of Mamm'iferous Animals. 313 



" the result of common projects founded upon rational agree- 

 ments, of natural talents perfected by repose," he would only 

 have seen the fruits of an industry entirely mechanical, the re- 

 sults of a purely instinctive want. In fact, several sohtary bea- 

 vers on the banks of the Iser, the Rhone, and the Danube, have 

 shewn to us, in the numerous experiments to which we have sub- 

 jected them, that they are constantly impelled to build, without 

 however there resulting any other advantage to them than that 

 of satisfying a blind necessity, which they are somehow forced 

 to obey. 



One of the errors which the exclusive observation of wild ani- 

 mals gave rise to and kept up, and the influence of which has 

 been so manifestly exercised over all the systems which have 

 had for their object the natural state of man, and the effect of 

 different kinds of food upon his moral development, consists in 

 the belief that the herbivora have a milder, more tractable, and 

 more affectionate character, than the carnivora. The gazelle 

 became the emblem of gentleness as well as of beauty ; and it 

 was nearly the same with the hind and several other animals ha- 

 ving large eyes, and a timid and light gait ; while the tiger, the 

 panther, the hyena, the wolf, had only a brutal ferocity, and 

 manifested only feelings of hatred and cruelty. Closer obser- 

 vation, more circumstantial, and more calculated to shew us 

 these animals such as they are, obliges us completely to reverse 

 the application of these ideas, and to transfer to the one set of 

 animals what we had apphed to the other. In fact, all the adult 

 ruminantia, the males especially, are rude untractable animals, 

 which no good treatment softens, nor any benefit renders captive. 

 Although they recognise him who feeds them, they are still far 

 from being attached to him, and in administering to their wants 

 he must be always on his guard against them ; for the moment 

 he ceases to intimidate them, they are liable to strike him. It 

 would seem as if a secret feeling induced them to shun or to treat 

 as an enemy every species of animal foreign to their own. We 

 have seen that the case is very different, even with the animals 

 which feed the most exclusively upon flesh. The reason is, 

 that the one set of animals have a coarse and limited intellect, 

 while the others are not less remarkable for the extent than for 

 the delicacy and activity of theirs. So true it is, that even 



