vide for the Subfiftence of itself and Young-ones, and elude the Snares of the Fowler; you will find the fame Care, the fame Sagacity, actuating the smallest Infect for the Prefervation of itself and its minute Pofterity. The Parent is feldom, or never, deceived in the natural Choice of Means for its own Preservation, or the Security and Education of its Young-ones, Diffolve a Grain of Pepper in Water, you may discover by the help of a Microscope, Worms of an incredible Smallness, fwimming in the Fluid. The Parent, who knows this to be their proper Nourishment, never lays her Eggs in any other Place. Look through a Microscope at a Drop of Vinegar, there you will discover a number of little Eels, and never any other Animals, because one particular Creature knows, that Vinegar, or the Materials that compound it, is proper for her Family, and therefore depofits them either in that Matter, or in the Liquor itself, and no where else. In those Countries where the Silk-worm feeds at large in the Fields, her Eggs are only to be found on the Mulberrytree 'tis eafy to fee what Intereft determines her to that Choice. You will never find upon a Cabbage any Eggs of the Caterpillar that eats the Willow; nor fee upon the Willow the Eggs of any Caterpillar who feeds upon Cabbage. The Moth feeks for Curtains, Woollen Stuff, drefs'd Skins, or even Paper, because its Materials are Fragments of Cloth, which have loft the bitter Flavour of Hemp, by the work

† Spectacle de la Nature. Dial. i. p. 19.

ing of the Paper-mill. In fhort, every Species of Animals, from Man the Lord of the Creation, to the minutest Infect that the naked Eye, or the Microscope can discover, act with Regularity and Uniformity, with all the Marks of Wisdom, Sagacity, and Prudence, within their several Spheres of Action, for the Preservation of their Being, the Propagation of their Species, and answering the several Ends and Purposes of Providence in their Creation, and the Rank which they hold in the Syftem of Nature.-But what am I doing! Pardon me, Madam, my Pursuit of this copious and delightful Inquiry, has led me off from the main Question I propofed to confider, which was, the Neceffity of fome Language, fome Means of communicating the Sentiments, Wants, Inclinations, and Defires of the Individuals of every Society and Family, in order to confult and provide for the Safety and Happiness of the whole. The mutual Wants of Society, the Care and Education of a Family, must be in fome fenfe, and to a certain degree, the fame in all Societies and Families of Birds and Beafts, Reptiles and Infects, as well as of Men; and without fome kind of Language, fome Method of Communication, those Wants could never be known, nor those Neceffities effectually fupplied. All Creatures, therefore, that live in fociety, who divide the several Duties and Offices of that Society among the Individuals, who appoint to every Member their diftinct Offices, their peculiar Pofts, their particular Provinces, muft of neceffity have fome Lan

guage,

guage, be it what it will, fince, without this Help it is quite impoffible for any Society to fubfift. Now, tho' all Animals do not incorporate in large Societies, yet all have Families, domestic Engagements, Cares, and Neceffities, which require mutual Help and Affiftance, and by confequence a certain Language, by which their mutual Wants, Inclinations, and Neceffities may be discovered and made known to each other ; fo that every Species of Animals feem to have the fame want of a Language, of fome kind or another, as thofe which live in great Societies: for as all Societies are but Affociations of Families or Individuals, whatever infers the Neceffity of a Language in one cafe, infers it equally in all.

It would be hard to affign a Reason why Nature, or rather the all-wife Author of Nature, who always acts uniformly, fhould deny fome of them a Privilege he has granted to the reft. It is a general Obfervation that all the Productions of Nature are uniform, that as she is sparing in Superfluities, fo fhe is rather profufe in things neceffary, and upon the whole does nothing in vain but is it not neceffary that a Couple of Animals, joined to form a Houfhold and Family together, a Couple of Birds for inftance, fhould be able to understand, and mutually to impart their Sentiments and Thoughts to each other? Let us return to the old Suppofition of two People abfolutely dumb, living together in the fame House, without the Affiftance of any other Perfon; I defy the Union to fubfift, if they have no means left of agreeing about their Affairs,

D

Affairs, and expreffing their mutual Wants and Neceffities. Two Sparrows, two Foxes, two Whales, will lie under the fame Impoffibility of living together; and all the Inconveniencies of the dumb Society I have mentioned, will be seen in their respective Families: In a word, the Neceflity of a Language between a Husband and his Wife, to enable them to live together, upon which human Societies fubfift, is, in due degree, the fame in all the Species of Beings below them, in every Tribe and Family of the Brute-Creation.* Could it be supposed, that there were any Race of Animals in the Univerfe capable of producing their Kind in absolute Solitude, without the Intervention of a different Sex, it must be confessed the Faculty of Speech to them would be quite a useless Talent but wherever two Beafts, or two Birds, fhall ftand in an habitual Need of each other, and form among them a lafting Society, they muft of neceffity fpeak to each other. How is it to be conceived, that in the Gallantry of their firft Addreffes to each other, their mutual Concern and Vigilance for each other's Welfare, and the neceffary Cares that attend the Education of their Families, they should not have a thousand things to fay to each other? It is impoffible in the order of Nature, that a Sparrow, or a Turtle, that is fond of his Mate, fhould be at a lofs for proper Expreffions to difcover the Tenderness, the Jealoufy, the Anger, the Fears he entertains for her, in the feveral In* Philofoph. Amusement, p. 36, 37, &c.

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cidents

cidents of Life that muft arife betwixt the most loving Couple, in the courfe of a long Cohabitation. He muft fcold her when she

plays the Coquet, he must bully the Sparks that make Attempts upon her Virtue, he must be able to understand her when the calls to him ; he muft, whilft fhe is affiduoufly fitting upon her Brood, be able to provide Neceffaries for her, and know distinctly what it is fhe wants or calls for, whether it be fomething to eat, or Materials to repair her Neft; in all which, a Language, of fome fort or other, is abfolutely neceffary.

Our Author reafons fo pertinently and confiftently upon this Head, that I fhall chufe to give you the two or three following Paragraphs in his own Language.

Many Beafts, one will fay, have not a fet"tled and permanent Houfhold like Birds, (for by-the-bye, Birds are the most perfect Mo"del of conjugal Conftancy and Fidelity:) this "I very well know, and their Number is

cr

;

even very great. Such are Dogs, Horfes, Deer, "and almost all Quadrupeds, Fifhes, and Rep"tiles. But I fhall always infift upon a Prin"ciple, granted and acknowledged as certain "Nature is too much like herfelf in Productions "of one and the fame Genus, as to have put "between Beafts fo effential a Difference, as "that of Speaking, or not Speaking at all, "would be. Upon this Principle it is, that though we hardly know the Seeds of Coral, "of Mushrooms, of Trufles, or Fern, we are "nevertheless