12 STUDIES OF NATURE, 



part of the objeds of our Arts and Sciences, and 

 even furpafs them. 



' j I fay nothing of thofe which build, which fpin, 

 •which manufadure paper, cloth, hives, and prac- 

 tife a multitude of other trades, of which we do 

 not fo much as know. But the torpedo defended 

 himfelf from his enemies by means of the eledric 

 Ihock, before Academies thought of making ex- 

 periments in eledricity ; and the limpet under- 

 ftood the power of the preffure of the air, and at- 

 tached itfelf to the rocks, by forming the vacuum 

 with its pyramidical (liell, long before the air- 

 pump was fet a going. The quails which annually 

 take their departure from Europe, on their way to 

 Africa, have fuch a perfed knowledge of the au- 

 tumnal Equinox, that the day of their arrival in 

 Malta, where they reft for twenty-four hours, is 

 marked on the almanacks of the ifland, about the 

 2 2d of Septpmber,and varies every year as the Equi- 

 nox. The fwan and wild duck have an accurate 

 knowledge of the Latitude where they ought to 

 ftop, when, every year they re-aftend, in Spring, 

 to the extremities of the North, and can find out, 

 without the help of compafs or odant, the fpot 

 where the year before they made their nefts. The 

 frigat which flies from Eaft to Welt, between the 

 Tropics, over vaft Oceans interrupted by no Land, 

 and which regains at night, at thç diftance of 



many 



