NATURAL THEOLOGY. 223 



dealer in hare-skins and rabbit-skins knows how 

 much the fur is thickened by the approach of 

 winter. It seems to be a part of the same con- 

 stitution and the same design, that wool, in hot 

 countries, degenerates, as it is called, but in truth 

 (most happily for the animal's ease) passes into 

 hair : whilst, on the contrary, that hair, in the 

 dogs of the polar regions, is turned into wool, or 

 something very like it. To which may be re- 

 ferred, what naturalists have remarked, that bears, 

 wolves, foxes, hares, which do not take the water, 

 have the fur much thicker on the back than the 

 belly ; whereas in the beaver it is the thickest 

 upon the belly ; as are the feathers in water-fowl. 

 We know the final cause of all this, and we know 

 no other. 



The covering of birds cannot escape the most 

 vulgar observation : its lightness, its smoothness, 

 its warmth — the disposition of the feathers all 

 inclined backward, the down about their stem, the 

 overlapping of their tips, their different configura- 

 tion in different parts, not to mention the variety 

 of their colours, constitute a vestment for the 

 body, so beautiful, and so appropriate to the life 

 which the animal is to lead, as that, I think, we 

 should have had no conception of any thing 

 equally perfect, if we had never seen it, or can 

 now imagine any thing more so. Let us sup- 

 pose (what is possible only in supposition,) a per- 

 son who had never seen a bird to be presented 

 with a plucked pheasant, and bid to set his wits 



