IX 

 THE SLOTH 



" The inertia of this animal is not so much due to 

 laziness as to wretchedness, it is the consequence of its 

 faulty structure. With thighs ill-articulated its legs are 

 too short, badly formed and worse terminated. For it 

 has no sole on which to rest its foot, nor thumbs, nor 

 separately movable fingers, but only two or three very 

 long claws, curved downwards, which cannot be moved 

 separately, and are more inconvenient for walking than 

 serviceable for climbing. Inactivity, stupidity, and 

 even habitual sufi'ering result from its strange and 

 ill-constructed conformation. Having no weapons for 

 attack or defence, no mode of refuge even by burrow- 

 ing, its only safety is in flight. Confined within the 

 narrowest range, only climbing with difiioulty or drag- 

 ging itself along painfully, never allowing its plaintive 

 voice to be heard except at night, everything about it 

 shows its wretchedness and proclaims it to be one of 

 those defective monsters, those imperfect sketches, 

 which Nature has sometimes formed, and which, having 

 scarcely the faculty of existence, could only continue for 

 a short time and have since been removed from the 

 catalogue of living beings. Truly, if the sloths did not 

 inhabit deserts, if man or powerful animals had multi- 

 plied where they have their abode, they would not have 

 lived down to our days, but would have already met 

 with that extermination which will befall them later. 

 They are the last possible term amongst creatures of 

 flesh and blood, and any further defect would have made 

 their existence impossible. To regard these imperfect 



