On the Existence of the Unicorn. 123 
Arr. XIV.— An Attempt to prove the Existence of the Unicorn; by 
J.F.Larerrape. Translated from the first Volume of the Bulle- 
tin @’ Histoire Naturelle de la Société Linnéenne de Bordeaux ; 
by Jacos Porter. 
Man is naturally disposed to call in question that, of which hé can 
not conceive, because his mind, brought down from the exact sphere 
of his knowledge, would see the limits of creative power within the 
narrow boundaries of human weakness; then, relying on this false 
principle of analogous consequences, as soon as he doubts, he has 
decided; as soon as he has decided, he hears no further; and so great 
is his error that he very soon exults in wandering from the truth, if it 
is common, because it does not agree with his pride to be like his 
equals, if they are of an opinion contrary to what he supposes to be 
the fruit of his genius. 
Hence literary disputes, confident assertions, and denials a thousand 
umes More injurious to science than doubt; hence that incredulity 
m natural history, which leads us to deny the existence of such spe- 
cles as have not come under our observation, and, particularly, that 
of the quadruped, that now engages our attention. 
To say that it is impossible that there should be, or, at least, should 
have been such an animal as the land unicorn, would be to go astray 
from acquired knowledge, to credit an absurd fable, in a word, to 
aflect singularity. Meanwhile, if we can show that the account of 
this animal has in it nothing remote from the ordinary laws of nature, 
that several authors have made mention of it, and that there is found 
20 proof, that can overthrow the ideas, that have been formed re- 
“Pecting it, its existence is thereby established. Let us endeavor to 
illustrate our threefold proposition. 
A. The account of the unicorn has in it no appearance of the fabu- 
ous. Let us hear our opponents themselves. “It is said,” says the 
etionnaire des Sciences, “that this is a timid animal, inhabiting the 
Re of the forests, of the size of the horse, bearing in front a 
hd 96 hands in length, and with brown hair hanging over that, 
sis : — The difficulty can fall only on the long horn, with 
a hg ront of our quadruped is armed. Its horizontal direction, 
‘hans — its being single, the form of the animal, that carries it 3 
» Its said, are by no means natural. But then the defense of 
the : a a 
narwal, which has a horn fourteen feet in length, that has a hori- 
