On the Existence of the Unicorn. 123 



Art. XIV. — An Attempt to prove the Existence of the Unicorn; hy 

 J. F. Laterrade. Translated from the first Volume of the Bulle- 

 tin d^Histoire JVaturelle de la Societe Linneenne de Bordeaux ; 

 hy Jacob Porter. 



■ Man is naturally disposed to call in question that, of which he 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 

 times more injurious to science than doubt ; hence that incredulity 

 in natural history, which leads us to deny the existence of such spe- 

 cies 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 

 affect 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 Tound 

 no proof, that can overthrow the ideas, that have been formed re- 

 specting it, its existence is thereby established. Let us endeavor to 

 illustrate our threefold proposition. 



1. The account of the unicorn has in it no appearance of the fabu- 

 lous. Let us hear our opponents themselves. " It is said," says the 

 Dictionnaire des Sciences, " that this is a timid animal, inhabiting the 

 depths of the forests, of the size of the horse, bearing in front a 

 white horn five hands in length, and with brown hair hanging over that, 

 which is black." The difficulty can fall only on the long horn, with 

 which the front of our quadruped is armed. Its horizontal direction, 

 its position, its being single, the form of the animal, that carries it; 

 these, it is said, are by no means natural. But then the defense of 

 the narwal, which has a horn fourteen feci in length, that has a hori- 



