LECTURE ir. 63 



or three claws disproportionately long, and bent 

 downvv'avds, which move together, and are more 

 hurtful to their walking than advantageous in as- 

 sisting them to climb. Slowness^ habitual pain, 

 and stupidity are the results of this strange and 

 bungled conformation. The Sloths have no wea- 

 pons either offensive or defensive. They are fur- 

 nished with no means of safety; for they can neither 

 run, nor dig into the earth. Confined to a small 

 space, or to the tree under wdiich they are brought 

 forth, they are prisoners in the midst of space, and 

 cannot move the length of one fathom in an hour. 

 They drag themselves up a tree with much labour 

 and pain ; their cry, and interrupted accents, they 

 dare only utter in the night: all these circum- 

 stances announce the misery of the Sloths, and recal 

 to our minds those defective monsters, those im- 

 perfect sketches of Nature, which, being hardly 

 endowed with faculties of existence, could not sub- 

 sist for any length of time, and have accordingly 

 been struck out of the list of beings. If the regions 

 inhabited by the Sloths were not desert, but had 

 been occupied for any length of time by Man and 

 the larger animals, these creatures would never have 

 descended to our times; but would have been anni- 



