that purchases affection, how differently would my life have passed;-Ah sister Dorothy! Sister Dorothy! I have had all the money, but you have had all the happiness!"

XXVI.

MAN AND ANIMALS.

MR. F. and his children were walking one summer's evening, in what were familiarly called the high woods. A narrow path conducted them through the underwood, where straggling branches of the wild rose intercepted them at every step: the rich and variegated stems of the forest trees were illumined here and there in bright spots, by golden beams of the setting sun, which streamed through the interstices of the massy foliage. Swarms of merry gnats danced in the open spaces of the wood; birds of every note sang, in uninterrupted gladness, amid its deep recesses; the nimble squirrel was observed occasionally leaping from bough to bough; and the timid eye of the wild rabbit was seen peeping from behind the roots of the trees, and then, swiftly disappearing, she escaped into her inaccessible fortresses. How happy are young people, whose taste is raised to the enjoyment of these elevated and

simple pleasures, and who find in their parents, intelligent friends, capable of cultivating this taste, of inspiring and guiding their love of knowledge, and of giving a right direction to both!

The liberty and happiness evidently enjoyed by the various little inhabitants of these woods, gave a turn to the evening's conversation, as the party returned home.

"I think," says little Joe, "that if I were going to be changed into any thing else, I should like best to be a rabbit, and to live in the woods; they seem so happy and comfortable here!"

FATHER. Can you tell me, Joe, what is the greatest difference between you and a rabbit?

JOE. Why, papa, we are as different as can be. Rabbits have got long ears, and four legs, and are covered all over with soft hair.

FATHER. So far, then, the rabbit seems to have the advantage of you, for it can run faster with four legs than you can with only two; and its long ears enable it to hear more acutely; and it has a warm dress, ready made, without any trouble or expense: now can you think of any thing in which you are better off than the rabbit?

Joe was such a very little boy that he could not think of any thing; but his brother Edward soon answered for him, saying, "Why, we are better off than rabbits, almost in every thing: we can talk, and laugh, and read, and write, and learn Latin.'

FATHER. It is true the rabbit cannot do these things; but then she is quite independent of them, for she answers all the purposes of her existence perfectly well without their assistance. Richard, can you give us a more accurate account of the difference between Man and Animals?

RICHARD. I suppose, papa, the chief difference is our having reason, and they only instinct.

FATHER. But in order to understand what we mean by the terms reason and instinct, I think three things may be mentioned, in which the difference very distinctly appears.

RICHARD. What are they, papa?

FATHER. Let us first, to bring the parties as nearly on a level as possible, consider man in a savage state, wholly occupied, like the beasts of the field, in providing for the wants of his animal nature; and here the first distinction that appears between him and the creatures around him, is, the use of implements.

RICHARD. Ah, I should never have thought of

that.

FATHER. When the savage provides himself with a hut, or a crawl, or a wigwam, for shelter, or that he may store up his provision, he does no more than is done by the rabbit, the beaver, the bee, and birds of every species. But the man cannot make any progress in this work without something like tools, however rude and simple in their form: he must provide himself with an axe,

even before he can lop down a tree for its timber; whereas these animals form their burrows, their cells, or their nests, with the most mathematical nicety, with no other tools than those with which nature has provided them. In cultivating the ground, also, man can do nothing without a spade, or a plough; nor can he reap what he has sown, till he has shaped an instrument, with which to cut down his harvests. But the animals provide for themselves and their young without any of these things.

EDWARD. Then, here again, the animals are the best off.

FATHER. That is not our present inquiry: now for the second distinction: Man, in all his operations makes mistakes, animals make none.

EDWARD. Do animals never make mistakes?

FATHER. Why, Edward, did you ever see such a thing, or hear of such a thing, as a little bird sitting disconsolate on a twig, lamenting over her half finished nest, and puzzling her little poll to know how to complete it? Did you ever see the cells of a bee-hive in clumsy irregular shapes, or observe any thing like a discussion in the little community, as if there was a difference of opinion amongst the architects?

The boys laughed, and owned they had never heard of such a thing.

FATHER. Animals are even better physicians than we are, for when they are ill, they will,

many of them, seek out some particular herb, which they do not use as food, and which possesses a medicinal quality exactly suited to the complaint. Whereas, the whole College of Physicians will dispute for a century, and not at last agree upon the virtues of a single drug. Man undertakes nothing in which he is not more or less puzzled: he must try numberless experiments before he can bring his undertakings to any thing like perfection; and these experiments imply a succession of mistakes. Even the simplest operations of domestic life are not well performed without some experience; and the term of man's life is half wasted, before he has done with his mistakes, and begins to profit by his lessons.

EDWARD. Then, papa, how is it? for after all we are better than animals.

FATHER. Observe, then, our third distinction, which is, that animals make no improvements: while the knowledge, and the skill, and the success of man are perpetually on the increase. The inventions and discoveries of one generation, are, through the medium of literature, handed down to succeeding ones; so that the accumulated experience of all former ages and nations is ready for our use, before we begin to think and act for ourselves. The result of which is, that the most learned and ingenious amongst the ancient philosophers, Aristotle, or Archimedes, might learn in an hour, from a modern school boy, more than