wy THE TOWER MENAGERIE. 
in a word, of all that combination of brilliant qualities, 
the imputation of which, by writers of all ages, has 
placed him by universal consent above other beasts, and 
invested him with regal attributes. 
Such, indeed, is the outline which we have been taught 
to frame to ourselves of this noble animal ; and beautifully 
has this imaginary sketch, for such in a great measure it 
will be found on closer examination, been filled up by 
the magic pencil of Buffon, who, in this, as in too many 
other instances, suffered himself to be borne along by the 
strong tide of popular opinion. Yielding to the current, 
instead of boldly stemming it, he has added the weighty 
sanction of his authority to those erroneous notions which 
were already consecrated by their antiquity, and has 
produced a history of the Lion, which, however true in 
its main facts, and however eloquent in its details, is, to 
say the least, highly exaggerated and delusive in its 
colouring. The Lion of Buffon is, in fact, the Lion of 
popular prejudice; it is not the Lion, such as he ap- 
pears to the calm observer, nor such as he is delineated 
in the authentic accounts of those naturalists and travel- 
lers who have had the best means of observing his habits, 
and recording the facts of which they have been them- 
selves eye witnesses. 
The Lion, like all the other cats (the genus to which, 
in a natural arrangement, he obviously belongs) is armed 
in each jaw with six strong and exceedingly sharp cut- 
ting-teeth, with two formidable canine, and with six 
others, three on each side, occupying the places of the 
molar or grinding-teeth, but terminating in sharp protu- 
berances to assist in the laceration of the animal food, 
which is the proper nutriment of his tribe. Besides 
