Page:A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More.djvu/104

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1. The designed Usefulness of Animals for Man, as in particular of the Dog and the Sheep. 2. As also of the Oxe and other Animals. 3. Of Mans subduing the Creatures to himself. 4. Of those that are as yet untamed. 5. The excellent Usefulness of the Horse. 6. The Usefulness of some Animals that are Enemies to such Animals as are hatefull or noisome to Man.

E are now come to take a view of the nature of Animals: In the contemplation whereof we shall use much-what the same Method we did in that of Plants, for we shall consider in them also their Beauty, their Birth, their Make and Fabrick of body, and Usefulness to Mankind. And to dispatch this last first; It is wonderful easie and natural to conceive, that as almost all are made in some sort or other for humane uses, so some so notoriously and evidently, that without main violence done to our Faculties we can in no wise deny it. As to instance in those things that are most obvious and familiar; When we see in the solitary fields a Shepherd, his Flock and his Dog, how well they are fitted together, when we knock at a Farmer's door, and the first that answers shall be his vigilant Mastiff, whom from his use and office he ordinarily names Keeper; (and I remember, Theophrastus in his character Περὶ αγροικιας, tells us, that his Master when he has let the stranger in, ἐπὶλαβόμενος τοῦ ῥύγχους, taking his Dog by the snout, will relate long stories of his usefulness and his services he does to the house and them in it; Οὗτος φυλασσει τὸ χωρίον καὶ τοῖς οἰκίαν καὶ τοὺς ἔιδον, This is he that keeps the yard, the house and them within) lastly, when we view in the open Champain a brace of swift Grey-hounds coursing a good stout and well-breathed Hare, or a pack of well-tuned Hounds and Huntsmen on their horse-backs with pleasure and alacrity pursuing their game, or hear them winding their Horns near a wood side, so that the whole wood rings with the Echo of that Musick and chearful yelping of the eager Dogs; to say nothing of Duck-hunting, of Fox-hunting, of Otter-hunting, and a hundred more such like sports and pastimes, that are all performed by this one kind of Animal: I say, when we consider this so multifarious congruity and fitness of things in reference to our selves, how can we withhold from inferring, That that which made both Dogs and Ducks and Hares and Sheep, made them with a reference to us, and knew what it did when it made them? And though it be possible to be otherwise, yet it is highly improbable that the flesh of Sheep should not be designed for food for men; and that Dogs, that are such a familiar and domestick Creature to Man, amongst other pretty feats that they doe for him, should not be intended to supply the place of a Servitour too, and to take away the bones and scraps, that nothing might be lost. And unless we should expect that Nature should make Jerkins and Stockens grow out of the ground, what, could she doe better then afford us so fit materials for Cloathing as the