158 HISTORY OF 



is proportioned to the nature of the food ; where 

 that is furnished in large quantities, the stomach 

 dilates to answer the increase. In domestic ani- 

 mals that are plentifully supplied, it is large ; in 

 the wild animals that live precariously, it is much 

 more contracted, and the intestines are much 

 shorter. 



In this manner, all animals are fitted by nature 

 to fill up some peculiar station. The greatest 

 animals are made for an inoffensive life, -to range 

 the plains and the forest without injuring others ; 

 to live upon the productions of the earth, the 

 grass of the fields, or the tender branches of trees. 

 These, secure in their own strength, neither fly 

 from any other quadrupeds, nor yet attack them ; 

 nature, to the greatest strength, has added the 

 most gentle and harmless dispositions : without 

 this, those enormous creatures would be more than 

 a match for all the rest of the creation j for what 

 devastation might not ensue, were the elephant, 

 or the rhinoceros, or the buffalo, as fierce and as 

 mischievous as the tiger or the rat ? In order to 

 oppose these large animals, and in some measure 

 to prevent their exuberance, there is a species of 

 the carnivorous kind, of inferior strength indeed, 

 but of greater activity and cunning. The lion 

 and the tiger generally watch for the larger kinds 

 of prey, attack them at some disadvantage, and 

 commonly jump upon them by surprise. None 

 of the carnivorous kinds, except the dog alone, 

 will make a voluntary attack but with the odds 

 on their side. They are all cowards by nature, 

 and usually catch their prey by a bound from 



