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much to the toads, that we cannot easily consider them with- 

 out thinking on the others. We are disposed to confound 

 them all in the disgrace to which the toads are doomed, and 

 to refer to the first the revolting habits, disgusting qualities, 

 and dangerous properties of the second. We shall have 

 considerable difficulty in assigning to the frogs the place 

 which they should occupy in the minds of our readers, such 

 as it really is in nature ; but it is not less true, that if toads 

 had never existed, if we had not before our eyes this horrid 

 object of comparison, which caricatures by its resemblance, 

 as much as it defiles by its approach, the frog would appear 

 to us as agreeable from its conformation as distinguished by 

 its qualities, and interesting from the phenomena which it 

 exhibits at the diff'erent periods of its existence. We would 

 behold it as a useful animal, from which we have nothing to 

 fear, whose instinct is harmless, which unites an elegant form 

 with supple and slender limbs, and which is adorned with 

 pleasing colours, rendered more vivid from a kind of natural 

 varnish, with which this animal is constitutionally provided." 

 " And who," continues this amiable, and somewhat en- 

 thusiastic writer, " can regard with pain, a being whose 

 form is light, whose movements are nimble, and whose atti- 

 tudes are graceful ? Let us not deprive ourselves of an 

 additional source of pleasure ; and in our peregrinations 

 through the smiling fields, let us not regret to see the banks 

 of rivulets adorned by the colours of these harmless animals, 

 and animated by their light and lively gambols. Let us 

 contemplate their little manoeuvres, observe them in the 

 midst of stilly lakes, the solitude of which they diminish 

 without troubling the repose ; see them exhibit beneath the 

 sheets of water the most agreeable tints, cleave the bosom 

 of the tranquil stream, and vary its silvery surface with 

 many a circling furrow." 



