72 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



Man, with murmurs, with blcatings, with cries of 

 joy, bringing back to him the dehcious tribute of 

 innumerable plants, transformed, by a procefs the 

 mod inconceivable, into honey, milk, butter, eggs, 

 and cream. 



Man fubjefts, to his dominion, not only the 

 whole vegetable, but the whole animal creation, 

 though their fmallnefs, their fwiftnefs, their 

 ftrength, their cunning, nay, the very Elements, 

 may feem to exempt them from his jurifdidion. 



To begin with the infinite legions of infeds, his 

 duck and his hen feed upon them. Thefe fowls 

 fvvallow even various forts of venemous reptiles, 

 without fuftaining the flighted injury. His dog 

 fubdues for him every other fpecies of brute. The 

 numerous varieties of that animal are evidently 

 adapted to their feveral ufes and ends ; the fliep- 

 herd*s dog, for the wolf; the terrier, for the fox ; 

 the grey-hound, for animals of the plain ; themaf- 

 tiff, for thofe of the mountain ; the pointer, for 

 birds ; the vvater-fpaniel, for the amphibious race; 

 in a word, from the little lap-dog of Malta, formed 

 only for amufement, up to the huge hunter of the 

 Indies, who, according to Pliny and Plutarch, 

 fcorns to attack any thing inferior to the lion or 

 the elephant, and whofe breed ftill fubfifts among 

 the Tartars, their fpecies are fo varied, in form, in 



fize, 



