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PART II. 

 OF ANIMALS. 



CHAPTER I. 



A COMPARISON OP ANIMALS WITH THE INFERIOR RANKS OP 

 CREATION. 



HAVING given an account of the earth in general, and the advan 

 tages and inconveniences with which it abounds, we now come to con 

 sider it more minutely. Having described the habitation, we are na- 

 turally led to inquire after the inhabitants. Amidst the infinitely 

 different productions which the earth offers, and with which it is every 

 where covered, animals hold the first rank ; as well because of the 

 finer formation of their parts, as of their superior power. The vege- 

 table, which is fixed to one spot, and obliged to wait for its accidental 

 supplies of nourishment, may be considered as the prisoner of nature. 

 Unable to correct the disadvantages of its situation, or to shield itself 

 from the dangers that surround it, every object that has motion, may 

 be its destroyer. 



But animals are endowed with powers of motion and defence. The 

 greatest part are capable, by changing place, of commanding nature ; 

 and of thus obliging her to furnish that nourishment which is most 

 agreeable to their state. Those few that are fixed on one spot, even in 

 this seemingly helpless situation, are, nevertheless, protected from ex- 

 ternal injury by a hard shelly covering, which they often can close 

 at pleasure, and thus defend themselves from every assault. And 

 here, I think, we may draw the line between the animal and vegeta- 

 ble kingdoms. Every animal, by some means or other, finds protec- 

 tion from injury ; either from its force, or courage, its swiftness, or 

 cunning. Some are protected by hiding in convenient places, and 

 others by taking refuge in a hard resisting shell. But vegetables are 

 totally unprotected ; they are exposed to every assailant, and patiently 

 submissive in every attack. In a word, an animal is an organized be- 

 ing that is in some measure provided for its own security ; a vegetable 

 is destitute of every protection. 



But though it is very easy, without the help of definitions, to dis- 

 tinguish a plant from an animal, yet both possess many properties so 

 much alike, that the two kingdoms, as they are called, seem mixed with 

 each other. Hence, it frequently puzzles the naturalist to tell exactly 

 where animal life begins, and vegetative terminates ; nor indeed, is ii 

 easy to resolve, whether some objects offered to view, be of the low 

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