AFRICA, 329 
explain; but I know that Nature, which be- 
llows on all animals whatever a fufficient 
fliareof Intelligence to provide for their own 
fafety, feemed here io have doubled it ; and 
upon this point I have on more than one oc- 
cafion made remarks, which have, always filled 
me with aftonifliment and admiration. The 
morals to be drawn from natural hiftory ex- 
tend farther than may be imagined. The 
eye of metaphyfics penetrates every day far- 
ther and farther; and blind curiofity, which 
alone formed colledions formerly, gives 
place at prefent to nobler and more valuable 
motives. No objedls now are too fmall for 
the attention of the philofopher; the genius 
of difcovery knows to give importance to 
every thing; and even infedts, conlidered 
twenty years ago as minute and mean objedls, 
occupy a confpicuous place in the fcale of 
beings 
At break of day I returned to the place 
where I had fired the preceding evening, and 
* A complete treatife of Ontology will foon appear, 
worthy of the learned man who firft laid the foundations of 
that grand v/ork, and of the refpedable connoiffeur who 
protects and fupports by his fortune fo noble an under- 
taking, 
3 I ob- 
