OF NATURAL HISTORY. 205 



whofe fagacity is very great, come to maturity in one year, and their 

 ftate of infancy is fhort. But, of all animals, the infancy and help- 

 lefs condition of men are the moft prolonged ; and the fuperiority 

 and dudility of his mind will not be queftioned. 



The infant ftate of birds is very fhort. Moft of the feathered 

 tribes arrive at perfefliion in lefs than fix months ; and their fagacity 

 is comparatively limited. 



With regard to fifties, if the whale and feal kind, who fuckle their 

 young, be excepted, they receive no aid from their parents. Fifhes 

 no fooner efcape from the eggs of their mother, than they are in a 

 condition to procure nourifliment, and to provide, in fome meafure, 

 for their own fafety. Of the fagacity of fifties, owing to the ele- 

 ment in which they live, we have very little knowledge. But their 

 general charadter is ftupidity, joined to a voracious and indifcrimi- 

 nating appetite for food. In oppofition to an almoft general law of 

 Nature which fubfifts among other animals, fifties devour, without 

 diftinftion, every fmaller or weaker animal, whether it belongs to a 

 different fpecies, or to their own. In animals of a much higher or- 

 der, voracity of appetite is feldom accompanied with ingenuity or 

 elegance of tafte. When the principal attention of an animal is 

 engrofled with any fenfual appetite, it is a fair conclufion that the 

 mental powers are weak, becaufe they are chiefly employed upon 

 the grofleft of all objeds. If this obfervation bejuft, fifties muft be 

 ranked among the moft ftupid animals of equal magnitude and a£ti- 

 vity. 



The infant ftate of infe£ls is a various and complicated fubjeft. 

 After they efcape from the egg, they undergo fo many changes, and 

 afl"ume fuch a variety of forms, that it is difiicult to determine the 

 period of their exiftence which correfponds to the condition of in- 

 fancy 



