294 BEAVER IN THE WILD STATE. 



tachmentj subservient to various important pui*poses, 

 that we tame and teach those generous and affectionate 

 animals. And here I must pause, to observe the wise 

 order of Providence in setting certain Umits to the do- 

 minion of man, over the subordinate creatures. Those 

 which, from their habits or the peculiar conformation 

 of their bodies, are not fitted to love us, or labour in 

 our service, as the dog and the horse, or to clothe or 

 feed us, as kine, sheep, and poultry, resist all our 

 efforts to domesticate them, by refusing to continue 

 their species in that state of imprisonment and de- 

 gradation to which we would subject them. All 

 those whom their nature and instincts peculiarly fit 

 for consuming the waste fertility of the untrodden 

 forests, or for pursuing their prey where the hot and 

 enervating climate might sink the inhabitants into 

 unmanly softness, without such an enemy to stimu- 

 late their courage and prompt their vigilance ; such 

 animals refuse the yoke of subjection, and, in con- 

 finement, their instinct decays, or appears in some 

 mode useless to themselves and pernicious to others, 

 of which many instances might be given. 



The beaver, in particular, in his native state, is 

 superior in forethought, and something like intelli- 

 gence, to every inhabitant of the wild. He is politic, 

 vigilant, social, and, one might almost add, patriotic, 

 when his incessant labours for the public good are 



