70 if. Cuvier on the Domestication of 



them than that of satisfying a blind necessity, which they are 

 somehow forced to obey. 



One of the errors which the exclusive observation of wild 

 animals gave rise to and kept up, and the influence of which 

 has been so manifestly exercised over all the systems which 

 have had for their object the natural state of man, and the effect 

 of different kinds of food upon his moral development, consisls 

 in the belief that the herbivora have a milder, more tractable, 

 and more affectionate character, than the carnivora. Closer 

 observations, more circumstantial, and more calculated to show 

 us these animals such as they are, obliges us completely to 

 reverse the applications of these ideas, and to transfer to the 

 one set of animals what we had applied lo the other. In fact, 

 all the adult ruminantia, the males especially, are rude untract- 

 able animals, which no good treatment softens, nor any benefit 

 renders captive. Wo have seen that the case is very different, 

 even with the animals which feed the most exclusively upon 

 flesh. The reason is, that the one set of animals have a coarse 

 and- limited intellect, while the others are not less remarkable 

 for the extent than for the delicacy and activity of theirs. So 

 true it is, that even in animals the development of this faculty is 

 more favorable than hurtful to the good feelings or benevolent 

 affections. 



If the existence, and th'e various circumstances of an animal 

 on any given part of the earth, ate the consequence of the 

 faculties and propensilies with which it is endowed, and of the 

 fixed or varying conditions which arc peculiar to this point of 

 the globe, from the moment that we know the general faculties 

 of its species, and its dispositions, we can determine, even in 

 advance, its individual actions in all the situations in which it 

 may be placed ? and it will no longer be required, in order to 

 determine the mode of existence of a peculiar species in a given 

 country, to follow them through all the details oi their existence, 

 or to hunt them for the purpose of getting hold of them; it will 

 be sufficient to appreciate correctly the circumstances in which 

 they are placed, which is a much easier matter, uud much less 

 subject to error. 



And now that it has been established as a firm principle that 

 animals never conduct themselves otherwise than in conformity 

 with their situation and faculties, 1 may enter upon my subject, 

 and consider the source and effects of domestication, without 

 any fear that the facts which I may have lo relate, or the 

 inferences which 1 shall draw from them, will be rejected under 

 the pretext of their not being natural. 



The absolute submission which we require of animals, and 

 the sort of tyranny with which we govern them, have led to the 



