NOTES ON BEAVERS. 103 



principle from which so many advantages are derived, is not confined 

 to the human species, but extends in some instances to every class of . 

 animals. 



Man possesses a portion of the reasoning faculty highly superior to 

 that of any other animal. He alone enjoys the power of expressing 

 his ideas by articulate and artificial language. With its aid, and the 

 habit of association, the human intellect in the progress of time 

 arrives at a high degree of perfection. 



Society gives rise to virtue, honour, government, subordination, art, 

 science, order, happiness ; under its auspices, as in a fertile climate, 

 human talents germinate and are expanded, the mechanical and 

 liberal arts flourish ; poets, orators, historians, philosophers, lawyers, 

 physicists, " microscopists," and theologians are produced, and its 

 advantages are immense despite the inconveniences, hardships, 

 injustice, oppressions, and cruelties which too often originate from it. 



Now Society may be divided into two kinds — 1st, Proper Societies, 

 in which the individuals not only live together in numbers, but also 

 carry on operations having a direct tendency to promote the welfare of 

 the community ; and 2nd, Improper Societies, in which the individuals 

 merely herd together from the love of company, without carrying on 

 any common operation. 



Next to the intelligence exhibited in human society, that of the 

 beavers is most conspicuous. Their operations in preparing, fashioning, 

 and transporting the heavy materials for building their winter 

 habitations are truly astonishing, and when we read their history we 

 are apt to think we are perusing the history of man in a period of 

 society not inconsiderably advanced. 



It is only by the united strength and co-operation of numbers that 

 the beavers could be enabled to produce such wonderful effects ; for in 

 a solitary state, as they at present appear in some northern parts of 

 Europe, the beavers are timid and stupid animals ; they neither 

 associate, nor attempt to construct villages, but content themselves 

 with digging holes in the earth. 



Like men under the oppi'ession of despotic governments, the spirit 

 of the European beavers is depressed and their genius extinguished 

 by terror and a perpetual and necessary attention to individual 

 safety. 



The northern parts of Europe are now so populous, and the 

 animals there are so perpetually hunted for the sake of their furs, that 

 they have no opportunity of associating, and of course those wonderful 

 marks of their sagacity, which they exhibit in the remote and unin- 

 habited regions of North America, are no longer to be found. 



The society of beavers is one of peace and of affection. They 

 never quarrel or injure one another, except durmg the period of court- 

 ship, for even amongst beavers Eve is ever the cause of evil, but 

 live together in different numbers, according to the dimensions of 

 ]iarticular cabins, in the most perfect harmony. 



