352 THE ANTIQUITIES 



variety at their tables on fast days ; therefore the more 

 they abounded the better probably was the condition of the 

 inhabitants. 



More Particulars respecting the Old Family Tortoise^ omitted 

 in the Natural History. 



Because we call this creature an abject reptile, we are too 

 apt to undervalue his abilities, and depreciate his powers of 

 instinct. Yet he is, as Mr. Pope says of his lord, 

 *' Much too wise to walk into a well " : 



and has so much discernment as not to fall down an haha ; 

 but to stop and withdraw from the brink with the readiest 

 precaution. 



Though he loves warm weather he avoids the hot sun ; 

 because his thick shell, when once heated, would, as the 

 poet says of solid armour — "scald with safety." He 

 therefore spends the more sultry hours under the umbrella 

 of a large cabbage-leaf, or amidst the waving forests of an 

 asparagus-bed. 



But as he avoids heat in the summer, so, in the decline 

 of the year, he improves the faint autumnal beams, by 

 getting within the reflection of a fruit-wall : and, though he 

 never has read that planes inclining to the horizon receive 

 a greater share of warmth,^ he inclines his shell, by tilting 

 it against the wall, to collect and admit every feeble ray. 



Pitiable seems the condition of this poor embarrassed 

 reptile : to be cased in a suit of ponderous armour, which 

 he cannot lay aside ; to be imprisoned, as it were, within his 

 own shell, must preclude, we should suppose, all activity 

 and disposition for enterprise. Yet there is a season of the 

 year (usually the beginning of June) when his exertions 

 are remarkable. He then walks on tiptoe, and is stirring 



^ Several years ago a book was written entitled " Fruit-walls improved 

 by inclining them to the horizon " : in which the author has shown, by 

 calculation, that a much greater number of the rays of the sun will fall 

 on such walls than on those which are perpendicular. 



