With respect to the animal kingdom, we
acknowledge with gratitude, that among the
higher classes, there is a certain number of
living species, which are indispensable to the
supply of human food and raiment, and to the
aid of civilized man in his various labours and
occupations; and that these are endowed with
dispositions and faculties which adapt them in
a peculiar degree for domestication :* but their
number bears an extremely small proportion to
the total amount of existing species; and with
regard to the lower classes of animals, there are
but very few among their almost countless multitudes,
that minister either to the wants or luxuries
Nevertheless, we may so far acknowledge all things made for
man as that his uses are regarded conjointly with those of other
creatures, and that he has an interest in every thing reaching his
notice, and contributing either to the support of his body, the
improvement or entertainment of his mind. The satellites that
turn the night of Jupiter into day, assist him in ascertaining the
longitude, and measuring the velocity of lig h t: the mighty sun,
that like a giant holds the planets and comets in their orbits,
enlightens him with its splendour, and cherishes him with its
warmth: the distant stars, whose attraction probably confines
other planets within their vortices, direct his course over the
boundless sea, and the inhospitable desert.”—Tucker’s Light of
Nature, book iii. chap. ix. p. 9.
See an excellent note on prospective provisions, to afford materials
for human arts, and having reference to the future discoveries
of human science, in Rev. W. D. Conybeare’s Inaugural
Address to Bristol College, 1831.
* See Lyell’s Principles of Geology, 3rd edit. vol. ii. book 3,
c. 3.
TO THE USES OF MAN. 101
of the human race. Even could it be proved
that all existing species are serviceable to man,
no such inference could be drawn with respect
to those numerous extinct animals which Geology
shows to have ceased to live, long before our
race appeared upon the earth. It is surely more
consistent with sound philosophy, and with all
the information that is vouchsafed to us respecting
the attributes of the Deity, to consider each
animal as having been created first for its own
sake, to receive its portion of that enjoyment
which the Universal Parent is pleased to impart
to each creature that has life ; and secondly, to
bear its share in the maintenance of the general
system of co-ordinate relations, whereby all
families of living beings are reciprocally subservient
to the use and benefit of one another.
Under this head only can we include their relations
to man ; forming, as he does, but a small,
although it be the most noble and exalted part,
of that vast system of universal life, with which
it hath pleased the Creator to animate the surface
of the globe.
“ More than three-fifths of the earth’s surface,”
says Mr. Bakewell, “ are covered by the ocean;
and if from the remaining part we deduct the
space occupied by polar ice and eternal snow,
by sandy deserts, sterile mountains, marshes,
rivers and lakes, the habitable portion will
scarcely exceed one-fifth of the whole of the globe.