[Three Hundred Animals Contents]
ACCORDING to the relations of navigators the Whale produces one or two cubs at a time, which she suckles with her teats, for the whole space of one year. At the moment of their birth the young are about ten feet in length, and follow the dam as calves do the cow; but when she is in fear, and flees from danger, she grasps her cubs within her fins and plunges with astonishing velocity to the most profound regions of the deep, where, secure from the attack of man, she enjoys the pleasures of maternal love; no animals appearing more fond of their offspring than the Whales.
When we reflect that the same power whose will has formed the immense bulk of this marine monster, has also given animation, senses, and passions to the smaller of the microscopic animalcules, how lowered must be the pride of man, who standing in the middle, and nearly at equal distance from both, is yet unable to comprehend the mechanism which puts them in motion, and much less that and power which has given them life, and has assigned to them their respective stations in the universe. Let us then exclaim with astonishment and gratitude with the psalmist: “O Lord how inscrutable are thy ways, how magnificent thy works!”