STUDY X. 367 



This wonderful inftind is, likewife, confpicu- 

 oufly evident in the caméléon. That fpecies of li- 

 zard, whofe motion is extremely flow, is indemni- 

 fied for this, by the incomprehenfible faculty of 

 affuming, at pleafure, the colour of the ground 

 over which he moves. With this advantage, he 

 is enabled to elude the eye of his purfuer, whofe 

 fpeed would foon have overtaken him. The fa- 

 culty is in his will, for his fkin is by no means a 

 mirror. It refleds only the colour of objeds, and 

 not their form. What is farther fingularly re- 

 markable in this, and perfedly afcertained by Na- 

 tural ifts, though they affign no reafon for it, he 

 can affume all colours, as brown, gray, yellow, 

 and efpecially green, which is his favourite co- 

 lour, but never red. The caméléon has been 

 placed, for weeks together, amidft fcarlet fluffs, 

 without acquiring the flighteft Ihade of that colour. 

 Nature (eems to have with -held from the creature 

 this fliining hue, becaufe it could ferve only to 

 render him perceptible at a greater diflance; and, 

 farther, becaufe this colour is that of the ground 

 of no fpecies of earth, or of vegetable, on which 

 he is defigned to pafs his life. 



But, in the age of weaknefs and inexperience. 

 Nature confounds the colour of the harmlefs ani- 

 mals, with that of the ground on which they inhabit, 

 without committing to them the power of choice. 



The 



