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purpose of capturing and killing their prey; and as contrivances exhibited in instruments formed expressly for destruction may, at first sight, seem inconsistent with the dispensations of a creation founded in benevolence, and tending to produce the greatest amount of enjoyment to the greatest number of individuals; it may be proper to premise a few words upon this subject, before we enter on the history of that large portion of the animals of a former world, whose office was to effect the destruction of life.

The law of universal mortality being the established condition, on which it has pleased the Creator to give being to every creature upon earth, it is a dispensation of kindness. to make the end of life to each individual as easy as possible. The most easy death is, proverbially, that which is the least expected; and though, for moral reasons peculiar to our own species, we deprecate the sudden termination of our mortal life; yet, in the case of every inferior animal, such a termination of existence is obviously the most desirable. The pains of sickness, and decrepitude of age, are the usual precursors of death, resulting from gradual decay: these, in the human race alone, are susceptible of alleviation from internal sources of hope and consolation; and give exercise to some of the highest charities, and most tender sympathies of humanity. But, throughout the whole creation of inferior animals, no such sympathies exist; there is no affection or regard for the feeble and aged; no alleviating care to relieve the sick; and the extension of life through lingering stages of decay and of old age, would to each individual be a scene of protracted misery. Under such a system, the natural world would present a mass of daily suffering, bearing a large proportion to the total amount of animal enjoyment. By the existing dispensations of sudden destruction and rapid succession, the feebled and disabled are speedily relieved from suffering, and the world is at all times crowded with myriads of sentient and happy beings; and though to many individuals their allotted share of life be

often short, it is usually a period of uninterrupted gratification; whilst the momentary pain of sudden and unexpected death is an evil infinitely small, in comparison with the enjoyments of which it is the termination.

The inhabitants of the earth have ever been divided into two great classes, the one herbivorous, the other carnivorous; and though the existence of the latter may, at first sight seem calculated to increase the amount of animal pain; yet, when considered in its full extent, it will be found materially to diminish it.

To the mind which looks not to general results in the economy of Nature, the earth may seem to present a scene of perpetual warfare and incessant carnage: but the more enlarged view, while it regards individuals in their conjoint relations to the general benefit of their own species, and that of other species with which they are associated in the great family of Nature, resolves each apparent case of individual evil, into an example of subserviency to universal good.

Under the existing system, not only is the aggregate amount of animal enjoyment much increased, by adding to the stock of life all the races which are carnivorous, but these are also highly beneficial even to the herbivorous races, that are subject to their dominion.

Besides the desirable relief of speedy death on the approach of debility or age, the carnivora confer a farther benefit on the species which form their prey, as they control their excessive increase, by the destruction of many individuals in youth and health. Without this solitary check, each species would soon multiply to an extent, exceeding in a fatal degree the supply of food, and the whole class of herbivora would ever be so nearly on the verge of starvation, that multitudes would daily be consigned to lingering and painful death by famine. All these evils are superseded by the establishment of a controlling Power in the carnivora; by their agency the numbers of each species are maintained in due proportion to one another-the sick, the

lame, the aged, and the supernumeraries, are consigned to speedy death; and while each suffering individual is soon relieved from pain, it contributes its enfeebled carcass to the support of its carnivorous benefactor, and leaves more room for the comfortable existence of the healthy survivors of its own species.

The same "police of Nature," which is thus beneficial to the great family of the inhabitants of the land, is established with equal advantage among the tenants of the sea. Of these also, there is one large division that lives on vegetables, and supplies the basis of food to the other division. that is carnivorous. Here again we see, that in the absence of carnivora, the uncontrolled herbivora would multiply indefinitely, until the lack of food brought them also to the verge of starvation; and the sea would be crowded with creatures under the endurance of universal pain from hunger, while death by famine would be the termination of ill-fed and miserable lives.

The appointment of death by the agency of carnivora, as the ordinary termination of animal existence, appears therefore in its main results to be a dispensation of benevolence; it deducts much from the aggregate amount of the pain of universal death; it abridges, and almost annihilates, through- out the brute creation, the misery of disease, and accidental injuries, and lingering decay; and imposes such salutary restraint upon excessive increase of numbers, that the supply of food maintains perpetually a due ratio to the demand. The result is, that the surface of the land and depths of the waters are ever crowded with myriads of animated beings, the pleasures of whose life are co-extensive with its duration; and which throughout the little day of existence that is allotted to them, fulfil with joy the functions for which they were created. Life to each individual is a scene of continued feasting, in a region of plenty; and when unexpected death arrests its course, it repays with small interest the large debt, which it has contracted to the common fund of

animal nutrition, from whence the materials of its body have been derived. Thus the great drama of universal life is perpetually sustained; and though the individual actors undergo continual change, the same parts are ever filled by another and another generation; renewing the face of the earth, and the bosom of the deep, with endless successions of life and happiness.

CHAPTER XIV.

Proofs of design in the Structure of Fossil Vertebrated Animals.

SECTION I.

FOSSIL MAMMALIA.-DINOTHERIUM.

ENOUGH has, I trust, been stated in the preceding chapter, to show the paramount importance of appealing to organic remains, in illustration of that branch of physico-theology with which we are at present occupied.

The structure of the greater number, even of the earliest fossil Mammalia, differs in so few essential points from that of the living representatives of their respective Orders, that I forbear to enter on details which would indeed abound with evidences of creative design, but would offer little that is not equally discoverable in the anatomy of existing species. I shall, therefore, limit my observations to two extinct genera, which are perhaps the most remarkable of all fossil Mammalia, for size and unexampled peculiarities of anatomical construction; the first of these, the DinotheVOL. I.-10

rium, having been the largest of terrestrial Mammalia;* and the second, the Megatherium, presenting greater deviations from ordinary animal forms, than occur in any other species, either of recent or fossil quadrupeds.

It has been already stated, in our account of the Mammalia of the Miocene period of the tertiary series, that the most abundant remains of the Dinotherium are found at Epplesheim, in the province of Hesse Darmstadt, and are described, in a work now in process of publication, by Professor Kaup. Fragments of the same genus are mentioned by Cuvier, as occurring in several parts of France, and in Bavaria and Austria.

The form of the molar teeth of the Dinotherium, (Pl. 2. C. Fig. 3,) so nearly resembles that of the Tapirs, that Cuvier at first referred them to a gigantic species of this genus. Professor Kaup has since placed this animal in the new genus Dinotherium, holding an intermediate place between the Tapir and the Mastodon, and supplying another important extinct link in the great family of Pachydermata. The largest species of this genus, D. Giganteum, is calculated, both by Cuvier and Kaup, to have attained the extraordinary length of eighteen feet. The most remarkable bone of the body yet found is the shoulder-blade, the form of which more nearly resembles that of a Mole than of any other animal, and seems to indicate a peculiar adaptation of the fore leg to the purposes of digging, an indication which is corroborated by the remarkable structure of the lower jaw.

The lower jaws of two species of Dinotherium, figured in Plate 2. C. Figs. 1. 2. exhibit peculiarities in the disposi

* The Author has recently been informed by Professor Kaup, of Darmstadt, that an entire head of this animal has been discovered at Epplesheim, measuring more than a yard in length, and as much in breadth, and that he is preparing a description and figures of this head for immediate publication.

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