880 ON THE 



necessary to the preservation of the animal under 

 all the contingencies to which it is exposed ; and 

 not in the least degree connected with reason, 

 whose attributes are not confined to the accom- 

 plishment of one particular object, as in the Bea- 

 ver, nor to any specific mode of performance ; 

 and it is to this circumstance that we may attri- 

 bute the difference between human, and natural 

 architecture. The one as liable to a fluctuating 

 judgment, however diversified by a variety of 

 plans so as to answer very multiplied purposes, 

 is often deficient in some of its most essential 

 parts. While the other, depending upon fixed 

 and invariable laws, is always perfect, and cal- 

 culated to produce the desired effect even in the 

 minutest particular ; but is uniformly limited to 

 one object, from which it in no instance deviates.. 



But the wonderfully instinctive powers so ob- 

 viously displayed in the Beaver, are not confined 

 to that animal ; since the Bee, the Spider, the 

 Ant, and we have no doubt, many other animals, 

 could their economy be as nicely ascertained, 

 would be found to possess inventive faculties 

 as comprehensive, and terminating in results 

 equally explanatory of the contrivance, and order 

 by which the natural world has been regulated, 

 as the animal under consideration. 



In the fifth order of Linnaeus, all the ruminat- 

 ing animals are included ; and as among these 

 the Sheep forms the most numerons tribe, this 



