72 



A NEW HISTORY OF 



sloth, I could wish to introduce a few more here, 

 concerning this solitary inhabitant of the tropical 

 forests ; hecause the sloth never comes to the 

 ground, except by pure accident; and its hahits 

 will serve to corroborate the remarks which I am 

 about to make, on the nature and the formation 

 of monkeys. 



These remarks will not be long. 



We often complain of libels by man against man 

 in civilized life ; but, if ever a poor creature's 

 character was torn in pieces by inconsiderate and 

 ignorant assailants, certainly the sloth has great 

 cause to vent its complaints of ill-treatment. 



Anatomists in Europe, and travellers abroad, 

 when writing on the formation and on the habits of 

 the sloth, seem only to have added blunder to 

 blunder ; as though they had been wandering 

 in the dark, without a ray of light to shew them 

 the path which they ought to have pursued. 



A bare inspection of the limbs of the sloth, 

 ought to have enabled inspectors to assert posi- 

 tively, that this animal was never modelled by the 

 hand of our all-wise Creator, to walk upon the 

 ground. 



Notwithstanding this, one author remarks, that 

 " from a defect in the structure of the sloths, the 

 misery of these animals, is not more conspicuous 

 than their slowness." 



