ANIMALS. 153 



of animals immediately below us ; and this shews 

 what little reason we have to be proud of our per- 

 sons alone, to the perfection of which quadrupeds 

 make such very near approaches. 



The similitude of quadrupeds to man obtains 

 also in the fixedness of their nature, and their 

 being less apt to be changed by the influence of 

 climate or food than the lower ranks of nature.* 

 Birds are found 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 surprisingly 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 dra- 

 pery is almost invariable ; in quadrupeds it ad- 

 mits of some variation ; 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 general 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 quadru- 

 ped class, or degraded to those below them. If, 

 for instance, we were to marshal the whole group 

 of animals round man, placing the most perfect 

 next him, and those most equivocal near the 



* Buffon, vol. xviii. p. 179. 



