey being able to protect himself either by night or day, bed or board: their ftings and bites, in numerous cafeës, being deadly, excruciateing and incurable; and defign'd, by nature, for the perpetual plague, torment, mifery and deftruction of the image of god. From worms, likewise, no human being is, probablely, exempt, either alive or dead; which infeft and prove fatal to half the children born, fweeping them off the ftage of life at an early and immature period, in a proportion beyond that of any other fpecies. The dog is the natural enemy to the cat, the cat to the rat and mouse, the hound to the hare, the pointer to the partridge, the fox to the goofe, the ferret to the rabbit, the spider to the fly: the whole animal creation being a fystem for the express purpose of preying upon each other, and for their mutual misery and destruction. The number of animals, createëd, originateëd, and intended, for the fole proper use and benefit of man, as he foolishly conceives, confifts, in all probability, from the largeëft to the least, from the huge elephant to the minuteëft object of a microscope, of many millions, billions, trillions, of which, peradventure, not one fingle thousand becomes the prey of man, while many more exercife, by nature, upon this favour'd being, the lord of the creation, that right which he boasts to have receive'd froin his god, and torment and devour him, without ceremony. For man to have a just and perfpicuous idea of the bountys of nature, he fhould vifit hospitals, and not churches. Of thefe bountys we are fupply'd by the divine Milton with an ample and fhocking catalogue, as exhibited to Adam by the favourite archangel of the allmighty power, foon after the creation; to convince him of the hapyness provideëd for himself and his posterity, which was to replenish the world. "Immediately a place Before his eyes appear'd, fad, noisom, dark, |