ANIMALS. 145 



upon each other are so rare, that it will be suffi- 

 cient particularly to apprize the reader when they 

 happen to be blended. 



There are many quadrupeds that we are well 

 acquainted with ; and of those we do not know 

 we shall form the most clear and distinct con- 

 ceptions, by being told wherein they differ, and 

 wherein they resemble those with which we are 

 familiar. Each class of quadrupeds may be rang- 

 ed under some one of the domestic kinds, that 

 may serve for the model by which we are to form 

 some kind of idea of the rest. Thus we may say 

 that a tiger is of the cat kind, a wolf of the dog 

 kind, because there are some rude resemblances 

 between each ; and a person who has never seen 

 the wild animals, will have some incomplete know- 

 ledge of their figure from the tame ones. On the 

 contrary, I will not, as some systematic writers 

 have done,* say that a bat is of the human kind, 

 or a hog of the horse kind, merely because there 

 is some resemblance in their teeth, or their paps. 

 For, although this resemblance may be striking 

 enough, yet a person who has never seen a bat or a 

 hog, will never form any just conception of either 

 by being told of this minute similitude. In short, 

 the method in classing quadrupeds should be taken 

 from their most striking resemblances ; and where 

 these do not offer, we should not force the simili- 

 tude, but leave the animal to be described as a 

 solitary species. The number of quadrupeds is so 

 few, that indeed, without any method whatever, 

 there is no great danger of confusion. 



* Linnaei Syst. 

 VOL. II. K 



