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Hence a man accustomed to fmoke tobacco, at the usual interval feels a confused pain, and the fame may be obferved in perfons addicted to drinking, who are in a very uneasy restless state at the time they are in the habit of recurring to the bottle.

The pain of habit is lefs under our power than any other pain that arifes from want of gratification: hunger and thirst are more eafily endured, especially the first, than an unusual intermiffion of an habitual pleasure : persons are often heard to declare, that they would fooner forego fleep and food, than tobacco.

The pain of want arifing from habit, feems directly opposite to that of fatiety. MODERATE PLEASURES. are augmented gradually by reiteration, till they become habitual, and then they are at their height: but they are not long stationary; for from that point they gradually decay, till they vanish altogether.

The PAIN occafioned by want of gratification, runs a different course; it increases uniformly; and at last becomes extreme, when the pleasure of gratification is reduced to nothing.

Few experiments have yet been instituted with a view to fhew how far this accommodating principle in nature may be extended in different species of plants and ani522

mals.

mals. It is known, however, that the lamb and the dove can be made carnivorous; and that the hawk, laying afide its natural propenfity for flesh, can be brought by art to live upon grain. The horfes in Hudfon's Bay eat all kind of animal food, and we are affured, by the moft authentic authors, that in Iceland, not only black cattle, but also the fheep, are almost entirely fed upon fith during the winter season. I have known, fays the immortal HUNTER, for above thirty years, that the hawk tribe can be made to feed upon bread ; for to a tame kite I first gave fat, which it eat very readily; then tallow and butter; and afterwards fmall balls of bread rolled in fat or butter; and by decreasing the fat gradually, it at last eat bread alone, and feemed to thrive aş well as when fed with meat *.

So very much do fome individuals of the vegetable tribe accommodate themfelves to different fituations, to foil, to climate, and the ftate of cultivation, that those naturalifts who have not been accustomed to nice and accurate difcriminations, have frequently mistaken the variations of the fame plants for fo many species. These variations may be daily feen, by examining the plant as it grows on the mountains, in the vallies, in the * Vide Obfervations on the Animal Economy, by John HUNTER, p. 535.

garden,

garden, or in the fields; or by bringing it from a rude 'uncultivated state, where it sometimes lays afide its formidable prickles, and changes the colour and ftru&ture of its flowers. We may add, that animals covered with down or hair have it thick or thin, long or fhort, according to the different exigencies of climate.

In all living bodies, it frequently happens that several characteristic diftinctions, as the colour, the features, and several diseases which originally were the effect of circumstance,

*Nothing is more certain than that there are hereditary diseases, or what comes to the fame thing, predifpofition to fuch. Men of fortune and opulence have it in their power to obey the laws of nature and of love; and yet how common are the examples of fuch men acting an interested part in their matrimonial engagements. Inftead of following the dictates of nature, they disregard the high privilege they enjoy, facrifice their tafte, their paffion, and often their happiness during life, at the fhrine of gold. To accomplish this fordid end, they often embrace deformity, disease, ignorance, peevishness, and every thing that is disgusting to the generous mind. The confequences do not affect them only, but the public. Men of rank, in all nations and governments, are the natural guardians of the ftate. For these important purposes, their minds should be noble, generous, and bold; and their bodies should be strong, mafculine, fit to encounter the fatigues of war, and to repel every hostile assault that may be made upon their country. But, when men of this description, whatever be their motives, intermarry with weak, deformed, puny, or difeased females, their progeny muft of neceffity degenerate. The ftrength, beauty, and symmetry of their ancestors, are, perhaps, for ever loft. What is ftill more to be regretted, debility of body is almost invariably accompanied with weakness of mind. Thus, by the avarice of one individual, a noble and gene

rous

circumstance, do at last come fo fixed in the system, that they are afterwards tranfmitted to pofterity through some With regard to animals and vegetables

generations.

this fact is undoubted.

rous race is completely deftroyed. By reversing this conduct, it is true, the breed may again be mended; but to repair a single breach, many generations, endowed with prudence and circumfpection, will be requifite. A fucceffive degeneration, however, is an infallible confequence of imprudent or interested marriages of this kind. One puny race may for fome time be succeeded by another, till at last their conftitution become so feeble, that the animals lose even the faculty of multiplying their fpecies. This gradual degeneration is a great caufe of the total extinction of some of our noble families. That it fhould be fo, is a wife and beneficent institution of nature; for if such debilitated races were continued, an universal degeneration might soon take place, and mankind would be unable to perform the duties, or to undergo the labour of life. NATURE thus first chastises, and at laft extirpates, all those who act contrary to her established laws.

SECT.

SECT. C.

SOME PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS ON HABÍT.

If all the year were playing holidays,

to sport would be as tedious as to work.

SHAKESPEARE.

THERE is not a common faying which has a better turn of sense in it, than what we often hear in the mouths of the vulgar, that custom is fecond nature. It is indeed able to form the man anew, and to give him inclinations and capacities altogether different from those he was born with. Dr. PLOT, in his History of Staffordshire, tells us of an idiot that chancing to live within the found of a clock, and always amusing himself with counting the hour of the day whenever the clock ftruck, the clock being spoiled by fome accident, the idiot continued to ftrike and count the hour without the help of it, in the fame manner as he had done when it was intire. Though I dare not vouch for the truth of this story, it is very certain that cuftom has a mechanical effect

upon the body, at the fame time that it has a very extraordinary influence upon the mind.

I fhall

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