ANIMALS. 



205 



midable rival; and the destruction of such 

 was the first employment of heroes. But 

 when he began to multiply, and arts to accu- 

 mulate, he soon cleared the plains of the most 

 noxious of these his rivals; a part was taken 

 under his protection and care, while the rest 

 found a precarious refuge in the burning de- 

 sert, or the howling wilderness. 



From being rivals, quadrupeds have now 

 become the assistants of man; upon them he 

 devolves the most laborious employments, 

 and finds in them patient and humble coad- 

 jutors, ready to obey, and content witu the 

 smallest retribution. It was not, however, 

 without long and repeated efforts that the 

 independent spirit of these animals was 

 broken ; for the savage freedom, in wild ani- 

 mals, is generally found to pass down through 

 several generations before it is totally sub- 

 dued. Those cats and dogs that are taken 

 from a state of natural wildness in the forest, 

 still transmit their fierceness to their young; 

 and, however concealed in general, it breaks 

 out upon several occasions. Thus the assi- 

 duity and application of man in bringii.g them 

 up, not only alters their disposition, but their 

 very forms; and the difference between ani- 

 mals in a state of nature and domestic tame- 

 ness, is so considerable, that Mr. Buffbn has 

 taken this as a principal distinction in class- 

 ing them. 



In taking a cursory view of the form of 

 quadrupeds, we may easily perceive, that of 

 all the ranks of animated nature, they bear 

 the nearest resemblance to man. This simi- 

 litude will be found more striking when, 

 erecting themselves on their hinder feet, they 

 are taught to walk forward in an upright 

 posture. We then see that all their extremi- 

 ties in a manner correspond with ours, and 

 present us with a rude imitation of our own. 

 In some of the ape kind the resemblance is so 

 striking, that anatomists are puzzled to find 

 in what part of the human body man's supe- 

 riority consists; and scarcely any but the 

 metaphysician can draw the line that divides 

 them. 



But if we compare their internal structure 

 with our own, the likeness will be found still 

 to increase, and we shall perceive many ad- 

 vantages they enjoy in common with us, above 

 the lower tribes of nature. Like us, they are 



placed above the class of birds, by bringing 

 forth their young alive ; like us, they are pla- 

 ced above the class of fishes, by breathing 

 through the lungs; like us, they are placed 

 above the class of insects, by having red blood 

 circulating through their veins; and, lastly, 

 like us, they are different from almost all the 

 other classes of animated nature, being either 

 wholly or partly covered with hair. Thus 

 nearly are we represented, in point of confor- 

 mation, to the class of animals immediately 

 below us ; and this shows w hat little reason 

 we have to be proud of our persons alone, 

 to the perfection of which quadrupeds make 

 such very near approaches. 



The similitude of quadrupeds to man ob- 

 tains also in the fixedness of their nature, and 

 their being less apt to be changed by the in- 

 fluence of climate or food, than the lower ranks 

 of nature. 3 Birds are found very apt to alter 

 both in colour and size ; fishes likewise still 

 more ; insects may be quickly brought to 

 change and adapt themselves to the climate ; 

 and if we descend to plants, which may be al- 

 lowed to have a kind of living existence, their 

 kinds may be surprisingly and readily alter- 

 ed, and taught to assume new forms. The 

 figure of every animal may be considered as 

 a kind of drapery, which it may be made to 

 put on or off by human assiduity : in man, 

 the drapery is almost invariable ; in quadru- 

 peds, it admits of some variation ; and the 

 variety may be made greater still, as we de- 

 scend to the inferior classes of animal exist- 

 ence. 



Quadrupeds, although they are thus strong- 

 ly marked, and in general divided from the 

 various kinds around them, yet some of them 

 are often of so equivocal a nature, that it is 

 hard to tell whether they ought to be ranked 

 in the quadruped class, or degraded to those 

 below (hern. If, for instance, we were to 

 marshal the whole group of animals round 

 man, placing the most perfect next him, and 

 those most equivocal near the classes they 

 most approach, we should find it difficult, after 

 the principal had taken their stations near 

 him, where to place many that lie at the out- 

 skirts of this phalanx. The bat makes a near 

 approach to the aerial tribe, and might, by 



" Buflbn, vol. xviii. p. 179. 



2N 



