FOX. 
2ffi 
wards one side and then the other, as if so coo- 
fused as not to know which way to get off, and 
keeping his eyes still turned towards me, he re- 
tired ; not running, but stretching himself out* 
or rather creeping with a slow step, setting down 
his feet one after another with singular precaution. 
He seemed so much afraid of making a noise in his 
flight, that he held up his large tail, almost in an 
horizontal line, that it might neither drag on the 
ground nor brush against the plants. On the 
other side of the hedge I found the fragments of 
his meal ; that had consisted of a bird of prey, 
great part of which he had devoured He is one 
of the prettiest of quadrupeds. 
FOX. 
The fox very exactly resembles the wolf and 
the dog internally ; and although he differs greatly 
from both in size and carriage, yet when we come 
to examine his shapes minutely, there will appear 
to be very little difference in the description. 
Were, for instance, a painter to draw from a na- 
tural historian’s exactest description the figure of 
a dog, a wolf, and a fox, without having ever 
seen either, he would be very apt to confound all 
these animals together ; or rather he would be 
unable to catch those peculiar outlines that no 
description can supply. Words will never give 
any person an exact idea of forms any way irregu- 
lar ; for although they he extremely just and pre- 
cise, yet the numberless discriminations to be 
attended to, will confound each other, and we 
shall no more conceive the precise form, than we 
should be able to tell when one pebble more was 
added or taken away from a thousand. To con- 
ceive, therefore, how the fox differs in form from 
the wolf or the dog, it is necessary to see all three 
vol, i. J£ m 
