And this may serve to answer an Objection against the Excellency of, and Wisdom shewed in the Creation; namely, What need of so many Creatures[c]? Particularly of so many Insects, so many Plants, and so many other Things? And especially of some of them, that are so far from being useful, that they are very noxious; some by their Ferity, and others by their poisonous Nature, &c.?
To which I might answer, that in greater Variety, the greater Art is seen; that the fierce, poisonous, and noxious Creatures serve as Rods and Scourges to chastise us[d], as means to excite our Wisdom, Care, and Industry, with more to the same purpose. But these Things have been fully urged by others; and it is sufficient to say, that this great Variety is a most wise Provision for all the Uses of the World in all Ages and all Places. Some for Food, some for Physick[e], some for Habitation, some for Utensils, some for Tools and Instruments of Work, and some for Recreation and Pleasure, either to Man, or to some of the inferior Creatures themselves; even for which inferior Creatures, the liberal Creator hath provided all Things necessary, or any ways conducing to their happy, comfortable living in this World, as well as for Man.
And it is manifest, that all the Creatures of God, Beasts, Birds, Insects, Plants, and every other Genus have, or may have, their several Uses even among Men. For although in one Place many Things may lie neglected, and out of Use, yet in other Places they may be of great Use. So what hath seemed useless in one Age, hath been received in another; as all the new Discoveries in Physick, and all the Alterations in Diet do sufficiently witness. Many Things also there are which in one Form may be pernicious to Man; but in another, of great Use. There are many Plants[f], many Animals, many Minerals, which in one Form destroy, in another heal. The Cassada Plant unprepared poisoneth, but prepared, is the very Bread of the West-Indies[g]. Vipers and Scorpions, and many Minerals, as destructive as they are to Man, yet afford him some of his best Medicines.
Or if there be many Things of little, immediate Use to Man, in this, or any other Age; yet to other Creatures they may afford Food or Physick, or be of some necessary Use. How many Trees and Plants, nay, even the very Carcases of Animals, yea, the very Dust of the Earth[h], and the most refuse, contemptible Things to be met with; I say, how many such Things are either Food, or probably Medicine to many Creatures, afford them Retreat, are Places of Habitation, or Matrixes for their Generation, as shall be shewed in proper Place? The prodigious Swarms of Insects in the Air, and in the Waters, (many of which may be perhaps at present of no great Use to Man) yet are Food to Birds, Fishes, Reptiles, Insects themselves, and other Creatures[], for whose happy and comfortable Subsistence, I have said the bountiful Creator hath liberally provided, as well as for that of Man.
FOOTNOTES:
[a] Non dat Deus beneficia? Unde ergò ista qua possides?——Unde hæc innumerabilia, oculos, aures & animum mulcentia? Unde illa luxuriam quoque instruens copia? Neque enim necessitatibus tantummodò nostris provisum est: usque in delicias amamur. Tot arbusta, non uno modo frugifera, tot herba salutares, tot varietates ciborum, per totum annum digestæ, ut inerti quoque fortuita terræ alimenta præberent. Jam animalia omnis generis, alia in sicco, &c.——ut omnis rerum naturæ pars tributum aliquod nobis conferret. Senec. de Benef. l. 4. c. 5. ubi plura vide.
Hic, ubi habitamus non intermittit suo tempore Cœlum nitescere, arbores frondescere——cum multitudinem pecudum partim ad vescendum, partim ad cultus agrorum, partim ad vehendum, partim ad corpora vestienda; hominemque ipsum quasi contemplatorem cœli ad deorum, ipsorumque cultorem.——Hæc igitur, & alia innumerabilia cùm cernimus, possumusne dubitare, quin his præsit aliquis vel Effector, si hæc nata sunt, ut Platoni videtur: vel si semper fuerint, ut Aristoteli placet, Moderator tanti operis & muneris? Cicer. Tusc. Quæst. l. 1. c. 28, 29.
[] Sunt & gentium differentiæ non mediocres——quæ contemplatio aufert rursus nos ad ipsorum animalium naturas, ingenitasque iis vel certiores morborum omnium medicinas. Enim verò rerum omnium Parens, nullum animal ad hoc tantum ut pasceretur, aut alia satiaret nasci voluit: artesque salutares iis inseruerit. Plin. N. H. l. 27. c. 13.
[c] This was no very easy Question to be answered by such as held, that all Things were made for Man, as most of the Ancients did; as Aristotle, Seneca, Cicero and Pliny, (to name only some of the chief). And Cicero cites it as the celebrated Chrysippus’s Opinion, Præclare enim Chrysippus, Cætera nata esse Hominum Causâ, & Deorum. De fin. bon. & mal. l. 3. And in his De Nat. Deor. l. 2. fin. he seriously proves the World it self to have been made for the Gods and Man, and all Things in the World to have been made and contrived for the Benefit of Man (parata & inventa ad fructum Hominum, are his Words). So Pliny in his Preface to his 7ᵗʰ Book saith, Nature made all Things for Man; but then he makes a doubt, whether she shewed her self a more indulgent Parent, or cruel Step-Mother, as in [Book IV. Chap. 12. Note (b).] But since the Works of God have been more discovered, and the Limits of the Universe have been found to be of infinitely greater Extent than the Ancients supposed them; this narrow Opinion hath been exploded. And the Answer will be found easy to these Questions, Why so many useless Creatures? In the Heavens, Why so many fixt Stars, and the greatest part of them scarce visible? Why such Systems of Planets, as in Jupiter, Saturn, &c. (See my Astro-Theology.) In the Earth and Waters, Why so many Creatures of no use to Man?
[d] Nec minùs clara exitii documenta sunt etiam ex contemnendis animalibus. M. Varro author est, à cuniculis suffossum in Hispaniâ opidum, à talpis in Thessaliâ: ab ranis civitatem in Galliâ pulsam, ab locustis in Africâ: ex Gyaro, Cycladum insulâ, incolas à muribus fugatos; In Italiâ Amyclas à serpentibus delatas. Citra Cynamolgos Æthiopas latè deserta regio est, à scorpionibus & solpugis gente sublatâ: & à scolopendris abactos Trerienses, author est Theophrastus. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 29.