of Mammlferous Anivials. 309 



described had lived, for these animals have nearly the same dis- 

 position. Placed in the. same circumstances, they have constant- 

 ly presented the same phenomena to us ; they have shewn us 

 that the one is as easily tamed as the other : that they become 

 equally attached to their keepers, experience the same feelings 

 for the benefits which they receive, and that their hatred or 

 their rage is provoked by the same causes ; that their sports 

 are similar, as well as the manifestations of their fears or de- 

 sires ; that they seize their prey with the same avidity, and 

 defend it with the same fury ; in a word, that their natural dis- 

 positions are absolutely the same. What has not been said of 

 the hyena ? Its very name has become the emblem of the most 

 sanguinary cruelty ; and, in imitation of BufFon, the most saga- 

 cious naturalists have adopted the prejudice which places this 

 animal in the first rank of ferocity. The truth is, that the hy- 

 ena, treated with kindness, comes to the feet of its master, hke 

 a dog, soliciting caresses and food ; and we have several times 

 seen it doing so. I might multiply examples of this kind to in- 

 finity, and hence prove, on the one hand, that, in a state of in- 

 dependence, animals exist under circumstances so concealed, 

 that we can only very rarely appreciate the influence which they 

 exercise over them ; and, on the other, that captivity, by afford- 

 ing us the means of withdrawing animals from the powers 

 which, in the contrary state, rule over or restrain them, in order 

 to subject them to the other powers, permits us to make a more 

 accurate and more complete examination of them ; and, in this 

 respect, we see that all the productions of nature are subjected 

 to the same rules. What should we have known in natural phi- 

 losophy, had we simply observed the phenomena which appear of 

 themselves in the actual state of the world, and not acted upon 

 them by instruments adapted for modifying them ; and does it 

 ever come into the mind of any onfe that the results which the 

 chemist obtains by artificial means are not natural, and are in- 

 capable of revealing to him the laws which form the object of 

 his researches ? But to shew the advantage which the study of 

 animals may derive from their captivity, examples more import- 

 ant than those which we have yet adduced are necessary. 



It is undoubtedly because we have constantly been in the ha- 

 bit of observing wild animals in a state of liberty alone, and be- 



