3;o THE WILD GOAT, Sec. 



foetus, the female, who afterwards furnifhes 

 every thing neceffary to its growth and nutrir 

 tion, modifies and aifimilates it more to her own 

 nature, and mult, therefore, greatly efface the 

 impreffion of the parts derived from the male. 

 Thus, if we want to form a diilincT: judgment 

 pi: a fpecies, we ought to examine the females. 

 The male bellows one half of the animated fub- 

 flance : The female gives an equal portion, and 

 furnifhes, befides, all the matter neceffary for 

 the developement of the form. A beautiful wo- 

 man feldom fails to produce beautiful children. 

 The offspring of a beautiful man with an ugly 

 woman, are generally 11 ill more ugly. 



Hence, even in the fame fpecies, there may 

 fometimes be two races, the one mafculine and 

 the other feminine, which, by both fubfifting 

 and perpetuating their diftindive characters, ap- 

 pear to conftitute two different fpecies ; and this 

 feems to be the cafe, when it is almoft impoffible 

 to fix the limits between what naturajifts term 

 fpecies and variety. Let us fuppofe, for ex- 

 ample, that fome fheep were always ferved with 

 he-goats, and others with rams ; after a certain 

 number of generations, a race would be efta-, 

 blifhed among the fpecies of flxeep, which would 

 partake greatly of the nature of the goat, and 

 would afterwards perpetuate its own kind ; for, 

 though the firft produce of the he-goat would 

 be little removed from the mother's fpecies, and 



ould be a lamb, and not a kid ; yet this lamb 



is 



