232 Note, on Tunis Sheep. 



No class o animals exhibits a more curious and extensive 

 variety than that of the Simiit, With whatever contempt, 

 disgust, or levity, they may be commonly regarded, they 

 afford one of the strongest instances of countless diversities, 

 both as to forms and capacities, to be found, in any one 

 species, in the animal kingdom. 



it is better to take things as they are, without speculating 

 in unsatisfactory' hypothesis ; to which estimable men, of 

 otherwise highly useful talents and propensities, too fre- 

 quently addict themselves. Nature^ in sober truth, is only 

 secondary ; and regulated by 



The universal cause. 



Who " acts to one end, but acts by various laws." 



The omnipotence, wisdom, and goodness of the creator, are 

 shewn in nothing more wonderfully, than in the endless va- 

 riety of his works. We are not therefore to consider as un- 

 natural, what is to us uncommon. All things were created 

 perfect in their kinds. Animals (to fit them lor dispersion to 

 replenish the earth) were suited in their forms and systems, 

 to the spheres in which they were respectively to live and 

 move. Anomalous varieties are exceptions ; produced by cli- 

 mate, accidental mixtures, and sometimes, 'tis true, by the 

 intervention of the art of man. But these, and especially the 

 latter, are limited in their extent and duration ; and do not 

 spread over vast regions of the earth ; nor uniformly pervade 

 whole species, and successive races and generations. 



11th August 1810. I have never known 'till this day, that 

 some Tunis sheep have been brought into Virginia, or the 

 Columbia district, five or six years ago, by Commodore Baron, 

 I congratulate those who possess them on this acquisition. 

 I earnestly wish they may be more sensible of their value, 

 than have been those on v/hom I had the task of operating. 



