340 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



perhaps, that alone, among all animals, which is utterly 

 inflexible. He is to be tamed neither by force, by restraint, 

 nor by violence. He is equally irritated by kind and by severe 

 treatment, the omnipotence of habit has no influence over 

 his iron nature, and he will tear the hand which is daily 

 extended to present him sustenance, without compunction 

 or discrimination." 



This error arises from a consideration of the habits ac- 

 quired by these animals in their native forests, in a state of 

 uncontrolled freedom, abandoned to themselves, and thrown 

 entirely on their own resources for the support of their exist- 

 ence. Exclusively of their sanguinary appetites, and the sen- 

 timent of self-preservation, surrounded, as they are, by vic- 

 tims or by enemies, their actions must perpetually tend to the 

 acquisition of the first, and the removal of the second, and 

 must consequently be violent and cruel. Place them in differ- 

 ent relations, and under other influences, and the case will be 

 widely altered. — Commit them, betimes, to the care of man, 

 and they will assume other manners, their destructive im- 

 pulses will be weakened, more sociable feelings will be de- 

 veloped, and these terrible Carnivora, whose very name 

 spreads terror and dismay, will manifest a capacity for the 

 kindest affections, and submit with confidence to the voice 

 of their benefactors. 



It may be remarked as a curious fact, that the larger 

 Carnivora are more easily tamed than the small. The truth 

 is, that gifted, on the one hand, with superior strength, 

 they are also possessed of superior intelligence on the other. 

 They have more of that faculty which approximates to hu- 

 man reason, and less of blind instinct, than their weaker 

 and more diminutive brethren. Instinct is a fatal enemy to 

 education, and those animals, in which its manifestations 

 are most frequent and surprising, are precisely those which, 

 where it is not exerted, are the most unintelligent and un- 

 susceptible of culture. The smallest Carnivora have been 



