they wage one against another, for the necessities of life.  They have also laws and a government among themselves.  Some, like tortoises, carry the house wherein they were born; others build theirs, as birds do, on the highest branches of trees, to preserve their young from the insult of unwinged creatures, and they even lay their nests in the thickest boughs to hide them from their enemies.  Another, such as the beaver, builds in the very bottom of a pond the sanctuary he prepares for himself, and knows how to cast up dikes around it, to preserve himself by the neighbouring inundation.  Another, like a mole, has so pointed and so sharp a snout, that in one moment he pierces through the hardest ground in order to provide for himself a subterranean retreat.  The cunning fox digs a kennel with two holes to go out and come in at, that he may not be either surprised or trapped by the huntsmen.  The reptiles are of another make.  They curl, wind, shrink, and stretch by the springs of their muscles; they creep, twist about, squeeze, and hold fast the bodies they meet in their way; and easily slide everywhere.  Their organs are almost independent one on the other; so that they still live when they are cut into two.  The long-legged birds, says Cicero, are also long-necked in proportion, that they may bring down their bill to the ground, and take up their food.  It is the same with the camel; but the elephant, whose neck through its bigness would be too heavy if it were as long as that of the camel, was furnished with a trunk, which is a contexture of nerves and muscles, which he stretches, shrinks, winds, and turns every way, to seize on bodies, lift them up, or throw them off:  for which reason the Latins called that trunk a hand.

Certain animals seem to be made on purpose for man.  The dog is born to caress and fawn upon him; to obey and be under command; to give him an agreeable image of society, friendship, fidelity, and tenderness; to be true to his trust; eagerly to hunt down, course, and catch several other creatures, to leave them afterwards to man, without retaining any part of the quarry.  The horse, and such other animals, are within the reach and power of man; to ease him of his labour, and to take upon them a thousand burdens.  They are born to carry, to walk, to supply man’s weakness, and to obey all his motions.  Oxen are endowed with strength and patience, in order to draw the plough and till the ground.  Cows yield streams of milk.  Sheep have in their fleeces a superfluity which is not for them, and which still grows and renews, as it were to invite men to shear them every year.  Even goats furnish man with a long hair, for which they have no use, and of which he makes stuffs to cover himself.  The skins of some beasts supply men with the finest and best linings, in the countries that are most remote from the sun.