202 HISTORY OF 



CHAPTER XII. 



OF THE ASS.* 



ALTHOUGH this animal is very easily distinguished 

 from the horse at first sight, yet, upon closer in- 

 spection, the similitude between them is very 

 striking. They have both a similar outline in the 

 external parts ; the same conformation within. 

 One would be led, from the great resemblance 

 there is between them, to suppose them of the 

 same species, and that the ass was only a horse 

 degenerated ; however, they are perfectly distinct, 

 and there is an inseparable line drawn between 

 them, for the mule they produce is barren. This 

 seems to be the barrier between every species of 

 animals ; this keeps them asunder, and preserves 

 the unities of their form. If the mule, or the 

 monster bred between two animals whose form 

 nearly approaches, is no longer fertile, we may 

 then conclude that these animals, however resem- 

 bling, are of different kinds. Nature has provi- 

 dently stopped the fruitfulness of these ill-form- 

 ed productions, in order to preserve the form of 

 every animal uncontaminated : were it not for 

 this, the races would quickly be mixed with eacli 

 other, no one kind would preserve its original 

 perfection, every creature would quickly degene- 



* Many parts of this account arc extracted from Daubeiiton and Buffon, 

 which I mention here to avoid troubling the reader with a multiplicity of 

 quotations. 



