340 STtJDIES OF NATURE* 



creatures always fickly perpetuate itfelf, nay, he-* 

 come one of the mod univ^rfally diffufed of the 

 whole Globe ? The fluggard, or floth, is found in 

 Africa, in Afia, and in America. His tardinefs is 

 no more a paralytic affeflion, than that of the 

 turtle and of the fnail. The cries which he utters, 

 when "you go near him, are not the cries of pain. 

 But among animals, fome being deftined to roam 

 about over the face of the Earth, others to remain 

 fixed on a particular poft, their means of defence 

 are varied with their manners. Some elude their 

 enemies by flight ; others repel them by hiffings, 

 by hideous figures, by poifonous fmells, or lamen- 

 table cries. There are fome which deceive the eye, 

 fuch as the fnail, which aflumes the colour of the 

 walls, or of the bark of trees, to which he flees for 

 refuge ; others, by a magic altogether inconceiv- 

 able, transform themfelves, at pleafure, into the 

 colour of furrounding objeds, as the caméléon. 



O, how flerll is the imagination of Man, com- 

 pared to the intelligence of Nature ! He has pro- 

 duced no one thing, in any line whatever, of 

 which he has not borrowed the model from her 

 Works. Genius itfelf, about which fuch a noife 

 is made, this creative genius, which our wits fondly 

 imagine they brought into the world with them, 

 and have brought to perfe6lion in learned circles, 

 or by the affiftance of books, is neither lefs nor 



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