FORMATION OF THE SLOTH. 155 



habits to read the details which have heen entered 

 into respecting him, they would probably suspect 

 that none had actually gone into the wilds to exa- 

 mine whether any blunder had been committed 

 in describing this extraordinary creature, which all 

 naturalists have delighted to represent as utterly 

 miserable and forlorn, as ill-constructed, and unfit 

 to enjoy the numerous blessings by which he is 

 surrounded. 



Let us now observe him in the depth of those 

 thick and noble forests which extend far and wide, 

 and are rarely penetrated. This, then, is the proper 

 place to go in quest of the Sloth ; and by recurring 

 to what has been already said respecting his con- 

 struction, we shall be able to account for his various 

 movements. His fore-legs, or, more correctly speak- 

 ing, his arms, are apparently much too long, while 

 his hind- legs are very short, and look as if they 

 could be twisted like a corkscrew; they are evi- 

 dently incapable of acting in a perpendicular direc- 

 tion, or of supporting him when he begins to walk. 

 Place him on the floor, and he moves with pain, for 

 he has no soles to his feet, and his claws are sharp 

 and long ; he is circumstanced exactly as we should 

 be if we endeavoured to rest on the ends of our toes 

 and fingers. The inhabitant of another planet, who 

 had never seen man before, would then naturally 

 exclaim, " What an awkward clumsy creature ! 

 How slowly he moves, stumbling at every step ! 

 Strange that a being should be thus formed only to 

 be unhappy ! " Thus we reason concerning things 

 of which we know nothing, and thus the natural 

 historian continually reasons while speaking of those 



