The empire which man has over animals is an empire which revolution cannot overthrow; it is the empire of the spirit over matter; a right of nature, a power founded on unalterable laws, a gift of God, by which man may at all times discern the excellence of his being, for he does not rule them, because he is the most perfect, strongest, or the most dexterous of animals. If he was only the first rank of the same order, the others would unite to dispute the empire with him, but it is from the superiority of his nature that man reigns and commands: he thinks, and for this reason is master over beings that are incapable of thinking. He reigns over material bodies because they can only oppose to his will a sullen resistance, or an inflexible stupidity, which he can always overcome, by making them act against each other. He is master of the vegetable creation, which by his industry he can augment, diminish, renew, multiply, or destroy. He maintains a superiority over brutes, because like them he not only has motion and sensation, but possesses also the light of reason; governs his actions, concerts his operations, and overcomes force by cunning, and swiftness by perseverance. Nevertheless, among animals some appear familiar, others savage and ferocious. If we compare the docility and submission of the dog with the cruelty and ferocity of the tiger, the one will appear to be the friend of man, the other his enemy: his empire, then, over animals is not absolute. Many species can escape his power by the rapidity of their flight, by the obscurity of their retreats, and by the elements they inhabit. Others escape him from their minuteness, while others, who, far from respecting their sovereign, openly attack him. Besides these, he is insulted by the stings of insects, poisonous bites of serpents, and teased with many other unclean, troublesome, and useless creatures, that seem only to exist to form a shade between good and evil, and to make man comprehend how little respectable his fall has made him. But we must distinguish the empire of God from the domain of man: God, the Creator of all beings, is the sole master of nature. Man has no influence on the universe, the motions of the heavenly bodies, nor the revolutions of the globe which he inhabits; over animals, vegetables, or minerals, he has no general dominion; he can do nothing with species, his power only extends to individuals; for species in general, and matter in the gross, belong to, or rather constitute nature. All things pass away, follow, succeed, decay, or are renewed, by an irresistible power. Man, dragged on by the torrent of time, cannot prolong his existence; his body being linked to matter, he is forced to submit to the universal law; he obeys the same power, and, like the rest, comes into the world, grows to maturity, and dies.