MAMMIFEROUS ANIMALS. 



requires to be placed in situations, and to be ex- 

 posed to trials, which will call into play those 

 powers that are to stamp his character in the 

 creation ; and in no instance perhaps do he 

 stand more in need of his talents, than when 

 assailed by enemies, with whose physical quali- 

 ties he cannot compete, and whose object, is 

 cruel destruction, without one hope of mercy, 

 or forbearance. To make up therefore for his 

 physical defects, he must have recourse to inven- 

 tion, or to deep laid stratagem, or in other words 

 what he cannot effect by his natural powers, he 

 must accomplish by his ingenuity, or by the force 

 of his contrivance. 



Having thus repulsed the first attacks of his 

 enemies, he is led by cultivation to destroy his 

 haunts ; and thence from post to post to drive 

 him to his last resource, the wilderness or the 

 desart, rarely to disturb his future occupations. 



The ferocious animals therefore, by exciting 

 the human intellect, and by awakening Man's 

 attention to the means of defence and attack, 

 which probably led to some of the earliest of his 

 inventions, have laid the foundation for those 

 improvements in the arts, in which we now find 

 them ; and thus have indirectly proved the source 

 of the greatest utility to Man. While, by furnish- 

 ing him with furs and other parts of their bodies, 

 such animals have directly been the means of pro- 



