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 which 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 Avith 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- 
