214 



CANNIBALISM. 



When the last morsel of these provisions has been 

 consumed, then, the stronger will eat up the 

 weaker. Even, in this case, it would he absolute 

 necessity, and not depravity which compelled them 

 to feed upon each other: — for, as the saying has 

 it, — " necessity knows no law/' 



On the contrary, whilst rats are in the full 

 enjoyment of their liberty, they are not known to 

 prey upon each other. Their superlative knack 

 of fending for themselves, would always prevent 

 the necessity for mutual destruction. 



Whilst I am on the subject of rats, although 

 I freely concede to these able friends of mine, 

 a vast supply of brain, to manage their own affairs, 

 still, I cannot believe the following instance of 

 their sagacity. 



A farmer, in this neighbourhood, once declared 

 to me, that he had seen an old ratten, in the act 

 of conducting a blind one, along the king's high- 

 way. A straw, held in their mouths, was the 

 conducting medium betwixt the blind rat, and the 

 rat which had the use of its eyes. This happened 

 during the night, when the full moon shone 

 brightly. But, on my asking the farmer how 

 he had contrived to approach these two intelli- 

 gent travellers, sufficiently near, to distinguish 

 that one of them was blind ; his answer did not 



