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P 't\U>s, but to suit liis cwu (•nnvenic='iic'e ; that climate, the 

 rigours of which he can soften ; and that employment to which 

 they are sometimes assigned ; produce a rmmber of distinctions 

 that are not to be found among the savage animals. These, at 

 tirst, were accidental, but in time became hereditary ; and a new 

 race of artificial monsters are propagated, rather to answer the 

 purposes of human pleasure than their own convenience. In 

 short, their very appetites may be changed ; and those that feed 

 only upon grass may be rendered carnivorous. I have seen a 

 slieep that would eat tiesh, and a horse that was fond of oysters. 



But not their appetites, or their figure alone, but their very 

 dispositions, and their natural sagacity, are altered by the vicinity 

 of man. In those countries where men have seldom intruded, 

 some animals have been found, established in a kind of civil 

 state of society. Remote from the tyranny of man, they seem 

 to have a spirit of mutual benevolence, and mutual frienrlsh'p. 

 The beavers, in those distant solitudes, are known to build like 

 architects, and rule like citizens. The habitations that these 

 have been seen to erect, exceed the houses of the human inhabi- 

 t.Mts of the same country, both in neatness and convenience. 

 But as soon as man intrudes upon their society, they seem im- 

 pressed with the terrors of their inferior situation, their spirit of 

 society ceases, the bond is dissolved, and every animal looks for 

 safety in solitude, and there tries all its little industry to shift 

 only for itself. 



Next to human influence, the climate seems to have the strong, 

 est effects both upon the nature and the form of quadrupeds. 

 As in man we have seen some alterations produced by the variety 

 of his situation ; so in the lower ranks, that are more subject to 

 variation, the intluence of climate is more readily perceived. 

 As these are more nearly attached to the earth, and in a manner 

 conntctfcd to the soil ; as they have none of the arts of shielding 

 off the inclemency of the weather, or softening the rigours of 

 the sun, they are consequently more changed by its variations. 

 In general it miy be remarked, that the colder the country, the 

 larger atid the wartner is the fur of each animal ; it being wisely 

 crovided by Nature, that the iidiabitant sliould be adapted to the 

 rigours of its situation. Thus the fox and wolf, which in tem- 

 perate climates have but short hair, have a fine long fur in tie 

 frozen regions near the pole. Oa the contrnrv, those dogs w'tith 



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