2. The other Instance I promised, is the Provision made for the Preservation of such Animals as are sometimes destitute of Food, or in Danger of being so. The Winter is a very inconvenient, improper Season, to afford either Food or Exercise to Insects, and many other Animals. When the flowry Fields are divested of their Gaiety; when the fertile Trees and Plants are stripp’d of their Fruits, and the Air, instead of being warmed with the cherishing Beams of the Sun, is chilled with rigid Frost; what would become of such Animals as are impatient of Cold? What Food could be found by such as are subsisted by the Summer-Fruits? But to obviate all this Evil, to stave off the Destruction and Extirpation of divers Species of Animals, the infinitely wise Preserver of the World hath as wisely ordered the matter; that, in the first Place, such as are impatient of Cold, should have such a special Structure of their Body, particularly of their Hearts, and Circulation of their Blood[bbbb], as during that Season, not to suffer any waste of their Body, and consequently not to need any Recruits; but that they should be able to live in a kind of sleepy, middle State, in their Places of safe Retreat, until the warm Sun revives both them and their Food together.
The next Provision is for such as can bear the Cold, but would want Food then; and that is in some by a long Patience of Hunger[cccc], in others by their notable Instinct in laying up Food beforehand against the approaching Winter[dddd]. Of this many entertaining Examples may be given; particularly we may, at the proper Season, observe not only the little Treasures and Holes well-stocked with timely Provisions, but large Fields[eeee] here and there throughout bespread with considerable Numbers of the Fruits of the neighbouring Trees, laid carefully up in the Earth, and covered safe, by the provident little Animals inhabiting thereabouts. And not without Pleasure have I seen and admired the Sagacity of other Animals, hunting out those subterraneous Fruits, and pillaging the Treasures of those little provident Creatures.
And now from this bare transient View of this Branch of the Great Creator’s Providence and Government, relating to the Food of his Creatures, we can conclude no less, than that since this grand Affair hath such manifest Strokes of admirable and wise Management, that since this is demonstrated throughout all Ages and Places, that therefore it is God’s Handy-Work. For how is it possible that so vast a World of Animals should be supported, such a great Variety equally and well supplied with proper Food, in every Place fit for Habitation, without an especial Superintendency and Management, equal to, at least, that of the most prudent Steward and Housholder? How should the Creatures be able to find out their Food when laid up in secret Places? And how should they be able to gather even a great deal of the common Food, and at last to macerate and digest it, without peculiar Organs adapted to the Service? And what less than an infinitely Wise God could form such a Set of curious Organs, as we find every Species endowed with, for this very Life? Organs so artificially made, so exquisitely fitted up, that the more strictly we survey them, the more accurately we view them (even the meanest of them with our blest Glasses) the less Fault we find in them, and the more we admire them: Whereas the best polished, and most exquisite Works, made by human Art, appear through our Glasses, as rude and bungling, deformed and monstrous; and yet we admire them, and call them Works of Art and Reason. And lastly, What less than Rational and Wise could endow irrational Animals with various Instincts, equivalent, in their special Way, to Reason it self? Insomuch that some from thence have absolutely concluded, that those Creatures had some Glimmerings of Reason. But it is manifestly Instinct, not Reason they act by, because we find no varying, but that every Species doth naturally pursue at all Times the same Methods and Way, without any Tutorage or Learning: Whereas Reason, without Instruction, would often vary, and do that by many Methods, which Instinct doth by one alone. But of this more hereafter.
FOOTNOTES:
[a] Pastum animantibus largè & copiosè natura eum, qui cuique aptus erat, comparavit. Cic. de Nat. Deor. l. 2. c. 47.
Ille Deus est,——qui per totum orbem armenta dimisit, qui gregibus ubique passim vagantibus pabulum præstat. Senec. de Benef. l. 4. c. 6.
[] Tritico nihil est fertilius: hoc ei natura tribuit, quoniam eo maximè alat hominem; utpote cùm è modio, si sit aptum solum——150 modii reddantur. Misit D. Augusto procurator—ex uno grano (vix credibile dictu) 400 paucis minùs germina. Misit & Neroni similiter 340 stipulas ex uno grano. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 18. c. 10.
[c] Sed illa quanta benignitas Natura, quòd tam multa ad vescendum, tam varia, tam jucunda gignit: neque ea uno tempore anni, ut semper & novitate delectemur & copiâ. Cic. de Nat. Deor. l. 2. c. 53.
[d] Swammerdam observes of the Ephemeron Worms, that their Food is Clay, and that they make their Cells of the same. Upon which occasion he saith of Moths, that eat Wool and Fur, There are two Things very considerable, 1. That the Cells they make to themselves, wherein they live, and with which (as their House, Tortoise-like) they move from Place to Place, they make of the Matter next at hand. 2. That they feed also on the same, therefore when you find their Cells, or rather Coats or Cases to be made of yellow, green, blue or black Cloth, you will also find their Dung of the same Colour. Swammerd. Ephem. vita. Published by Dr. Tyson, Chap. 3.
[e] Job xxxviii. 41. Psal. cxlvii. 9.