180 LONGEVITY OF ANIMALS. 



brance, savouring of terror and alarm. I am no 

 friend to the superstition of converting natural 

 transactions, or occasional events, into signs and 

 indications of coming things ; superstitions are 

 wearing out, and shortly will waste away, and be 

 no more heard of ; but I fear, in their place, deism, 

 infidelity, impiety, have started up, the offspring of 

 intuitive wisdom : the first belief arises from weak- 

 ness and ignorance ; the latter disbelief is ingrati- 

 tude, pride, wickedness. 



Of the natural duration of animal life it is, from 

 many circumstances, difficult to form an accurate 

 statement, the wild creatures being in great mea- 

 sure removed from observation, and those in a 

 condition of domestication being seldom permitted 

 to live as long as their bodily strength would allow. 

 It was formerly supposed that the length of animal 

 life was in proportion to its duration in utero, or 

 the space it remained in the parent from conception 

 to birth, and the length of time it required to obtain 

 maturity. This notion might have some support 

 in reason and fact, occasionally, but in many cases 

 was incorrect, and in regard to birds had no foun- 

 dation. Herbivorous animals probably live longer 

 than carnivorous ones, vegetable food being most 

 easily obtainable in all seasons in a regular and 

 requisite supply ; whereas animals that subsist on 

 flesh, or by the capture of prey, are necessitated at 

 one period to pine without food, and at another are 



