^^^^ANJDJtD ARMADILLO, 
proximailng them to the three orher different 
classes ; and brings to our ideas birds, fishes 
with scales, and fishes and ether animals of 
the crustaceous kinds. We must, therefore, 
be cautious, in judging of the nature of beings 
by one particular chara6leristic, which would 
continually lead us into errors : two- or three 
chara6lers, however general, are not ahvavs 
sufficient; audit is only, as Buffon frequently 
observes, by the re-union of all the attributes, 
and the enumeration of all the characters, 
that we can ascertain the essential forms of 
every produ6lion of nature^ A good descrip- 
tion, adds Buffon, and no definitions ; an ex- 
position more exa6l on the differences than the 
analogy; and a particular attention to excep- 
tions, and almost imperceptible gradations ^ 
are the true rules, and the only means, he 
maintains, of knowing the nature of every 
thing: and, if all the time lost in definitions, 
had been employed in good descriptions, with; 
an ex3.€t method, we should not, concludes 
Buffon, have now found Natural History in. 
her cradle ; we should have had less trouble in 
taking off her baubles, and in disencumbering 
her of her swaddling-cloaths ! We should., 
perhaps^ 
