THE NATURAL HISTORY 
[LETT. 
part of the summer ; for it goes to bed in the longest days at 
four in the afternoon, and often does not stir in the morning till 
late. Besides, it retires to rest for every shower ; and does not 
move at all in wet days. 
When one reflects on the state of this strange being, it is a 
matter of wonder to find that Providence should bestow such a 
profusion of days, sucli a seeming waste of longevity, on a reptile 
that appears to relish it so little as to squander more than 
two -thirds of its existence in a joyless stupor, and be lost to all 
sensation for months together in the profoundest of slumbers. 
While I was writing this letter, a moist and warm afternoon, 
with the thermometer at fifty, brought forth troops of shell-snails, 
and, at the same juncture, the tortoise heaved up the mould and 
put out its head ; and the next morning came forth, as it were 
raised from the dead ; and walked about till four in the after- 
noon. This was a curious coincidence ! a very amusing occur- 
rence ! to see such a similarity of feelings between the two 
(f)€p€ol/coLl for so the Greeks call both the shell-snail and the 
toi'toise. 
Because we call " the old family tortoise " an abject reptile, 
we are too apt to undervalue his abilities, and depreciate his 
powers of instinct. Yet he is, as Mr. Pope says of his lord, 
— — — jMucli too wise to walk into a well :" 
and has so much discernment as not to fall down a ha-ha : 
but to stop and withdraw from tlie brink with the readiest 
precaution. 
Though he loves warm weather, he avoids the hot sun ; be- 
cause liis thick shell when once heated, would, as the poet says 
of solid armour — " scald wdtli safety." He therefore spends the 
more sultry hours under the umbrella of a large cabbage-leaf, or 
amidst the waving forests of an asparagus-bed. 
But as he avoids heat in the summer, so, in the decline of the 
year, he improves the faint autumnal beams by getting wdthiu 
the reflection of a fruit-wall ; and, though he never has read that 
planes inclining to the horizon receive a greater share of warmth, 
he inclines his shell, by tilting it against the wall, to collect and 
admit every feeble ray. 
