0% CLASS REPTILIA. 



are rather timid than ferociovis^ — conscious of their own weak- 

 ness, they are the emblem of prudence, and have been 

 instanced for their wisdom by no meaner an authority than 

 the great Founder of Christianity himself. It is only when 

 forced by necessity, by despair of escape, or by the impe- 

 rious stimulus of hunger, that they employ those empoisoned 

 arms, so deadly to all other races, but perfectly harmless to 

 their own.* To the more powerful species, such as the boa, 

 similar weapons are not accorded, because they are suffi- 

 ciently protected from attack by their magnitude and strength. 

 Though some smaller species of reptiles, such as geckos, 

 salamanders, and toads, can distil from their skin an acrid, 

 fetid, disgusting humour, this is an harmless defence accorded 

 to them by nature, to hinder these otherwise defenceless 

 animals from being seized, and to prevent them from being 

 immolated to the general hatred in which they are held by 

 all other creatures. 



In general, all the reptiles, though hideous and even ter- 

 rific to the sight, cause more repugnance or horror than real 

 evil. Nature environs them with this apparatus of terror, 

 covers them with this revolting mask, to keep oif other ani- 

 mals, and thus protects them by the disgust which they 

 inspire. That their existence was necessary, is argued from 

 this consideration, that the impure and filthy recesses which 

 they inhabit, swarming with such a fearful multitude of worms 

 and insects, would become more fatal and more infectious from 

 this enormous multiplication of parasite creatures, but for 

 the ministry of the reptile tribes, which feed upon, and purge 

 the marshes of these vermin. In the same point of view, the 

 reptiles, too much multiplied by a superabundance of aliment, 

 would have invaded and overrun the earth, but natvu-e has 

 sent quadrupeds, svich as the ichneumon and the swine, or 



* This, perhaps, is a little too unqualified. The fact is not yet clearly 

 ascertained. 



