( 168 ) 



when he caught a toad, for then, he appeared ahnoft mad, violently 

 Ihaking his head, and, great quantities of frotli or Haver ill'uing out 

 of his mouth ; but he was accullomed, before he began to bite the 

 toads, repeatedly to take them in his mouth, and dalh them againll 

 tlie ground. 



This virulent liquid in frogs and toads, they do not, in my opinion, 

 emit, except upon extraordinary occafions, when they are irritated, 

 for it is a natural inftin6l in all animals, carefully to preferve that, 

 which Nature has given them for their defence. So the Scorpion, 

 whofe weapon of defence is his iting, does, while creeping or running 

 .along, carry the point of the fting turned inward, towards his body, 

 in order to preferve it from injury. 



This fagacity, and the other faculties we obferve in animals, cannot 

 be fuppofed to be produced fpontaneoufly, nor that, with the crea- 

 ture it is bred from corruption or putrefaction, but, we ought to lay it 

 down as a certain pofition, that thcfe faculties implanted in animals, 

 at the Beginning, have been, by a conftant fucceflion, tranfmitted to 

 their offspring ; forafmuch as we are not to fuppol'e that any new 

 animal, or fpecies of animals, is created at this day. In a word, the 

 make and flru6hire of every creature, and the powers implanted in it, 

 muff, in my judgment, be afcribed to God alone, the Creator of the 

 Unjverfe. 





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