ANIMALS. 



153 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



OF SLEEP AND HUNGER. 



AS man, in all the privileges he enjoys, and 

 the powers he is invested with, has a superi- 

 ority over all other animals, so, in his necessities, 

 he seems inferior to the meanest of them all. 

 Nature has brought him into life with a greater 

 variety of wants and infir siities than the rest 

 of her creatures, unarmed in the midst of ene- 

 mies. The lion has natural arms; th:- l>< ar 

 natural clothing ; but man is destitute of all 

 such advantages ; and, from the superiority of 

 his mind alone, he is to supply the deficiency. 

 The number of his wants, however, were 

 merely given, in order to multiply the number 

 of his enjoyments ; since the possibility of be- 

 ing deprived of any good, teaches him the value 

 of its possession. Were .HMD born with those 

 advantages which he learns to possess by in- 

 clu*try, he would very probably enjoy them 

 with a blunter relish ; it is by being naked, 

 that he knows the value of a covering ; it is by 

 being exposed to the weather, that he learns 

 the comforts of an habitation. Every want 

 thus becomes a means of pleasure, in the re- 

 dressing; and the animal that has most desires, 

 may be said to be capable of the greatest 

 variety of happiness. 



Beside the thousand imaginary wants pecu- 

 liar to man, there are two, which he has in 

 common with all other animals ; and which he 

 feels in a more necessary manner than they. 

 These are the wants of sleep and hunger. 

 Every animal that we are acquainted with, 

 seems to endure the want of these with much 

 less injury to health than man ; and some are j 

 most surprisingly patient in sustaining both. 

 The little domestic animals that we keep about 

 us, may often set a lesson of calm resignation, 

 in supporting want and watchfulness, to the 

 boasted philosopher. They receive their pit- 

 tance at uncertain intervals, and wait its coming j 

 with cheerful expectation. We have instances j 

 of the dog and the cat living in this manner, 

 without food, for several days ; and yet still ! 

 preserving their attachment to the tyrant that 

 oppresses them ; still ready to exert their little 



services for his amusement or defence. But 

 the patience of these is nothing, to what the 

 animals of the forest endure. As these mostly 

 live upon accidental carnage, so they are often 

 known to remain without food for several 

 weeks together. Nature, kindly solicitous for 

 their support, has also contracted their sto- 

 machs, to suit them for their precarious way 

 of living: and kindly, while it abridges the 

 banquet, lessens the necessity of providing for 

 it. But the meaner tribes of animals are made 

 still more capable of sustaining life without food, 

 many of them remaining in a state of torpid 

 indifference, till their prey approaches, when 

 j they jump upon and seize it. In this manner 

 the snake, or the spider, continue, for several 

 months together, to subsist upon a single meal ; 

 and some of the butterfly kinds live upon little 

 or nothing. But it is very different with man : 

 his wants daily make their importunate de- 

 mands ; and it is known, that he cannot con- 

 tinue to live many days without eating, drink- 

 ing, and sleeping. 



Hunger is a much more powerful enemy to 

 man than watchfulness, and kills him much 

 sooner. It may be considered as a disorder 

 that food removes ; and that would quickly be 

 fatal, without its proper antidote. In fact, it is 

 so terrible to man, that to avoid it he even en- 

 counters certain death ; and, rather than en- 

 dure its tortures, exchanges them for immediate 

 destruction. However, by what I have been 

 told, it is much more dreadful in its approaches, 

 than in its continuance ; and the pains of a 

 famishing wretch decrease, as his strength di- 

 minishes. In the beginning, the desire of food 

 ! is dreadful indeed, as we know by experience, 

 for there are few who have not in some degree, 

 felt its approaches. But, after the first or 

 second day, its tortures become less terrible, 

 and a total insensibility at length comes kindly 

 in to the poor wretch's assistance. I have 

 talked with the captain of a ship, who was one 

 of six that endured it in its extremities ; and 

 who was the only person that had not lost his 



