It is unnecessary for us to enter deeper into this system of classification than merely to point out the distinguishing circumstance that they have laid hold on to mark the boundaries between what they call a species and a variety; and this will be the easiest done by choosing a familiar example for illustration. The horse and the ass are both of the same genus of quadrupeds; and they resemble each other so much, that they might well be mistaken for beings of the same species; but although it be found that it is possible to make them procreate, yet it is also known that the mule, which is produced from this intermixture, is not capable of continuing its kind, which circumstance induces naturalists to rank them as a different species. When animals procreate together, and produce an offspring that is capable of continuing their kind, however different they may be in their appearance and other particulars, they are accounted as only varieties of the same species; nor is there any criterion that we know of, for distinguishing a variety of any particular kind of animal from a distinct species of the same genus, but that of producing a fertile or an unfertile progeny. In this particular, we believe, all naturalists are agreed.

That there are many varieties of most species of animals is well known; and as many of these varieties, especially among domesticated animals, readily intercopulate with each other, and produce a mixed race, participating of the qualities of both parents, it necessarily must happen, that in cases

where they are suffered to mix together, the descendants of an animal of one of these varieties is very different from that of the parent race. This fact having been remarked, has given rise to an opinion, that there has been originally but one pair of animals of each species, and that all the varieties we now discover of the same species, have been produced by accidental circumstances only, such as a variation of climate, of food, or of some other extraneous peculiarity; and that, of course, one variety may be transmuted into another without any intermixture of blood, purely by a change of circumstances only. This doctrine being once admitted, the inferences which necessarily result from it, have proved highly detrimental to the practice of individuals in their attempts to improve the breed of domestic animals; as it tends, in as far as that doctrine is believed, to turn the attention of men from fixed and certain principles, which admit of no variation, to others that are vague and erroneous, which tend only to puzzle and confound the mind, and leave it in perpetual darkness and uncertainty.

The boldest asserter of the doctrine, that all the varieties of every species of animal are derived from one common stock, is the celebrated Buffon, who, instead of searching for proofs to support his hypothesis, contents himself with mere assertions, uttered with as much confidence as if the matter had been before proved beyond a possibility of doubt; and he takes as the subject for his illustration the dog kind, though the varieties of this species are more

distinctly marked than those of perhaps any other animal with which we are intimately acquainted. He says, that the shepherd's dog (a variety of the canine species, by the bye, which cannot be so distinctly recognized as many other kinds,) is the original stock from which the greyhound, the spaniel, the pointer, the harrier, the bull-dog, the lap-dog, the mastiff, the terrier, and every other variety, are all directly produced; and he even goes so far as to specify the means that are necessary to be adopted for producing these changes. It is painful to dwell upon the accidental failings of a man of genius; for which reason we decline following him in his excursive career, and exposing the absurdities into which he has fallen in pursuing it. We have only to regret, that a man of such distinguished talents should have so far overlooked facts that were easily within his reach, as to have so positively dogmatised upon this subject in direct contradiction to them; for the multitude, who think not at all, follow the authority of one who is, on many accounts, so respectable, without the smallest degree of hesitation. In consequence of this great authority, the hypothesis above stated has been tacitly, at least, assented to by the literary world in general, for some time past, though it will not require great exertions to bring such evidence, as we hope will prove satisfactory to every reader, to shew that the fact is directly the reverse of what this learned philosopher has stated it to be.

If it were true, that a change of climate affected an animal to such a degree as this hypothesis supposes, it would be impossible that any person existing should not have had opportunities of observing very striking instances of that kind. But, instead of this, the most direct proofs of the contrary must have fallen within the observation of every man in the kingdom, in respect to the very animal that he has selected for illustration. The dog is a favoured domestic; he attaches himself to his master, and follows him wherever he goes. He is thus carried through all the climates of the globe, under the immediate controul and inspection of man; and no instance hath ever been known in which an individual dog has ever thus experienced any material change in his external form, far less in his internal qualities. If a smooth-haired Spanish pointer, for instance, be carried to the torrid or the frozen zone, from Kamtschatka through the whole extent of Asia and Europe into America, he is the same smooth-haired dog every where; and his master recognizes him for the same creature at the first glance: but if the pile of its hair and external appearance be not altered, far less is the animal changed in its other qualities: it still scents the game in the way peculiar to that kind of dog; it does not, like the greyhound, pursue it by the eye; it does not, like the hound, burst forth in sonorous howling when it feels the scent strong: this variety of the dog kind steals upon its prey with extreme caution and circumspection. These qualities it pos

sessed at its birth, and these qualities it retains till its dying hour, in spite of any change of climate or kind of food it may be made to experience. The same thing may be said of every other kind of dog. The English bull dog displayed the same unconquerable obstinacy on the arena of ancient Rome, as he does at this day in the island which gave him birth: and the Newfoundland dog of the present day is equally gentle, equally attached to his master, and alike firm in his defence in every part of Europe as in America. In short, the universal experience of mankind incontrovertibly proves, that the same individual dog continues the same in regard to all its essential characteristics in every region of this globe, and under every different system of management. He may be rendered fatter or leaner, diseased or sound, and these variations of management will produce a temporary change in

his

appearance; but no evidence was ever known of a dog of one kind being converted into one of another sort. The terrier continues to ferret out the lesser animals with silent assiduity; the lap dog to bark at every thing that moves; the pointer retains his quick sense of smelling; the greyhound searches for his prey by the eye in every region alike; so that there is no reason to doubt that every kind of dog, considered individually, retains the same faculties unchanged throughout the whole course of its life, to whatever changes of food or climate it may be subjected.

G