ANIMALS. 



209 



the males, forming a ring round them, oppose 

 their horns to the assailants. 



v Some animals, that feed upon fruits which 

 are to be found only at one time of the year, 

 fill their holes with several sorts of plants, 

 which enable them to lie concealed during the 

 hard frosts of the winter, contented with their 

 prison, since it affords them plenty and pro- 

 tection. These holes are dug with so much 

 art, that there seems the design of an architect 

 in the formation. There are usually two aper- 

 tures, by one of which the little inhabitant can 

 always escape, when the enemy is in possession 

 of the other. Many creatures are equally 

 careful of avoiding their enemies, by placing 

 a centinel to w ; arn them of the approach of j 

 danger. These generally perform this duty 

 by turns ; and they know how to punish such 

 as have neglected their post, or have been un- 

 mindful of the common safety. Such are a 

 part of the efforts that the weaker races of 

 quadrupeds exert to avoid their invaders; and, 

 in general, they are attended with success. 

 The arts of instinct are most commonly found 

 an overmatch for the invasions of instinct. 

 Man is the only creature against whom all 

 their little tricks cannot prevail. Wherever he 

 has spread his dominion, scarcely any flight 

 can save, or any retreat harbour ; wherever he 

 comes, terror seems to follow, and all society 

 ceases among the inferior tenants of the plain ; 

 their union against him can yield them no 

 protection, and their cunning is but weakness. 

 In their fellow-brutes, they have an enemy 

 whom they can oppose with an equality of 

 advantage; they can oppose fraud or swift- 

 ness to force, or numbers to invasion ; but 

 what can be done against such an enemy as 

 man, who finds them out though unseen ; and 

 though remote, destroys them ? Wherever he 

 comes, all the contest among the meaner ranks 

 seem to be at an end, or is carried on only by 

 surprise. Such as he has thought proper to 

 protect, have calmly submitted to his protec- 

 tion ; such as he has found it convenient to 

 destroy, carry on an unequal war, and their 

 numbers are every day decreasing. 



The wild animal is subject to few altera- 

 tions ; and, in a state of savage nature, con- 

 tinues for ages the same, in size, shape, and 

 colour. But it is otherwise when subdued, 

 and taken under the protection of man ; its 

 external form, and even its internal structure, 



are altered by human assiduity : and this is 

 one of the first and greatest causes of the va- 

 riety that we see among the several quadru- 

 peds of the same species. Man appears to 

 have changed the very nature of domestic ani- 

 mals, by cultivation and care. A domestic 

 animal is a slave that seems to have few other 

 desires but such as man is willing to allow it. 

 Humble, patient, resigned, and attentive, it 

 fills up the duties of its station ; ready for la- 

 bour, and content with subsistence. 



Almost all domestic animals seem to bear 

 the marks of servitude strong upon them. All 

 the varieties in their colour, all the fineness 

 and length of their hair, together with the de- 

 pending length of their ears, seem to have 

 arisen from a long continuance of domestic 

 slavery. What an immense variety is there 

 to be found in the ordinary race of dogs and 

 horses! the principal differences of which have 

 been effected by the industry of man, so adapt- 

 ing the food, the treatment, the labour, and 

 the climate, that Nature seems almost to have 

 forgotten her original design ; and the tame 

 animal no longer bears any resemblance to its 

 ancestors in the woods around him. 



In this manner, nature is under a kind of 

 constraint, in those animals we have taught to 

 live in a state of servitude near us. The 

 savage animals preserve the marks of their 

 first formation; their colours are generally the 

 same ; a rough dusky brown, or a tawny, seem 

 almost their only varieties. But it is other- 

 wise in the tame ; their colours arc various, 

 and their forms different from each other. The 

 nature of the climate indeed operates upon all; 

 but more particularly on these. That nourish- 

 ment which is prepared by the hand of man, 

 not adapted to their appetites, but to suit his 

 own convenience ; that climate, the rigours of 

 which he can soften; and that employment to 

 which they are sometimes assigned ; produce 

 a number of distinctions that are not to be 

 found among the savage animals. These, at 

 first, were accidental, but in time became here- 

 ditary ; and a new race of artificial monsters 

 are propagated, rather to answer the purposes 

 of human pleasure than their own convenience. 

 In short, their very appetites may be changed; 

 and those that feed only upon grass may be 

 rendered carnivorous. I have seen a sheep 

 that would eat flesh, and a horse that was 

 fond of ovsters. 



