domestic qualities to modifications of instincts which are
implanted in them in a state of nature; and that writer has successfully
pointed out, in an admirable essay on the domestication of the
mammalia[818], the true origin of many dispositions which are vulgarly
attributed to the influence of education alone. But we should go too far
if we did not admit that some of the qualities of particular animals and
plants may have been given solely with a view to the connection which it
was foreseen would exist between them and man--especially when we see
that connexion to be in many cases so intimate, that the greater number,
and sometimes, as in the case of the camel, all the individuals of the
species which exist on the earth are in subjection to the human race.

We can perceive in a multitude of animals, especially in some of the
parasitic tribes, that certain instincts and organs are conferred for
the purpose of defence or attack against some other species. Now if we
are reluctant to suppose the existence of similar relations between man
and the instincts of many of the inferior animals, we adopt an
hypothesis no less violent, though in the opposite extreme to that which
has led some to imagine the whole animate and inanimate creation to have
been made solely for the support, gratification, and instruction of
mankind.

Many species, most hostile to our persons or property, multiply, in
spite of our efforts to repress them; others, on the contrary, are
intentionally augmented many hundred fold in number by our exertions. In
such instances, we must imagine the relative resources of man, and of
species friendly or inimical to him, to have been prospectively
calculated and adjusted. To withhold assent to this supposition, would
be to refuse what we must grant in respect to the economy of nature in
every other part of the organic creation; for the various species of
contemporary plants and animals have obviously their relative forces,
nicely balanced, and their respective tastes, passions, and instincts so
contrived, that they are all in perfect harmony with each other. In no
other manner could it happen that each species, surrounded, as it is, by
countless dangers, should be enabled to maintain its ground for periods
of considerable duration.

The docility of the individuals of some of our domestic species,
extending, as it does, to attainments foreign to their natural habits
and faculties, may, perhaps, have been conferre