Vi ; . lN|TR6l>UCTORY CHAPTER 



monkey, the provident foresight of the beaver, the sagacity of 

 the elephant, excite our astonishment. What can equal the 

 subtle artifices of predaceous animals, in seeking and catching 

 their prey, or those of the weaker and more timid, in eluding 

 the pursuits of the strong and ferocious ? In this, as in all other 

 things, we discover the wisdom of the Creator. Did not the 

 weaker animals use as many means of self-preservation, as the 

 stronger employ for their destruction, the former would soon be 

 exterminated, and the latter would afterwards perish for want 

 of subsistence. Animals, in their original state of wildness and 

 independence, are subject to few alterations ; but those which 

 are subdued, and domesticated by man, undergo through his 

 management considerable changes, both in their figure and dis- 

 positions. In the horse, the cow, and several other domestic 

 animals, we perceive a number of varieties, some of which, in- 

 deed, are the effects of nature, but more of them produced by 

 art or cultivation. The circumstances of soil and climate have 

 also a decided and well-known influence on the animal race, 

 in varying their size, their colour, or their covering. In the 

 hyperborean regions, Nature has furnished the quadruped cre- 

 ation with long and thickly planted hair, but with a lighter 

 and cooler vesture between the tropics ; and those which are 

 capable of being transported from the extreme of cold to that 

 of heat, or the contrary, are found upon experiment to assume 

 a dress adapted to the climate, a circumstance which shows the 

 wisdom of Providence, in providing for the necessities o? all 

 creatures. On the disposition and character of animals, the 

 influence of climate is very perceptible, and more easily ascer- 

 tained in regard to the brute creation, than the human species. 

 Man is so much the creature of association, imitation, and habit, 

 and so powerfully influenced by moral causes, as to render it 

 impossible to determine in what degree he is affected, or how 

 far his character is formed by those of a physical nature. Ex- 

 ternal impressions are sensibly felt by every thing that has life, 

 and both rational and irrational beings must in a greater or less 

 degree be subject to their influence. If, hcwever, in man the 

 effects of situation, and other physical circumstances, be diffi- 

 cult to distinguish from those of social institution and moral 

 habits, this difficulty does not exist in a view of the brute crea- 

 tion ; and the effects of climate and aliment are unequivocal ; 

 for between the tropics the same kind of animals are extremely 

 different from what they are in temperate climates ; in the former 

 they are more ferocious and daring, in the latter more timid 

 and mild. 



After this general survey, we will endeavour to vary the scene 

 by proceeding to individual description, in which we will find 



