158 VERTEBRATA. MAMMALIA. 



repulsive in their form: the great majority of them 

 feed on insects, chiefly on ants, but the Sloths appear 

 to be fruit-eaters. South America is the home of 

 most of the order. 



Brady pus,* the Sloth. 



Strange and uncouth in appearance, slow in mo- 

 tion, and most singular in structure, the Sloths have 

 been selected by short-sighted philosophists of the 

 French school, as examples on which to found an 

 arrogant denial of the wisdom or benevolence of 

 God. Seeing an animal differing in its conforma- 

 tion from those with which they were familiar, they 

 at once leaped to the illogical conclusion, that, be- 

 cause they in their ignorance saw not the use of 

 certain organs, therefore they were " useless," their 

 possessor " miserable," and their Creator a " BUN- 

 GLER ! " A little more acquaintance with these 

 creatures has, " justified the ways of God," whose 

 wisdom is unsearchable. As the errors concerning 

 them, however, are still repeated in books of natu- 

 ral history, it may not be amiss to shew the 

 true state of the case. The Sloth (the libellous 

 name is, we fear, too generally adopted, to be now 

 altered,) has been viewed on the ground, on which 

 it can scarcely move, and adjudged defective because 

 awkward in a situation for which it was never in- 

 tended. The fore legs are nearly twice as long as 

 the kind (reminding us of the Apes) ; the foot can- 

 not be placed on the ground so as to rest on the 



j, bradys, slow, and TOVS., pous, a foot. 



