COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 145 



instances, done for those animals which are incaj^ able of art. 

 Their clothing, of its own accord, changes with their neces- 

 sities. This is particularly the case with that large tribe of 

 quadrupeds which are covered with furs,. Every dealer in 

 hare-skins and rabbit-skins knows how much the fur is thick- 

 i^ned by the approach of winter. It seems to be a part of 

 [lie same constitution and the same design, that wool, in hot 

 rountries, degenerates, as it is called, but in truth — most 

 happily for the animal's ease — passes into hair ; while, on 

 the contrary, that hair, in the dogs of the polar regions, is 

 turned into wool, or something very like it. To which may 

 be referred, what naturalists have remarked, that bears, 

 wolves, foxes, hares, which do not take the water, have the 

 fur much thicker on the back than the belly ; whereas in 

 the beaver it is the thickest upon the belly, as are the feath- 

 ers in water-fowl. We know the final cause of all this, and 

 we know no other. 



The covering of birds cannot escape the most vulgar 

 observation ; its lightness, its smoothness, its warmth — ^the 

 disposition of the feathers all inclined backward, the down 

 about their stem, the overlapping of their tips, their different 

 configuration in different parts, not to mention the variety 

 of their colors, constitute a vestment for the body so beau- 

 tiful, and so appropriate to the life which the animal is to 

 lead, as that, I think, we should have had no conception of 

 any thing equally perfect, if we had never seen it, or can 

 now imagine any thing more so. Let us suppose — what is 

 possible only in supposition — a person who had never seen 

 a bird, to be presented with a plucked pheasant, and bid to 

 set his wits to work how to contrive for it a covering which 

 shall finite the qualities of warmth, levity, and least resist- 

 ance to the air, and the highest degree of each ; giving it 

 ilso as much of beauty and ornament as he could afford. 

 He is the person to behold the work of the Deity, in this part 

 of his creation, with the sentiments which are due to it. 



The commendation which the general aspect of the feath- 



Vnt. Theol. 7 



