808 M. Cuvier on the Dcmiestication 



the circumstances where human industry does not interfere, that 

 are the best calculated to make animals act in a manner favour- 

 able to the unfolding of their faculties. The equilibrium which 

 is constantly tending to establish itself among all the powers 

 which simultaneously act here below, gives to the most energe- 

 tic a preponderance over the more feeble, which never leaves 

 the latter the liberty of acting ; and it is only by mastering these 

 predominating powers, by attenuating them, that we come to 

 discover the others, that we render them sensible, and vary their 

 effects. 



In their natural independence, that is to say, such as it may 

 be in all the circumstances in which it naturally occurs, animals 

 are under the yoke of these predominating powers : and they 

 may then inform us of the place which they occupy among the 

 other beings submitted to the same powers, of the relations in 

 which they stand to them, and of the influence which they ex- 

 ercise in the general economy ; but, in this state, they can only, 

 in common, afford us very confined and always doubtful ideas, 

 regarding their general faculties ; for, in this case, it does 

 not depend upon us to submit them to experiment, in order to 

 confirm our conjectures. Let us ask in fact, what is the know- 

 ledge that has been obtained from the observation of animals in 

 a state of liberty alone ? The answer will be easy and impos- 

 ing ; it is to the greatest of naturalists that we are indebted for 

 it; to Buffon, who tells us what every body has repeated after 

 him, " that to fierceness, courage and strength, the lion joins 

 nobility, clemency and magnanimity ; that he often forgets he 

 is king, that is to say the strongest of all animals ; that, walk- 

 ing with a tranquil pace, he never attacks man, unless when pro- 

 voked; that he does not accelerate his steps, or run, or pursue, un- 

 less when pressed by hunger ; that the tiger, on the other hand, 

 while meanly ferocious, cri^el without justice, that is to say, 

 without necessity, seems always thirsty of blood, although satiated 

 with flesh ; that his fury has no other interval than that of the 

 time necessary for preparing new ambushes ; that he seizes and 

 tears a new prey with the same rage which he has just exercised,, 

 but not assuaged, in devouring the first,'' &c. 



Now these differences between the lion and the tiger, can 

 only be relative to the circumstances in which the individuals so 



