S30 
CARNIVORA. 
would frequently famish for want of animal food, if 
this were necessarily their only sustenance. The 
Creator, therefore, while he has thought fit to give 
them an appetite for a carnivorous regimen, has only 
partially empowered them to gratify this propensity ; 
but he has, at the same time, enabled them to subsist 
on vegetable matter, which is denied to the digiti- 
grades, or more perfectly carnivorous animals : the 
latter can live only so long as they can get flesh to 
eat, and their powers of procuring it are therefore 
proportionate to their necessities ; but these, when 
they are not able to obtain flesh, can live with- 
out it; it is not, altogether, vitally necessary for 
them, and their powers of offence are therefore li- 
mited : what is denied to them on the one hand, is 
granted on the other. 
The construction of the hinder feet of the planti- 
grades enables them, though awkwardly, to stand 
erect on them alone*, which the digitigrades can by 
no means accomplish. 
Their habits are generally nocturnal, and many of 
them, which are proper to the Polar countries, remain 
lethargic during the winter, concealed in caves of 
their own making, for which they are well calculated 
by their long, crooked, and strong claws. 
* The hind legs of the bear are not very dissimilar to human 
legs^ which has enabled the itinerant exhibitors of animals, to impose 
on simple credulity by showing a shaved bear, cruelly strapped in a 
sitting position in a chair, for a human being, found in a wild and 
savage state. 
( 
