194 THE HISTOEY OF ANIMALS. [B. Till. 



BOOK THE EIGHTH. 



CHAPTER I. 



I. THE nature of animals and their mode of reproduction 

 has now been described. Their actions and mode of life 

 also differ according to their disposition and their food. 

 For almost all animals present traces of their moral dis- 

 positions, though these distinctions are most remarkable 

 in man. For most of them, as we remarked, when speaking 

 of their various parts, appear to exhibit gentleness or 

 ferocity, mildness or cruelty, courage or cowardice, fear 

 or boldness, violence or cunning ; and many of them ex- 

 hibit something like a rational consciousness, as we re- 

 marked in speaking of their parts. For they differ from 

 man, and man from the other animals, in a greater or less 

 degree ; for some of these traits are exhibited strongly in 

 man, and others in other animals. 



2. Others differ in proportion. For as men exhibit art, 

 wisdom, and intelligence, animals possess, by way of com- 

 pensation, some other physical power. This is most con- 

 spicuous in the examination of infants, for in them we see, 

 as it were, the vestiges and seeds of their future disposition ; 

 nor does their soul at this period differ in any respect from 

 that of an animal ; so that it is not unreasonable for animals 

 to present the same, or similar, or analogous appearances. 

 Nature passes so gradually from inanimate to animate things, 

 that from their continuity their boundary and the mean be- 

 tween them is indistinct. The race of plants succeeds imme- 

 diately that of inanimate objects ; and these differ from each 

 other in the proportion of life in which they participate ; 

 for, compared with other bodies, plants appear to possess 

 life, though, when compared with animals, they appear in- 

 animate. 



3. The change from plants to animals, however, is gra- 

 dual, as 3 before observed. For a person might question to 



