that they greedily fwallow every thing Gullet? 30. To avoid deftruction, the smaller fry fry? 31. Neither is the hunting or purfuit of fifh fhoals? es confined to particular regions. Shoals of one fpecies follow, with unwearied ardourthofe of another through vast tracts of the ocean. The cod pursues the whiting from the banks of Newfoundland to the fouthern coafts of Spain. unwearied, 33. It is a remarkable circumftance in the inoffenfive ? hiftory of animated nature, that carnivorous birds and quadrupeds are lefs proli: c than the inoffenfive and affociating kinds; but, on the fecundity 2 contrary, that the inhabitants of the waters, who are all carnivorous, are endowed with a moft aftonishing fecundity. All kinds of fifh- oviparous? es, a few only excepted, are oviparous. 33. Notwithstanding the amazing deftruc tion of their eggs by the fmaller fry that fre quents the fhores, by aquatic birds, and by the aquatic! Mackarel centuries? Spacious? fyftem. voracious? ichneumons. prodigious? caterpillars. appetite. neuters. 34. The flounder lays annually above one million,and the mackarel more than five hundred thoufand; an increafe fo great, if permitted to arrive at maturity, that the ocean itself in a few centuries, would not be spacious enough to contain its animated productions. This wonderful fertility answers two valuable purposes. In the midst of numberless enemies it continues the refpective fpecies, and furnishes to all a proper quantity of nourishment. 35. We have thus feen that man,fome quadrupeds, fome birds,and all fishes, are carnivorous animals. But this fyftem of carnage defcends ftill lower. Many of the infect tribes derive their nourishment from putrid carcafes, from the bodies of living animals, or from killing and devouring weaker fpecies. How many flies are daily facrificed by spiders, a moft voracious and a most numerous tribe of infects? 36. In return, fpiders are greedily devoured by flies which are diftinguished by the name of ichneumons. The number of thefe ichneumon flies is inconceivable; and, if it were not for the prodigious havock they make upun caterpillars and other infects, the fruits of the earth would be entirely deftroyed. SECTION 5. Some animals make war with their own fpecies. 37. Man is not the only animal that makes war with his own fpecies. Quadrupeds, birds, fifhes, infects, independently of their appetite for food, occafionally fight and kill each other. On this fubject we fhall confine ourselves to a few exaniples derived from the infect tribes. 38. A fociety or hive of bees consists of a female,of males,and of drones,or neuters. These three kinds continue,for fome time, in the most perfect harmony, and mutually protect and affift each other. The neuters, or working bees, discover the strongeft attachment and affec tion, to the males, even when in their worm *tate. The neuters are armed with a deadly fting, of which the males are deftitute. Deftitute. But, temporary? 39. Both are equally produced by the fame mother, and live in the fame family. notwithstanding their temporary affection, *there are times when the neuters cruelly madfacre the males. Among the laws of polished maacre? republics, we find fome which are extremely barbarous. The Lacedæmonians were allowed to kill fuch of their children as were pro-duced in a defective or, maimed ftate, because they would become a burden upon the community. The laws of the Chinese permit actions equally inhuman. 40. We perhaps know not all the reafons why the neuter bees treat the males with fo • much cruelty. barbarous ? There is a time, however, treat. when the males become perfectly useless to the community; and it is not incurious to remark, that the general maffacre never commences till this period arrives. 41. Whenever a stranger-bee enters a hive, temerity ? his temerity is uniformly punished with death. *But mortal combats are not unfrequent between bees belonging to the fame hive. These .combats are most frequent in clear and warm faflened. weather. Sometimes two combatants come out of the hive clofely faftened to each other. At other times the attack is made in the air. -But, in whatever way the battle begins, both wrefiler. "combatants uniformly come to the ground before it is terminated by the death of one of the parties. When they reach the ground, each individual, like a wreftler, endeavours terminated? to gain the most advantageous pofition for -ftinging his adverfary to death. 42. Befides thefe ingle combats, general actions are not unfrequent, efpecially in the farms. warming feafon. When two fwarms, or ce T onies, Especially. havoc ? weapon. flaughter. exhibits. onies, happen to contend for the fame habi tation, a general and bloody engagement immediately enfues. Thefe engagements often continue for hours, and never terminate without great havoc on both fides. 43. The fting is not the only weapon employed in war by bees. They are furnished with two ftrong fangs or teeth, with which they cruelly tear each other. Even in general engagements, all the combats are fingle. But, when the great flaughter of the males is committing, three or four neuters are not afhamed to attack a fingle fly. 44. Every wafp's neft, about the beginning of October, exhibits a fingular and a cruel fcene. At this feafon, the wafps cease affectionate? to bring nourishment to their young. From affectionate mothers or nurfes, they at once become barbarous ftep-mothers. They are worfe; for they drag the young worms from flepmothers? their cells, and carry them out of their neft. Being thus expofed to the weather, and deprived of nourishment every one of them unavoidably perishes. 45. This devaftation is not, like that of the honey-bees, confined to the male worms. devaftation? Here no worm, of whatever denomination or fex, efcapes the general and undistinguished maffacre. Befides expofing the worms to the weather, the wafps kill them with their fangs. This fact feems to be a violation of parental affection, one of the strongest principals in animal nature. masacre. elude? 46. But the intentions of Nature, though they may often elude cur researches, are never wrong. What appears to us cruel and unnatural in this inftinctive devaftation comannually?, mitted annually by the wafps, is perhaps an act of the greatest mercy and compaffion. Wafps are not, like the honey bees, endowed with With the inftinct of laying up aftore of provifions for winter fubfiftence. 47. If not prematurely deftroyed by their Prematurely?' parents, the young muft neceffarily die a more cruel and lingering death, occafioned by hunger. Hence this feemingly harfh conduct in the economy of wafps, inftead of harsh. affording an exception to the univerfal benevolence and wifdom of Nature, is, in reality, a merciful inftitution. prodigious? noxious? 48. Besides, as the multiplication of wafps is prodigious, and as they are a noxious race both to man and other animals, and especially to many tribes of infects, if their increafe were not checked by fuch a dreadful carnage, their depredations, in a few years, would an- deprelations? nihilate other fpecies, brake the chain of Na ture, and even prove deftructive to man and annihilate ? the larger animals. Advantages refulting from this myfierious infizu tion of rapine and deftruction throughout almoft' the whole of animated Nature, 49. According to the adopted plan, we reconcile? fhall finish this fubject with fome obfervations which may have a tendency to reconcile our minds to a fyftem fo destructive to individu- revolt? als of every fpecies, that humanity, when not enlightened by a ray of philofophy, is apt to revolt, and to brand Nature with cruelty and compunction? Oppreffion. Nature, it must be confeiled, feems almost indifferent to individuals, who perish every moment in millions, without any apparent compunction. 50. But, with regard to fpecies of every confpicuous'? ́ description, her uniforin and uninterrupted attention to the prefervation and continua tion of the great fyftem of animation is con- intervention? fpicuous, and merits admiration. Life, it the should appear, cannot be fupported without |