Ixiv INTRODUCTION. 



ment be carried as far as the case will allow, the feeble and 

 frequently monstrous offspring will be incapable of being 

 reared up, and thus the miserable race will utterly perish. 



In the state of liberty these effects do not manifest them- 

 selves. The instincts of the animals, it may be believed, 

 cause them to choose the fitting mates for propagating their 

 own race. In man, the continued alliance of individuals too 

 near in blood, is prevented by conscience, and by feelings 

 which seem innate. In carnivorous quadrupeds, what we 

 term instinct supplies the place of judgment and reflection, 

 and the females make choice of certain males in preference 

 to others, by which means, it is to be believed, the race is 

 preserved from deterioration by unsuitable combinations. In 

 the case of the social herbivorous quadrupeds, the end is at- 

 tained by the males being possessed of the power and desire 

 to expel the feebler members of the herd during the season 

 of sexual intercourse. The bull, with his powerful neck, 

 possesses only short blunted horns, fitted, not to destroy his 

 rivals by shedding their blood, but to expel them for a time 

 from the herd. Thus he drives away the younger and feebler 

 members, until compelled in his turn to yield to younger 

 rivals. The ram is furnished with a thick forehead fitted for 

 butting, by which means he is enabled to stun, without de- 

 stroying, his rivals of the flock. In the deer tribes are pro- 

 duced, at the season of sexual desire, those huge antlers by 

 which the stronger males are enabled to terrify and subdue 

 the weaker ; but these organs are temporary, and, after the 

 season of rutting, fall off, to be renewed at the fitting time 

 in the following year. By these and other means we are 

 entitled to infer that a natural provision is made against the 

 effects of unsuitable alliances of animals in the natural state. 

 It is only when in the state of absolute slavery, that we are 

 enabled to overcome the instinctive feelings of the animals 

 subjected to our power, and to compel them to relinquish, as 

 it were, their natural appetites. 



The characters which animals of the same species trans- 



