206 A HISTORY OF 



men have united the force of modesty to the power of their natural 

 charms, ad thus obtain that superiority over the mind which they are 

 unable to extort by their strength. 



CHAPTER VI. 



OP SLEEP AND HUNGER. 



As man, in all the privileges he enjoys, and the powers he is in- 

 vested with, has a superiority over all other animals, so in his neces- 

 sities he seems inferior to the meanest of them all. Nature has 

 brought him into life with a greater variety of wants and infirmities 

 than the rest of her creatures, unarmed in the midst of enemies. The 

 lion has natural arms ; the bear 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 being deprived of any good, teaches him the 

 value of his possession. Were men born with those advantages which 

 he learns to possess by industry, 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 a habitation. Every want thus becomes a means of plea- 

 sure in the redressing ; and the animal that has most desires, may be 

 said to be capable of the greatest variety of happiness. 



Besides the thousand imaginary wants peculiar 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 most surprisingly patient in enduring 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 boast- 

 ed philosopher. They receive their pittance at uncertain intervals, 

 and wait its coming with cheerful expectation. We have instances 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 op- 

 presses them ; still ready to exert their little services for his amusc- 

 nent or defence. But the patience of these is nothing to what the 

 A' imals 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 stomachs, to suit them for their precarious way ot 

 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 lemain- 

 ing in a state of torpid indifference till their prey approaches, when 

 ihey jump upon and seize it. In this manner, the snake or the spider 

 '.ontinue for several months together, to subsist upon a s ngU meal ; 



