An history of the earth, and animated nature / [Oliver Goldsmith].

  • Oliver Goldsmith
Date:
1790
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An history of the earth, and animated nature / [Oliver Goldsmith]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/424 page 10
    as yet undefcribed, and vegetables which want a name. In thofe recedes Nature feems rathe? lavifh than magnificent, in bellowing life* The trees are ufually of the largefi: kinds, covered round with parafite plants, and inter- woven at the tops with each other. The boughs, both above and below, are peopled with various generations; fome of which have never been upon the ground, and others, that have never ftirred from the branches on which they w?ere produced. In this manner millions of minute, and loathfome creatures, purfue a round of uninterrupted exiftence, and enjoy a life fcarce fuperior to vegetation. At the fame time, the vegetables, in thofe places, are of the larger kinds, while the animal race is of the fmaller: but, man has altered this dif- pofition of Nature; having, in a great meafure, levelled the extenfive forefts, cultivated the fofter and finer vegetables, deftroyed the num- berlefs tribes of minute and noxious animals, and taken every method to increafe a numerous breed of the larger kinds. He thus has ex- ercifed a fevere control; unpeopled Nature, to embellifti it; and diminifiied the fize of vege- table, in order to improve that of the animal kingdom.
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