168 HISTORY OF 



quelled by any efforts from man, and being still 

 farther stimulated by the severity of the weather, 

 they continue fierce and untractable. Most of 

 the attempts which have hitherto been made to 

 tame the wild beasts brought home from the Pole 

 or the Equator, have proved ineffectual. They 

 are gentle and harmless enough while young ; but 

 as they grow up, they acquire their natural fero- 

 city, and snap at the hand that feeds them. It 

 may indeed in general be asserted, that in all 

 countries where the men are most barbarous, the 

 beasts are most fierce and cruel : and this is but 

 a natural consequence of the struggle between 

 man and the more savage animals of the forest ; 

 for in proportion as he is weak and timid, they 

 must be bold and intrusive ; in proportion as his 

 dominion is but feebly supported, their rapacity 

 must be more obnoxious. In the extensive coun- 

 tries, therefore, lying round the Pole, or beneath 

 the Line, the quadrupeds are fierce and formida- 

 ble. Africa has ever been remarked for the bru- 

 tality of its men, and the fierceness of its animals : 

 its lions and its leopards are not less terrible than 

 its crocodiles and its serpents ; their dispositions 

 seem entirely marked with the rigours of the cli- 

 mate ; and being bred in an extreme of heat, 

 they show a peculiar ferocity, that neither the 

 force of man can conquer, nor his arts allay. 

 However, it is happy for the wretched inhabitants 

 of those climates, that its most formidable animals 

 are all solitary ones ; that they have not learnt 

 the art of uniting to oppress mankind, but each, 



