30O STUDIES OF NATURE. 



to have recourfe in all his doubts. She oppofes 

 harfhly, in hot countries as in cold, the colours 

 of dangerous and deftrudive animals. Venemous 

 reptiles are univerfally painted in gloomy colours. 

 Birds of prey are univerfally of an earthy hue op- 

 pofed to yellow, and white fpecks on a dark 

 ground, or dark fpotson alight ground. Nature 

 has given a yellow robe, ftriped with duiky 

 brown, and fparkling eyes, to the tyger lying in 

 ambufli under the fhade of the fcrefts of the 

 South : and (lie has tinged with black the fnouc 

 and paws, and with blood-colour the throat and 

 eyes, of the white bear, and thereby renders him 

 apparent, notvvithftanding the whitenefs of his fur, 

 amidft the fnows of the North. 



Of Forms. 



Let us now proceed to the generation of forms, 

 ]f I am not miftaken, the principles of thefe, like 

 thofe of colours, are reducible to five, namely, 

 the line, the triangle, the circle, the ellipfe, and 

 the parabola. 



The line generates all forms, as the ray of light 

 does all colours. It goes on progreffively, like 

 the other, in it's generations, flep by ftep, pro- 

 ducing 



