Of his works, he adds, that “they are calculated (as he thinks,) to suit the earnest inquirer; the soul in bondage, in the furnace, in the path of tribulation, or in the strong hold of Satan; and (says he) I have heard of them from Wales, from Scotland, from Ireland, from various parts of America, from Cadiz in Spain, from Alexandria in Egypt, and, I believe, from both the East and West Indies.”
His “Bank of Faith” has proved a bank of gold! When he wrote so much of what came to him as gifts, was it not to rouse more to give? The man who says he lives by gifts, will, as he gets his friends, find gifts by which he may live. He died at London, in 1813; and such was the avidity of his adherents to obtain a relic of him, that his furniture sold at ten times the original value. An old chair went off at forty pounds.
CHAP. XII.
CURIOSITIES RESPECTING ANIMALS.
Animal Generation—Formation of Animals—Preservation of Animals—Destruction of Animals—Animal Reproductions.
| See, thro’ this air, this ocean, and this earth, All matter quick, and bursting into birth. Above, how high progressive life may go! Around, how wide! how deep extend below! Vast chain of Being! which from God began, Natures ethereal, human, angel, man, Beast, bird, fish, insect, what no eye can see, No glass can reach; from Infinite to thee, From thee to nothing. Pope. |
In entering upon the subject of Curiosities respecting Animals, we shall first introduce to the reader some interesting observations respecting the generation, formation, preservation, destruction, and reproduction, of animals in general; and, first, of animal generation.
Animal generation holds the first place among all that raise our admiration when we consider the Works of the Creator, and chiefly that appointment by which he has regulated the propagation, which is wisely adapted to the disposition and mode of life of every different species of animals, that people earth, air, or sea.
“Increase and multiply,” said the benevolent Author of nature, when he pronounced his blessing on the new made world. By virtue of this powerful mandate, all the various tribes of sentient beings have not only been preserved, but increased in an astonishing degree.