154 THREE-TOED SLOTH. 



person who is unhappy because born feeble or de- 

 formed, there are millions rendered miserable by 

 the oppression of their superiors. The animals, 

 in general, are more happy, because the species 

 have nothing to fear from individuals : to them 

 there is but one source of evil; to man there are 

 two. Moral evil, of Avhich he himself is the foun- 

 tain, has accumulated into an immense ocean, 

 which covers and afflicts the whole surface of the 

 earth. Physical evil, on the contrary, is restrained 

 within very narrow bounds : it seldom appears 

 alone; for it is always accompanied with an equal, 

 if not a superior, good. Can happiness be denied 

 to animals, when they enjoy freedom ; have the 

 faculty of procuring subsistence with ease ; and 

 possess more health, and organs capable of af- 

 fording greater pleasure than those of the human 

 species? Now the generality of animals are most 

 liberally endowed with all these sources of enjoy- 

 ment. The degraded species of Sloths are per- 

 haps the only creatures to whom Nature has been 

 unkind, and who exhibit to us the picture of in- 

 nate misery.*" 



With submission, however, to this lively natu- 

 ralist, I should not hesitate to believe that the 

 Sloth, notwithstanding this appearance of wretch- 

 edness and deformity, is as well-fashioned for its 

 proper modes and habits of life, and feels as much 

 happiness in its solitary and obscure retreats, as 

 the rest of the animal world of greater locomotive 

 powers and superior external elegance. 



The sloth feeds entirely on vegetables., and par- 



