STUD7 VI. 339 



aïice of being invefted with a threefold mantle : 

 but, being deftined to live in the miry morafles of 

 India, where he grubs up with his horny fnout the 

 long roots of the bamboo, he would have been in 

 danger of finking, from his enormous weight, had 

 he not been endowed with the flrange faculty of 

 extending, by blowing himfelf up, the multiplied 

 folds of his ikin, and of rendering himfelf lighter, 

 by occupying a larger fpace. 



What to us appears, at firft fight, a deficiency 

 in animals, is, you may reft perfedly aflured, a 

 moft wonderful compenfation of Providence ; and 

 it would be, in many cafes, an exception from her 

 general laws, if Ihe had any other than the utility 

 and happinefs of the beings which (he has formed. 

 Hence (he has given to the elephant a probofcis, 

 which ferveshim, like a hand, as he fcrambles over 

 the rougheft mountains, where he delights to live, 

 in picking up the grafs of the field, and the foliage 

 of the trees, which the thicknefs and inflexibility 

 of his neck would not permit him otherwife to 

 reach. 



She has infinitely varied, among the animal cre- 

 ation, the means of defence, as well as thofe of 

 fubfiftence. It is impoffible to fuppofe that thofe 

 which move flovvly, or which fcream violently, are in 

 a ftate of habitual fufFering : for how could a race of 



z 2 creatures 



