ANIMALS. 277 



The similitude of quadrupeds to man obtains also in the fixedness 

 of their nature, and their being less apt to be changed by the influ- 

 ence of climate or food, than the lower ranks of nature.* Birds are 

 vbund very apt to alter both in colour and size ; fishes, likewise, still 

 more ; insects may be quickly brought to change and adapt them- 

 selves to the climate ; and if we descend to plants, which may be 

 allowed to have a kind of living existence, their kinds may be sur- 

 prisingly and readily altered, 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 quadrupeds it admits of some va- 

 riation ; and the variety may be made greater still, as we descend to 

 the inferior classes of animal existence. 



Quadrupeds, although they are thus strongly marked, and in ge- 

 neral 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 

 them. If, for instance, we were to marshal the whole group of ani- 

 mals round man, placing the most perfect next him, and those most 

 equivocal near the classes they most approach, we should find it dif- 

 ficult, 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 some, be reckoned 

 among the birds. The porcupine has not less pretensions to that 

 class, being covered with quills, and showing that birds are not the 

 only part of nature that are furnished with such a defence. The. 

 armadillo might be referred to the tribe of insects, or snails, being, 

 like them, covered with a shell ; the seal and the morse might be 

 ranked among the fishes, like them being furnished with fins, and 

 almost constantly residing in the same element. All these, the far- 

 ther they recede from the human figure, become less perfect, and 

 may be considered as the lowest kinds of that class to which we have 

 referred them. 



But although the variety in quadrupeds is thus great, they all seem 

 well adapted to the stations in which they are placed. There is 

 scarce one of them, how rudely shaped soever, that is not formed to 

 enjoy a state of happiness fitted to its nature. All its deformities are 

 only relative to us, but all its enjoyments are peculiarly its own. 

 We may superficially suppose the sloth, that takes up months in 

 climbing a single tree, or the mole, whose eyes are too small for 

 distinct vision, are wretched and helpless creatures; but it is probable 

 that their life, with respect to themselves, is a life of luxury ; the 

 most pleasing food is easily obtained ; and as they are abridged 

 in one pleasure, it may be doubled in those which remain. 

 Quadrupeds, and all the lower kinds of animals, have, at worst, 

 but the torments of immediate evil to encounter, and this is 

 but transient and accidental ; man has two sources of calamity, 

 thai which he foresees, as well as that which he feels ; so tnit U 



* Buffon, vol. xviii. p. 179. 



