154 SLOTH. 



the amount of pain must be trifling indeed. This 

 is generally the case throughout the universe. 

 Where the Creator has vouchsafed to any being a 

 peculiar capability for enjoyment, it appears to be 

 accompanied with a proportionate susceptibility of 

 pain. " "When," on the contrary, says an ancient 

 writer, " the pent- house of insensibility intercepts 

 the rays of the sun of joy, it is also an adequate 

 protection against the storms of sorrow." Could 

 we look throughout the fair creation we should find 

 the balance even ; its great Creator is not less just 

 than wise, less merciful than omnipotent. 



"We had written thus far, borrowing, as all writers 

 borrow, from those natural historians who often see 

 wild animals only in a captive state, and drawing our 

 conclusions from them, when Waterton's admirable 

 work was put into our hands. In reading it we 

 have found that the naturalists to whom we have 

 referred, if they had observed the Sloth in his native 

 wilds, would have formed more correct opinions. 

 Had they been acquainted with his economy and 

 haunts, they would have learned, that though all 

 other quadrupeds may be described while resting on 

 the ground, the Sloth is an exception. 



This animal, then, is designed by his Creator to 

 live on trees, and his habits must be observed in 

 these, his upper element. He is a scarce and soli- 

 tary creature, and being good food, the hunters 

 never allow him to escape. He inhabits remote and 

 gloomy forests, where snakes sojourn, and where 

 stinging ants and scorpions, with swamps and thorny 

 shrubs and bushes, obstruct the steps of civilized 

 man. "Were those who are acquainted with his 



