416 CONCLUSION. 



native element, and insects are secured in their 

 minuteness, numbers, and variety. Of all these, 

 therefore, we have but a very inadequate cata- 

 logue, and though the list be already very large, 

 yet every hour is adding to its extent. 



In fact, all knowledge is pleasant only as the 

 object of it contributes to render man happy ; 

 and the services of quadrupeds being so very ne- 

 cessary to him in every situation, he is particu- 

 larly interested in their history. Without their 

 aid, what a wretched and forlorn creature would 

 he have been ! The principal part of his food, 

 his clothing, and his amusements, are derived 

 wholly from them, and he may be considered as 

 a great lord, sometimes cherishing his humble 

 dependants, and sometimes terrifying the refrac- 

 tory, to contribute to his delight and convenien- 

 cies. 



The horse and the ass, the elephant, the camel, 

 the lama, and the rein-deer, contribute to ease 

 his fatigues, and to give him that swiftness which 

 he wants from nature. By their assistance he 

 changes place without labour ; he attains health 

 without weariness ; his pride is enlarged by the 

 elegance of equipage ; and other animals are pur- 

 sued with a certainty of success. It were happy 

 indeed for man, if, while converting these quad- 

 rupeds to his own benefit, he had not turned 

 them to the destruction of his fellow-creatures : 

 he has employed some of them for the purposes 

 of war, and they have conformed to his noxious 

 ambition with but too fatal an obedience. 



