702 



A HISTORY OF 



walking with a friend by a large pond in that 

 country, they saw a frog, when a pike lay 

 very sleepily and quiet by the shore side, leap 

 upon his head, and the frog having expressed 

 malice or anger by his swollen cheeks and 

 staring eyes, did stretch out his legs, and em- 

 braced the pike's head, and presently reached 

 them to his eyes, tearing with them and his 

 teelh those tender parts ; the pike, irritated 

 with anguish, moves up and down the water, 

 and rubs himself against weeds, and whatever 

 he thought might quit him of his enemy ; but 

 all in vain, for the frog did continue to ride 

 triumphantly, and to bite and torment the 



[Another tribe of this family, is the Tree-frog : these 

 animals have a much slenderer and more elegant shape 

 than the common frog, and have the limhs longer. At 

 the end of each toe is a round, fleshy, concave substance, 



pike till his strength failed, and then the 

 frog sunk with the pike to the bottom of the 

 water : then presently the frog appeared again 

 at the top, and croaked, and seemed to rejoice 

 like a conqueror ; after which he presently 

 retired to his secret hole. The bishop, that 

 had beheld the battle, called his fisherman to 

 fetch his nets, and by all means to get the 

 pike, that they might declare \vhat had hap- 

 pened. The pike was drawn forth, and both 

 his eyes eaten out ; at which when they began 

 to wonder, the fisherman wished them to for- 

 bear, and assured them he was certain that 

 pikes were often so served." 



which exudes an unctuous matter, which enables it to ad- 

 here to the leaves and brandies of trees, &c. in search of 

 insects. They are found in France, Germany, Italy, and 

 America.] 



CHAPTER CLIX. 



OF THE TOAD, AND ITS VARIETIES. 



IF we regard the figure of the toad, there 

 seems nothing in it that should disgust more 

 than that of the frog. Its form and propor- 

 tions are nearly the same ; and it chiefly dif- 

 fers in colour, which is blacker ; and its slow 

 and heavy motion, which exhibits nothing of 

 the agility of the frog : yet such is the force 

 of habit, begun in early prejudice, that those 

 who consider the one as a harmless playful 

 animal, turn from the other with horror and 

 disgust. The frog is considered as an useful 

 assistant, in ridding our grounds of vermin ; 

 the toad, as a secret enemy, that only wants 

 an opportunity to infect us with its venom. 



Tiie imagination, in this manner biassed by 

 its terrors, paints out the toad in the most 

 hideous colouring, and clothes it in more than 

 natural deformity. Its body is broad ; Its 

 back flat ; covered with a dusky pimpled hide; 

 the belly is large and swagging; the pace 

 laboured and crawling ; its retreat gloomy 

 and filthy ; and its whole appearance calcu- 

 lated to excite disgust and horror : yet, upon 

 my first seeing a toad, none of all these defor- 

 mities in the least affected me with sensations 



of loathing : born as I was, in a country 

 where there are no toads, I had prepared my 

 imagination for some dreadful object ; but 

 there seemed nothing to me more alarming in 

 the sight, than in that of a common frog ; 

 and, indeed, for some time, I mistook and, 

 handled the one for the other. When first in- 

 formed of my mistake, I very well remember 

 my sensations : I wondered how I had 

 escaped with safety, after handling and dis- 

 secting a toad, which I had mistaken for a 

 frog. I then began to lay in a fund of horror 

 against the whole tribe, which, though con- 

 vinced they are harmless, I shall never get rid 

 of. My first imaginations were two strong 

 not only for my reason, but for the conviction 

 of my senses. 



As the toad bears a general resemblance of 

 figure to the frog, so also it resembles that 

 animal in its nature and appetites. Like the 

 frog, the toad is amphibious; like that animal, 

 it lives upon worms and insects, which it 

 seizes by darting out its length of tongue ; 

 and in the same manner also it crawls about 

 in moist weather. The male and female 



