338 HisroiiY OF 



of being deprived of any good, teaches him the v;ilue of its pos- 

 t^ession. Were men born with those advantages which he learns 

 to possess by industry, he would very probably enjoy them with 

 a blunter relish ; it is by being naked that he knows the value 

 <jf a covering; it is by being exposed to the weather, that he 

 learns the comforts of a habitation. Every want thus becomes 

 a means of pleasure, in the redressing ; and the animal that has 

 most desires, may be said to be capable of the greatest variety 

 of happiness. 



Besides the thousand imaginary wants peculiar to man, there 

 are two, which he has in common with all other animals ; and 

 which he feels in a more necessary manner than they. These 

 are the wants of sleep and hunger. Every animal that we are 

 acquainted with, seems to endure the want of these with much 

 less injury to health than man ; and some are most surprisingly 

 patient in sustaining both. The little domestic animals that 

 we keep about us, may often set a lesson of calm resignation, in 

 Bupportiiig want and watchfulness, to the boasted philosopher. 

 They receive their pittance at uncertain intervals, and wait its 

 coming with cheerful expectation. We have instances of the 

 dog and the cat living in this manner, without food, for several 

 days ; and yet still preserving their attachment to the tyrant 

 that oppresses them ; still ready to exert their little services 

 for his amusement or defence. But the patience of these is no- 

 thing to what the animals of the forest endure. As these mostly 

 live upon accidental carnage, so they are often known to re- 

 main without food for several weeks together. Nature, kindly 

 solicitous for their support, has also contracted their stomachs, to 

 suit them for their precarious way of living : and kindly, while 

 it abridges the banquet, lessens the necessity of providing for it. 



But the meaner tribes of animals are made still more capable 

 of sustaining life without food, many of them remaining in a 

 state of torpid indifference, till their prey approaches, when 

 they jump upon and seize it. In this manner, the snake, or 

 the spider, continue, for several months together, to subsist upon 

 a single meal ; and some of the butterfly kinds live upon little 

 or nothing. But it is very differe)it with man : his wants daily 

 make their importunate demands ; and it is known that he can- 

 not continue to live many days without eating, drinking, and 

 sleeping. 



