afterwards he said (when he learnt to speak anew) was because he thought those were the foldiers he had hidden himself to avoid, when he firft betook himself to the wood, and were always living in his fancy, through his fears continually bringing them thither.' This man, within a little while after he came to good keeping and full feeding, quite loft that acuteness of fmelling which formerly governed him in his tafte, and grew to be in that particular as other ordinary men were. But, at his firft living with other people, a woman that had compaffion of him, to see a man fo near like a beaft, and that had no language to call for what he wished or needed to have, took particular care of him, and was always very follicitous to fee him furnished with what he wanted; which made him fo apply himself unto her in all his exigencies, that, whenfoever he stood in need of aught, if she were out of the way and were gone abroad into the fields, he would hunt her out prefently by his fcent, in fuch fort as thofe dogs use to do that are taught to draw dry foot.' • Of another man I can speak affuredly myfelf, who, being of a very temperate or rather fpare diet, could likewife perfectly difcern by his fmell the qualities of whatfoever was afterwards to país the examina. tion of his tafte, even to his bread and beer. Wherefore to conclude, it is evident both by reason and by experience, that the objects of our touch, our tate, and our smell, are material and corporeal things, derived from the divifion of quantity into more rare and more denfe parts, and may with ease be refolved into their heads and springs, sufficiently to content any judicious and rational man.' A DISSERTATION on Propagation, Prefervation, and Deftruction in the Animal Kingdom. HE generation of animals holds the raife our admiration, when we confider the works of the Creator; and chiefly that appointment, by which he has regulated the conception of the foetus, and its exclufion, that it fhould be adapted to the difpofition and way of living of each animal, is moft worthy of our attention. We find no fpecies of animals exempt from the ftings of love, which is put into them to the end that the Creator's mandate may be executed, Increase and multiply; and that thus the egg, in which is contained the rudiment of the foetus, may be fœcundated; for without foecundation all eggs are unfit to produce an offspring. Foxes and wolves, ftruck with thefe ftings, every-where howl in the woods; crowds of dogs follow the female; bulls fhew a terrible countenance, and very different from that of oxen; ftags every year have new horns, which they lofe after ratting-time; birds look more beautiful than ordinary, and warble all day long through lafcivious nefs. Thus fmall birds labour to outfing one another, and cocks to outcrow; peacocks fpread forth again their gay and glorious trains; fishes gather together, and exult in the water; and grafhoppers chirp and pipe, as it were, amongst the herbs: The ants gather again into colonies, and repair to their citadels. I pafs over many other particulars, which this fubject affords, to avoid prolixity. The foecundated egg requires a certain and proportionate degree of heat for the ex panfion of the ftamina of the embryo: That different manners; and therefore we find, in different claffes of animals, a different way of excluding the foetus. The females of quadrupeds have an uterus, contrived for eafy gestation, temperate and cherishing warmth, and proper nou rishment of the foetus, as most of them live upon the earth, and are there fed. Birds, in order to get fubfiftence, and for other reasons, are under a neceffity of fhifting place, and that not upon their feet, but wings; geftation therefore would be burthenfome to them: For this reason they lay eggs, covered with a hard shell; these they fit upon, by a natural inftinct, and cherish till the young one comes forth. The oftrich and cassowary are almost the only birds that do not obferve this law; thefe commit their eggs to the fand, where the intenfe heat of the fun excludes the foetus. Fishes inhabit cold waters, and most of them have cold blood; whence it happens that they have not heat fufficient to produce the foetus. The all-wife Creator therefore has ordained that most of them should lay their eggs upon the fhore, where, by means of the folar rays, the water is warmer, and alfo fitter for that purpose; because it is there lefs impregnated with falt, and consequently milder; and also because water-infects abound more there, which afford the young fry nourishment. Salmons in the like manner, when they are about to lay their eggs, are led by in ftinct to go up the ftream, where the water is fresh and more pure. The butterfly fish is an exception, for that brings forth its foetus alive. The fishes of the ocean,' which cannot reach the shores by reason of the distance, are alfo exempt from this law. The Author of nature has given to this kind eggs that swim; so that they are hatched amidst the fwimming fucus, called fargazo. The cetaceous fish have warm blood, and therefore they bring forth their young alive, and fuckle them with their teats. Many amphibious animals bring forth live fœtufes, as the viper and the toad, &c. But the species that lay eggs, lay them in places where the heat of the fun fupplies the warmth of the parent. Thus the rest of the frog kind, and the lizard kind, lay their eggs in warm waters; the common fnake in dunghills, and fuchlike warm places, and give them up to Nature, as a provident nurse, to take care of them. The crocodile and fea tortoises go afhore to lay their eggs under the fand, where the heat of the fun hatches them. Moft of the infect kind neither bear young nor hatch eggs, yet their tribes are the most numerous of all living creatures; infomuch that, if the bulk of their bodies was proportionate to their quantity, they would fcarce leave room for any other kinds of animals. Let us fee therefore with what wisdom the Creator has managed about the propagation of these minute creatures: The females by natural instinct meet and copulate with the males, and afterwards lay their eggs, but not indifcriminately in every place; for they all know how to chufe fuch places as may fupply their offspring in its tender age with nourishment, and other things neceffary to fatisfy their natural wants; for the mother, foon after fhe has laid her eggs, dies, and, were the to live, she would not have it in her power to take care of her young. Almost all the eggs of infects, when laid, are ordained to undergo, by a wonderful law of Nature, various metamorphofes; for example, the egg of the butterfly, being laid in the cabbage, first of all becomes a caterpillar, that feeds upon grafs, crawls, and has fixteen feet; this afterwards changes into a nymph, that has no feet, is smooth, and eats nothing; and, laftly, this burfts into a butterfly, that flies, has variety of colours, is rough, and lives upon honey. What can be more worthy of admiration, than that one and the fame animal should appear on the ftage of life under fo many characters, as if it were three diftin&t animals ? The laws of generation of worms are ftill very obfcure, as we find they are sometimes produced by eggs, fometimes by offsets, juft in the fame manner as happens to trees.. It has been obferved with the greatest admiration, that the polypus, or hydra, lets down shoots and live branches, by which it is multiplied; nay more, if it be cut into many parts, each segment, put into the water, grows into a perfect animal; fo that the parts which were torn off are restored from one scrap. The multiplication of animals is not tied down to the fame rules in all; for fome have a remarkable power of propagating, others are confined within narrower limits in this refpect; yet, in general, we find that Nature obferves this order, that the leaft animals, and those which are useful, and ferve for nourishment to the greatest number of other animals, are endued with a greater power of propagating than others. Prefervation follows generation; this appears chiefly in the tender age, while the young are unable to provide for their own fupport; for then the parents, though otherwife ever fo fierce in their difpofition, are affected with a wonderful tenderness or sense of love towards their progeny, and spare no pains to provide for, guard, and preferve them, and that not by an imaginary law, but one given by the Lord of nature himfelf. Quadrupeds give fuck to their tender young, and fupport them by a liquor per fectly eafy of digeftion, till their stomachs are able to digeft, and their teeth are fit to chew more folid food; nay their love towards them is fo great, that they endeavour to repel, with the utmoft force, every thing which threatens danger or destruction to them. The ewe which brings forth two lambs at a time, will not admit one to her teats, unless the other be prefent, and fuck alfo; left one should famiẞ while the other grows fat. Birds build their nefts in the most artificial manner, and line them as foft as poffible, for fear the eggs fhould get any damage; nor do they build promifcuously in any place, but there only where they may quietly lie concealed, and be fafe from the attacks of their enemies. Amphibious animals, fishes, and infects, which cannot come under the care of their parents, yet owe this to them, that they are put in places where they eafily find nourifhment, as we have obferved. As foon as animals come to maturity, and want no longer the care of their parents, they attend with the utmost labour and industry, according to the law and oeconomy appointed for every fpecies, to the preservation of their Gg lives lives; but that fo great a number of them, which occur every-where, may be fupport ed, and a certain and fixed order may be kept up amongst them, behold the wonderful difpofition of the Creator, in affigning to each fpecies certain kinds of food, and in putting limits to their appetites; fo that fome live on particular species of plants, which particular regions and foils only produce; fome on particular animalcula, others on carcafes, and fome even on mud and dung. For this reafon Providence has ordained, that fome fhould fwim in certain regions of the watery element, others fhould fly; some should inhabit the torrid, the frigid, or the temperate zones; and others fhould frequent defarts, mountains, woods, pools, or meadows, according as the food proper to their nature is found in fufficient quantity. By this means there is no terreftrial tract, no fea, no river, no country, but what contains and nourishes various kinds of animals. Hence alfo an animal of one kind cannot rob thofe of another kind of its aliment; which, if it happened, would endanger their lives or health. And thus the world at all times affords nourishment to fo many and so large inhabitants, at the fame time that nothing which it produces is useless or superfluous! We cannot without the utmost admiration behold how providently the Creator has acted as to the prefervation of thofe animals, which at a certain time of the year are, by the rigour of the season, excluded from the neceffaries of life. Thus the bear in the autumn creeps into the mofs which he has gathered, and there lies all the winter, fubfifting upon no other nourishment but his fat, collected during the fummer in the cellulous membrane, and which without doubt, during his faft, circulates through his veffels, and fupplies the place of food; to which perhaps is added that fat juice which he fucks out of the bottom of his feet. The hedge-hog, badger, and mole, in the fame manner fill their winter-quarters with vegetables, and sleep during the frofts. The bat feems cold and quite dead all the winter. Moft of the amphibious animals get into dens, or to the bottom of lakes and pools. In the autumn,, as the cold approaches and infects disappear, fwallows feek for an afylum against the violence of the cold in the bottom of lakes, amongst the reeds and rushes; from whence, by the wonderful appointment of Nature, they come forth again. The periftaltic motion of the bowels ceafes in all these animals while they are obliged to faft, whence the appetite is diminished, and fo they fuffer lefs from hunger. To this head may be referred the observation of the celebrated Lifter concerning those animals, that their blood, when let into a bafon, does not coagulate, as that of all other animals, and fo is no lefs fit for circulation than before. The moor-fowls work themselves out walks under the very fnow: They moult in the fummer, fo that about the month of August they cannot fly, and are therefore obliged to run into the woods; but then the moor-berries and bilberries are ripe, from whence they are abundantly supplied with food; whereas the young do not moult the first summer, and therefore, though they cannot run so well, are able to escape danger by flight. The reft of the birds who feed upon infects migrate every year to foreign regions, in order to feek for food in a milder climate; while all the northern parts, where they live well in the fummer, are covered with fnow. Infects in the winter generally lie hid within their cafes, and are nourished by the furrounding liquor, like the foetus of other animals, from whence at the approach of spring they awake, and fly forth, to the aftonishment of every one. However, all animals which lie hid in winter do not observe these laws of fafting; fome provide storehoufes in fummer and autumn, from which they take what is neceffary, as mice, jays, fquirrels, bees. We have obferved above, that all animals do not live upon vegetables, but that there are fome which feed upon certain animalcula; nay there are fome which fubfift only by rapine, and daily destroy numbers of the peaceable kind. These animals are destroyed, but in such a manner that the weaker generally are infefted by the stronger in a continued feries: Thus the tree-loufe lives upon plants; the fly called mufca aphidivora lives upon the tree-loufe; the hornet and wafp-fly upon the mufca aphidivora; the dragon-fly upon the hornet and wasp-fly; the spider on the dragon-fly; the fmall birds on the fpider; and, lastly, the hawk kind on the small birds. In like manner, the monoculus delights in putrid waters; the gnat eats the monoculus, the frog eats the gnat, the pike eats the frog, the fea-calf eats the pike. The bat and goat-fucker make their excurfions only at night, that they may catch the moths, which at that time fly about in vaft quantities. The wood-pecker pulls out the insects which lie hid in the trunks of trees. The fwallow purfues those which fly about in the open air. The mole pursues worms; the large fishes devour the fmall; nay, we fcarcely know an animal which has not fome enemy to contend with. Amongft quadrupeds, wild beafts are moft remarkably pernicious and dangerous to others, as the hawk kind among birds; but, that they may not, by too atrocious a butchery, deftroy whole fpecies, even these are circumfcribed within certain bounds. First, as to the moft fierce of all, it deferves to be noted how few they are, in proportion to other animals. Secondly, the number of them is not equal in all countries: Thus France and England breed no wolves, and the northern countries no tigers or lions. Thirdly, these fierce animals fometimes fall upon and destroy one another: Thus the wolf devours the fox; the dog infefts both the wolf and fox; nay, wolves, in a body, will fometimes venture to furround a bear. The tiger often kills its own male whelps; dogs are fometimes feized with madness and deftroy their fellows, or with the mange deftroy them felves. Laftly, wild beafts feldom arrive at fo great an age as animals which live on vegetables; for they are fubject, from their alcaline diet, to various diseases, which bring them fooner to an end. But, although all animals are infested by their peculiar enemies, yet they are often able to elude their violence by ftratagems and force: Thus the hare often confounds the dog by her windings. When the bear attacks fheep and cattle, they draw up together for mutual defence; horfes join heads together, and fight with their heels; oxen join tails, and fight with their horns. Swine get together in herds, and boldly oppose themselves to any attack, fo that they are not cafily overcome; and it is worth while to obferve, that all of them place their young, as less able to defend themselves, in the middie, that they may remain fafe during the battle. Birds, by their different ways of flying, oftentimes escape the hawk: If the pigeon had the fame way of flying as the hawk, fhe would hardly ever efcape his claws. It deferves alfo to be remarked, how much fome animals confult their fafety by night: When horfes fleep in woods, one by turn remains awake, and, as it were, keeps watch, When monkies, in Brafil, Reep upon trees, one of them keeps awake, in order to give the fign, when the tiger creeps towards them; and, in cafe the guard should be caught asleep, the reft tear him to pieces. Hence the hunting of rapacious animals is not always fuccessful, and they are often obliged to labour for a whole day to no purpose. For this reason, the Creator has given them fuch a nature, that they can bear fafting a long time. Thus the lion lurks in his den many days, without famishing; and the wolf, when he has once well fatisfied his hunger, can faft many weeks, without any difficulty. There are fome viviparous flies, which bring forth 2000 young; thefe in a little time would fill the air, and, like clouds, intercept the rays of the fun, unless they were devoured by birds, fpiders, and many other animals. Storks and falcons free Egypt from frogs, which, after the inundation of the Nile, cover all the country. The fame birds alfo clear Palestine of mice. The whole earth would be overwhelmed with carcafes and ftinking bodies, if fome animals did not delight to feed upon them; therefore, when an animal dies, bears, wolves, foxes, ravens, &c. do not lofe a moment, till they have taken all away. But if a horfe, e. g. dies near the public road, you will find him, after a few days, fwoln, burft, and at last filled with innume rable grubs, or carnivorous flies, by which he is intirely confumed, and removed out of the way, that he may not become a nuifance to paffengers by his poisonous stench. When the carcafes of fishes are driven upon the fhore, the voracious kinds, fuch as the thorn-back, the hound fish, the conger eel, &c. gather about and eat them. But, because the flux and reflux foon change the ftate of the fea, they themselves are often detained in pits, and become a prey to the wild beasts that frequent the fhores. Thus the earth is not only kept clean from the putrefaction of carcafes, but at the fame time, by the oeconomy of Nature, the neceffaries of life are provided for many animals. In the like manner, many infects at once promote their own good and that of other animals. Thus gnats lay their eggs in ftagnant, putrid, and tinking waters; and the grubs, that arife from thefe eggs, clear away all the putrefaction: And this will eafily appear, if any one will make the experiment, by filling two veffels with putrid water, leaving the grubs in one, and taking them all out of the other; for then he will foon find the water, that is full of grubs, pure and without any stench, while Gg 2 the the water that has no grubs will continue ftinking. Lice increase in a wonderful manner in the heads of children that are scabby; nor are they without their ufe, for they confume the redundant humours. The beetle kind, in fummer, extract all moift and glutinous matter out of the dung of cattle, fo that it becomes like duft, and is fpread by the wind over the ground. Were it not for this, the vegetables, that lie under the dung, would be fo far from thriving, that all that fpot would be rendered barren. As the excrements of dogs are of fo filthy and feptic a nature, that no infect will touch them, and therefore they cannot be difperfed by that means, care is taken that these animals fhould exonerate upon ftones, trunks of trees, or fome high place, that vegetables may not be hurt by them. Cats bury their dung. Nothing is fo mean, nothing fo little, in which the wonderful order, and wife difpofition of Nature does not shine forth. Laftly, all thefe treasures of Nature, fo artfully contrived, fo wonderfully propa gated, fo providentially fupported, throughout her three kingdoms, feem intended by the Creator for the fake of man. Every thing may be made fubfervient to his ufe, if not immediately, yet mediately; not fo to that of other animals. By the help of reafon man tames the fierceft animals, purfues and catches the fwifteft; nay, he is able to reach even those which lie hid in the bottom of the sea. By the help of reafon he increases the number of vegetables immenfely, and does that by art, which Nature, left to herself, could fcarcely effect. By ingenuity he obtains, from vegetables, whatever is convenient or neceffary for food, drink, cloathing, medicine, navigation, and a thousand other purposes. He has found the means of going down into the abyss of the earth, and almoft fearching its very bowels. With what artifice has he learned to get fragments from the most rocky mountains, to make the hardeft ftones fluid like water; to feparate the useful metal from the useless drofs, and to turn the finest fand to fome ufe! In fhort, when we follow the series of created things, and confider how providentially one is made for the fake of another, the matter comes to this, that all things are made for the fake of man; and for this end more efpecially, that he, by admiring the works of the Creator, fhould extol his glory, and at once enjoy all thofe things, of which he ftands in need, in order to pass his life conveniently and pleasantly. Moft cer tainly, if we were to improve and polish our minds by the knowledge of these things, we should, befides the great use which would accrue to cur ceconomy, difcover the more excellent economy of Nature, and more strongly admire How wond'rous is this fcene! where all is form'd With number, weight, and measure! all defign'd For fome great end! where not alone the plant Of ftately growth; the herb of glorious hue, Or food-full fubftance; not the labouring fteed, The herd and flock that feed us; not the Their kindly influence; not these alone, Which strike ev'n eyes incurious, but each mofs, Each fhell, each crawling infect holds a rank Important in the plan of Him who fram'd This fcale of beings; holds a rank, which, loft, Would break the chain, and leave behind a gap Which Nature's felf would rue. Almighty Being, Cause and support of all things, can I view Thefe objects of my wonder; can I feel Thefe fine fenfations, and not think of thee? Thou who doft thro' th'eternal round of time, Doft thro' th' immenfity of space exift Not to know thee, is not to know our felves |