OF NATURAL HISTORY. 69 



enabled to reach the furface of the earth with eafe, the legs 

 of the larger kinds are proportionally fliort ; their head and 

 neck long ; and the muicles and tendons of the neck are en- 

 dowed with prodigious firength. Without thefe peculiari- 

 ties of ftru£ture, they could not fupport the prone pofture of 

 the head in the tedious operation of browfing large quantities 

 of herbage. The arrangement and form of their teeth like- 

 wife indicate the deftinaticn of the ruminating tribes. They 

 have no cutting teeth in the upper jaw -, and they are totally 

 deprived of tulks, or canine teeth. This laft circumftance, 

 joined to their want of claws, {hews that they are not intend- 

 ed to prey upon other animals. Horns are the only weapons 

 of defence with which they are provided. From the nature 

 of their food, therefore, and the internal and external con- 

 figuration of their bodies, it is evident, that animals of this 

 defcription mud be humble in their deportment and mild in 

 their difpofition. This order of animals, accordingly, have 

 uniformly been celebrated for gentlenefs of manners, fub- 

 miffion, aud timidity. Man has availed himfelf of thofe dif- 

 pofitions, by reducing almofl the whole of this tribe to a do- 

 meilic flate. But, in all this gracioufnefs of afpe£t and tra£la- 

 bility of temper, the animals themfelves have no merit. 

 Their motions and adlions are neceffary refults of the organs 

 which Nature has beftowed on them. It is obvious, there- 

 fore, that the diverfity of tafles and difpofitions exhibited by 

 different animals, arifes not folely from any fuperior agreea- 

 blenefs of particular kinds of food to their palates, or to a pe- 

 culiar bias of their minds to benevolence and peace, but from 

 a phyficalcaufe depending on the flrufture of their bodies. 



From what has been advanced, it follows, that man, whofe 

 flomach and inteflines are proportionally of no great capaci- 

 ty, could not live upon herbage alone. It is an inconteftible 

 fa£l, however, that he can live tolerably well upon bread, 

 herbs, and the fruits, roots, and feeds of plants ; for we know 



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