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Show 156 POWER OF EXTERMINATING SPECIES [Ch. IX. variety of animal and vegetable forms, have been already brought under the dominion of man, and compelled, in a great measure, to yield nourishment to him, and to a limited number of plants and animals which he has caused to increase, we must at once be convinced, that the annihilation of a multitude of species has already been effected, and will continue to go on hereafter, in certain regions, in a still more rapid ratio, as the colonies of highly-civilized nations spread themselves over un-occupied lands. Yet, if we wield the sword of extermination as we advance, we have no reason to repine at the havoc committed, nor to fancy, with the Scotch poet, that " we violate the sqcial union of nature;" or complain, with the melancholy _Jaques, that we Are mere usurpers, tyrants, and, what's worse, To fright the animals, and to kill them up In their assign'd and native dwelling-place. We have only to reflect, that in thus obtaining possession of the earth by conquest, and defending our acquisitions by force, we exercise no exclusive prerogative. Every species which has spread itself from a small point over a wide area, must, in like manner, have marked its progress by the diminution, or the entire extirpation, of some other, and must maintain its ground by a successful struggle against the encroachments of other plants and animals. That minute parasitic plant, called '' the rust" in wheat, has, like the Hessian fly, the locust, and the aphis, caused famines ere now amongst the " lords of the creation." The most insignificant and diminutive species, whether in the animal or vegetable kingdom, have each slaughtered their thousands, as they disseminated them· selves over the globe, as well as the lion, when first it spread itself over the tropical regions of Africa. We cannot conclude this division of our subject without ob-serving, that although we have as yet considered one class only of the causes (the organic) whereby species may become exterminated, yet the continued action of these alone, throughout myriads of futtlre ages, must work an entire change in the Ch. IX.] NO PREROGATIVE OF MAN. 157 ·s t1a ted o f thhe organic crcati on, not merely on the continents and Igsr eana t os,c ewan erwe ht he phow' er of man I.S chiefly exerted, but in the . ' ere IS control is almost unknown. 'l'he mind IS prepared by the contem 1 . t I k ~ h . P abon of such future revolutions o oo wr t e signs f th f o o ers, of an analogous nature in the monuf: mehn ts o the. Pa st • I nstead of be.m g astonished ' at th proo s t ere mamfested of endl . . e world they ·n ess mutatiOns m the animate the fl~ctuati:~s app~ar to one who has thought profoundly on th . f' • now m progress, to afford evidence in favour of c umtormity of the syste 1 . from speakinO' of u ifi .m, un ess, mdeed, we are precluded o m ormtly when h · . of endless variation. we c aractenze a prmciple |