ANIMALS. 3 



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 remaining in a state of torpid in- 

 difference till their prey approaches, when they 

 jump upon and seize it. In this manner, t,he 

 snake, or the spider, continue for several months 

 together to subsist upon a single meal ; and some 

 of the butterfly kinds live upon little or nothing. 

 But it is very different with man : his wants daily 

 make their importunate demands ; and it is known 

 that he cannot continue to live many days with- 

 out eating, drinking, and sleeping. 



Hunger is a much more powerful enemy to 

 man than watchfulness, and kills him much sooner. 

 It may be considered as a disorder that food re- 

 moves ; and that would quickly be fatal, with- 

 out its proper antidote. In fact, it is so terrible 

 to man, that to avoid it he even encounters cer- 

 tain death ; and, rather than endure its tortures, 

 exchanges them for immediate destruction. How- 

 ever, by what I have been told, it is much more 

 dreadful in its approaches than in its continuance ; 

 and the pains of a famishing wretch decrease as 

 his strength diminishes. In the beginning, the 

 desire of food is dreadful indeed, as we know by 

 experience ; for there are few who have not in 

 some degree felt its approaches. But, after the 

 first or second day, its tortures become less ter- 

 rible, and a total insensibility at length comes 

 kindly in to the poor wretch's assistance. I have 

 talked with the captain of a ship, who was one of 

 six that endured it in its extremities ; and who 



