i-^8 liisroiir of 



vasioii ; but what Ciin be done agitinst such an enemy as man, 

 who finds them out though unseen ; and though remote, destroys 

 them ? Wherever he comes, all the conquests among the mean- 

 er ranks seem to be at an end, or is carried on only by surprise. 

 Such as he has thought proper to protect, have calmly submitted 

 to his protection ; such as he has found it convenient to destroy, 

 carry on an unequal war, and their numbers are every day de- 

 creasing. 



The wild animal is subject to few alterations ; and, m a state 

 of savage nature, continues for ages the same, in size, shape, 

 and colour. But it is otliei'wise when subdued, and taken un- 

 der the protection of man ; its external form, and even its in- 

 ternal structure, are altered by human assiduity ; and this is one 

 ot the first and greatest causes of the variety that we see among 

 the several quadrupeds of the same species. Man appears to 

 have changed the very nature of domestic animals, by cultivation 

 and care. A domestic animal is a slave that seems to have few 

 other desires but such as man is willing to allow it. Humble, 

 patient, resigned, and attentive, it fills up the duties of its sta- 

 tion ; ready for labour, and content with subsistence. 



Almost all domestic animals seem to bear the marks of servi- 

 tude strong upon them. All the varieties in their colour, all the 

 fineness and length of their hair, together with the depending 

 length of their ears, seem to have arisen from a long continu- 

 ance of domestic slavery What an immense variety is there to 



be found in the ordinary race of dogs find horses ! the principa. 

 differences of which have been effected by the industry of man, 

 so adapting the food, the' treatment, the labour, and the climate, 

 that Nature seems almost to have forgotten her original design ; 

 and the tame animal no longer bears any resemblance to its an- 

 cestors in the woods around him. 



In this manner, nature is under a kind of constraint, in those 

 animals we have taught to live in a state cf servitude near us. 

 The savage animals preserve the marks of their first formation ; 

 their colours are generally the same ; a rough dusky brown, or a 

 fawny, seem almost their only varieties. ]3ut it is otherwise in 

 the tame; their colours are various, and their forms different 

 from each other. The nature of the climate indeed operates 

 ujioii all ; but more particularly on those. That nourishment 

 wiiich is prepared by the hand of man, net adapted to their ap- 



