ANIJiAI.S. 451 



to tlie perfection of which quadrupeds make such very near ap- 

 proaches. 



Tlie similitude of quadrupeds to man obtains also in the fix- 

 edness of their nature, and their being less apt to be changed 

 by the influence of climate or food, than the lower ranks of na- 

 ture.' Bii'ds are found very apt to alter both in colour and size ; 

 fishes likewise still more ; insects may be quickly brought to 

 change and adapt themselves to the climate ; and if we descend 

 to plants, which may be allowed to have a kind of living exist- 

 ence, their kinds may be surprisingly and readily altered, and 

 taught to assume new forms. The figure of every animal may 

 be considered as a kind of drapery, which it may be made to put 

 on or oflfby human assiduity: in man, the drapery is almost in- 

 variable ; in quadrupeds, it admits of some variation ; and the 

 variety may be made greater still, as we descend to the inferio! 

 classes of animal existence. 



Quadrupeds, although they are thus strongly marked, and in gene- 

 ral divided from the various kinds around them, yet some of them are 

 often of so equivocal a nature, that it is hard to tell whether they ought 

 to be ranked in the quadruped class, or degraded to those below 

 them. If, for instance, we were to marshal the whole groupe ol 

 animals round man, placing the most perfect next him, and those 

 most equivocal near the classes they most approach, we should 

 find it difficult after the principal had taken their stations near 

 him, where to place many that lie at the outskirts of this phalanx. 

 The bat makes a near approach to the aerial tribe, and might, by 

 some, be reckoned among the birds. The porcupine has not 

 less pretensions to that class, being covered with quills, and 

 showing that birds are not the only part of nature that are fur- 

 nished with such a defence. The armadillo might be referred 

 to the tribe of insects or snails, being like them covered with a 

 sliell ; the seal and the morse might be ranked among the fishes, 

 like them being furnished with fins and almost constantly reside 

 ing in the same element. All these, the farther they reced- 

 from the human figure, become less perfect, and may be consi- 

 dered as the lowest kinds of that class to which we have referred 

 them. 



13ut although the variety in quadiupeds is thus great, they all 

 1 BuRon. 



