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: san) 
On the Existence of the Unicorn. 125 
forth to have no affinity! Where then shall we be? But, without 
straying from our subject, what animal is there a little extraordinary, 
concerning which there have not been suspicions, when the night of 
time has removed it a little distance from us? The giraff is an ex- 
ample as striking as it is recent; and the mammoth, whose remains 
have been discovered, has fairly overthrown’ such reasonings; and 
the shells, the inhabitants of which we have not yet been able to de- 
termine, will tell us with silent but irresistible eloquence that nature 
loses nothing by growing old. Besides, the bezoards, to which have 
been attributed properties scarcely less ridiculous than to the horn of 
the unicorn, do they not exist? Do not such things occur still with 
respect to animals, that live in parched countries, where heat gives to 
vegetable juice a power, that is unknown in temperate regions? Nev- 
ertheless, it is unnecessary to dissemble that it would be in vain for 
all antiquity to testify in favor of this singular production, it would be 
in vain that the cabinets should furnish it to the curious, these recitals 
would be false, these productions would be the work of imposture, 
if the fact were not still repeated, or if our weakness could not per- 
ceive it! - 
Will it be objected that the moderns have never seen this animal ? 
°w many other species are there, which they have not noticed ! 
New discoveries sufficiently prove this. Besides, the unicora inhab- 
its the interior of Africa, and precisely that part of it, of which we 
know the least; and in Africa, as well as in other countries, certain 
tnimals might well appear, at first, even on the coasts, and afterwards, 
when the number of inhabitants was increased, be confined to the 
“enter of the forests. A countless number of similar facts, sufficient- 
Ywell known, may well excuse us from enlarging upon this. In 
short, let us, without being detained by unimportant discussions, come 
(0 the grand proof of the nonexistence of the unicorn; let us exam- 
i 
pity channeled, of a very considerable Jength, and termina- 
5 a point. It was asserted that it was the horn of a quad- 
ped. Of this, however, notwithstanding all the researches, that 
pe made, nothing could be discovered; from time to time these 
ses became more numerous, no other part of the animal being 
United with it ; finally, there was brought to Wormius the head of the 
ane then the question was decided, and because some too cred- 
Persons had said that the tooth of acetaceous animal was the 
