INTRODUCTION. 27 



that we trample under foot, or the caterpillar that we 

 destroy as a nuisance. Nor does the utility diminish 

 with the size. Silk, the finest substance with which we 

 are clothed carmine, the finest colour with which we 

 can paint, and the very ink with which we write, are all 

 the productions of little insects. 



When we are acquainted only with the larger ani- 

 mals and the cultivated vegetables, (and a very great 

 number of persons, who would be very angry if we 

 were to accuse them of ignorance, know very little 

 about these,) we may be said to know absolutely no- 

 thing about the works of creation. Indeed, the study 

 of the domesticated animals in a state of confinement 

 is not the study of nature at all : it is the study of art, 

 by which nature has been in so far supplanted. To 

 obey the bit and the spur, is no part of the natural dis- 

 position of a horse ; to fawn, and watch, or catch game 

 for a master, is no part of the natural disposition of a 

 dog ; neither is it the natural disposition of the cow to 

 come lowing in order to be drained of that with which 

 nature provided her for the nourishment of her own 

 offspring. These and all the other matters, whether 

 useful properties or idle tricks, which make up nine- 

 tenths of the published biography of animals, are not 

 animal biography at all. They are merely instances of 

 the triumph of human art over the natural propensities 

 of the subjects upon which it has been exercised, very 

 important as they lead to useful applications, but still 

 mere art, and tending to close rather than to open the 

 door to the proper study of nature ; and it is only in 

 proportion as the animals resemble man, by possessing 

 the faculty of teachability, which is the badge and 



