209 refs them with their affectionate Notes, lull and quiet them with their tender parental Voice, put Food into their Mouths, fuckle them, cherish and keep them warm, teach them to pick, and eat, and gather Food for themselves; and, in a word, perform the whole Part of fo many Nurfes, deputed by the Sovereign Lord and Preferver of the World, to help fuch young and fhiftless Creatures, till they are come to that Maturity, as to be able to fhift for themselves?

And as for other Animals (particularly Infects, whofe Sire is partly the Sun, and whofe numerous Off-fpring would be too great for their Parent-Animal's Care and Provifion) these are fo generated, as to need none of their Care, by Reafon they arrive immediately to their 'Hamia, their perfect, adult State, and are able to fhift for themselves. But yet, thus far their parental Instinct (equivalent to the most rational Care and Fore-fight) doth extend, that the old ones do not wildly drop their Eggs and Sperm any where, at all Adventures, but fo cautiously repofit it in fuch commodious Places (fome in the Waters, fome on Flefh, fome on Plants proper and agreeable to their Species (xxx); and fome thut up agreeable Food in their Nefts, partly for Incubation, partly for Food (yyy),) that their young in their Aurelia, or Nympha State, may find fufficient and agreeable Food to bring them up, till they arrive to their Maturity.

Thus far the Parental Inítinct and Care.

Tranf. No. 239. where he alfo, from Oppian, mentions the Dog-Fish, that upon any Storm or Danger, receives the young Ones into her Belly, which come out again when the ·Fright is over. So alfo the Squatina and Glaucus, the fame Author faith, have the fame Care for their young, but re ceive them into different Receptacles.

(xxx) See Book VIII. Chap. 6. (yyy) See Chap. 13. Note (c).

Next we may obferve no lefs in the young themselves, especially in thofe of the irrational Animals. Forafmuch as the Parent-Animal is not able to bear them about, to cloath them, and to dandle them, as Man doth; how admirably hath the Creator contrived their State, that thofe poor young Creatures can foon walk about, and with the little Helps of their Dam, fhift for, and help themfelves? How naturally do they hunt for their Teat, fuck, pick (zzz), and take in their proper Food?

But for the young of Man, their Parents Reafon, joined with natural Affection, being fufficient to help, to nurse, to feed, and to cloath them; therefore they are born helpless, and are more abfolutely than other Creatures, caft upon their Parents Care (aaaa). A manifest Act and Designation of the Divine Providence.

2. The other Inftance I promised, is the Provifion made for the Prefervation of fuch Animals as are fometimes deftitute of Food, or in Danger of being fo. The Winter is a very inconvenient, improper Seafon, to afford either Food or Exercise to Infects, and many other Animals. When the

(zzz) There is manifeftly a fuperintending Providence in this Cafe, that fome Animals are able to fuck as foon as ever they are born, and that they will naturally hunt for the Teat before they are quite gotten out of the Secundines, and parted from the Navel-String, as I have seen. But for Chickens, and other young Birds, they not being able immediately to pick till they are ftronger, have a notable Provifion made for fuch a Time, by a part of the Yolk of the Egg being inclofed in their Belly, a little before their Exclufion or Hatching, which ferves for their Nourishment, till they are grown ftrong enough to pick up Meat. Vid. Book VII. Chap. 4. Note (a).

(aaaa) Qui [Infantes] de ope noftrâ ac de divinâ mifericordia plus merentur, qui in primo ftatim nativitatis fua ortu plorantes ac flentes, nil aliud faciunt quàm deprecantur. Cypr. Ep. ad Fid.

flowry

flowry Fields are divefted of their Gaiety; when the fertile Trees and Plants are ftripp'd of their Fruits, and the Air, instead of being warmed with the cherishing Beams of the Sun, is chilled with rigid Froft; what would become of fuch Animals as are impatient of Cold? What Food could be found by fuch as are fubfifted by the Summer-Fruits? But to obviate all this Evil, to ftave off the Deftruction and Extirpation of divers Species of Animals, the infinitely wife Preferver of the World hath as wifely ordered the matter; that, in the first Place, fuch as are impatient of Cold, fhould have fuch a fpecial Structure of their Body, particularly of their Hearts, and Circulation of their Blood (bbbb), as during that Seafon, not to fuffer any wafte of their Body, and confequently not to need any Recruits; but that they fhould be able to live in a kind of fleepy, middle State, in their Places of fafe Retreat, until the warm Sun revives both them and their Food together.

The next Provifion is for fuch as can bear the Cold, but would want Food then; and that is in fome by a long Patience of Hunger (cccc), in others

by

(bbbb) I might name here fome of the Species of Birds, the whole Tribe almoft of Infects, and fome among other Tribes, that are able to fubfift for many Months without Food, and fome without Refpiration too, or very little; But it may fuffice to inftance only in the Land-Tortoife, of the Structure of whofe Heart and Lungs: See Book VI. Chap. 5. Note (b).

(cccc) Inediam diutiffimè tolerat Lupus, ut & alia omnia carnivora, licèt voraciffima; magnâ utique natura providentia; quoniam efca non femper in promptu eft. Ray's Synopf. Quadr.

P. 174.

To the long Abftinence mentioned of Brute-Animals, I hope the Reader will excufe me if I add one or two Inftances of extraordinary Abftinence among Men. One Martha Taylor, born in Derbyshire, by a Blow on the Back fell into fuch a Proftration of Appetite, that the took little Suftenance,

by their notable Instinct in laying up Food beforehand against the approaching Winter (dddd). Of this many entertaining Examples may be givens particularly we may, at the proper Seafon, obferve not only the little Treafures and Holes well-ftocked with timely Provifions, but large Fields (eeee) here and there throughout befpread with confiderable

but fome Drops with a Feather, from Christmas 1667. for thirteen Months, and flept but little too all the Time. See Dr. Sampson's Account thereof in Ephem. Germ. T. 3. Obs. 173.

To this we may add the Cafe of S. Chilton, of Tinsbury, near Bath, who in the Years 1693, 1696, and 97, flept di vers Weeks together. And although he would fometimes, in a very odd manner, take Suftenance, yet would lie a long Time without any, or with very little, and all without any confiderable Decay. See Phil. Tranf. No. 304.

(dddd) They are admirable Instincts which the Sieur de Beauplan relates of his own Knowledge, of the little Animals called Bohaques in Ukraine. They make Burroughs like Rabbets, and in October shut themselves up, and do not come out again till April. They spend all the Winter under Ground, eating what they laid up in Summer. Thofe that are lazy among them, they lay on their Backs, then lay a great handful of dry Herbage upon their Bodies, &c. then others drag thofe Drones to the Mouths of their Burroughs, and fo thofe Creatures ferve instead of Barrows, &c. I have often feen them · practife this, and have had the Curiofity to observe them whole Days together. Their Holes are parted like Chambers; fome ferve for Store-Houfes, others for Burying-Places, &c. Their Government is nothing inferior to that of Bees, &c They never go abroad without pofting a Centinel upon fome high Ground, to give notice to the others whilst they are feeding. As foon as the Centinel fees any Body, it ftands upon his Hind-Legs and whistles. Beauplau's Defcription of Ukraine, in Vol. I. of the Collection of Voyages, c.

A like Inftance of the Northern Galli Sylveftres, fee in Chap. 13. Note (g).

As for the Scriptural Inftance of the Ant, fee hereafter Book VIII. Chap. 5. Note (d).

(eeee) I have in Autumn, not without Pleasure obferved, not only the great Sagacity and Diligence of Swine, in hunt ing out the Stores of the Field Mice; but the wonderful Precaution alfo of thofe little Animals, in hiding their Food be

forehand

rable Numbers of the Fruits of the neighbouring Trees, laid carefully up in the Earth, and covered fafe, by the provident little Animals inhabiting thereabouts. And not without Pleasure have I feen and admired the Sagacity of other Animals, hunting out thofe fubterraneous Fruits, and pillaging the Treasures of those little provident Creatures.

And now from this bare tranfient View of this Branch of the Great Creator's Providence and Goverment, relating to the Food of his Creatures, we can conclude no lefs, than that fince this grand Affair hath fuch manifeft Strokes of admirable and wife Management, that fince this is demonftrated throughout all Ages and Places, that therefore it is God's Handy-Work. For how is it poffible that fo vaft a World of Animals fhould be fupported, fuch a great Variety equally and well fupplied 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 Houfholder? How fhould the Creatures be able to find out their Food when laid up in fecret Places? And how fhould they be able to gather even a great deal of the common Food, and at laft to macerate and digeft it, without peculiar Organs adapted to the Service? And what lefs than an infinitely Wife God could form fuch a Set of curious Organs, as we find every Species endowed with, for this very Ufe? Organs fo artificially made, fo exquifitely fitted up, that the more frictly we furvey them, the more accurately we view them

forehand against Winter. In the Time of Acorns falling, I have, by means of the Hogs, difcovered, that the Mice had, all over the neighbouring Fields, treafured up fingle Acorns in little Holes they had fcratched, and in which they had carefully covered up the Acorn. Thefe the Hogs would, Day after Day, hunt out by their Smell.