but there must be the fame among Fishes, those especially which, at certain Seasons, remove in Shoals to different Parts of their Element. All, and each of thefe, fpeak, undoubtedly, a Language proper and peculiar to their Species, which are as expreffive and intelligible to them, as our Language is to us; and may not improperly be called the different Dialects of the Language of Nature.

Our Author, in the midst of this Inquiry, has dropped an Expreffion, which I cannot understand, as having no apparent Relation to his Subject, or any Connection with what goes before, or follows after. Page 27, he says, Angels speak to each other, yet have no Voice. How bold, how crude, how unphilofophical is this Expreffion? Have Angels a Voice to speak to us, and none to speak to one another? Did he never read of the Conversation of Angels with the Patriarchs and Holy Men of the Old Teftament? Of the Angel Gabriel delivering a Message from God to Zacharias, concerning the Birth of John the Baptift, Luke i. and another to the Bleffed Virgin, concerning the Incarnation of our Lord Jefus Chrift? Did he never read of the Voice of the Archangel, 1 Theff. iv. 16? If he only means, that they have not a Voice like us, articulated by the Organs of the human Body, and different Modulations of the Air; Who difputes it? But is this fufficient to justify him, in faying they have no Voice? Does he allow a Voice, or fomething equivalent to it, to the lowest Orders of Brutes and Infects, and will he allow none to the highest Orders of intellectual Beings? How furprizing, how unaccountable is this? Surely he had as mean an Opinion of the good Senfe of the fine Lady, to VOL. I. whom

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whom he was writing, as he had a good one of his own. But to return :

He obferves, very juftly, that we have a thousand Ways of expreffing our Paffions, our Sentiments, our Hopes and Fears, our Defires and Wants, our Joys or Sufferings, without the Mediation of Words. When we are pleased (fays he, pag. 23.) every thing. in us fpeaks: Do we not continually speak, by certain Looks, by a Motion of the Head, a Gesture, nay, the leaft Sign in the World? Ay! and when we are difpleafed or angry, we can as easily make ourselves understood by Looks and Gestures, as by the plainest and moft expreffive Language. How often have I feen thofe lovely Eyes of yours, rebuking, with unutterable Eloquence, the affuming Coxcomb, and the malicious Prude, into Silence and Good-manners? How many melting Addreffes have you received from the Eyes of your languishing Admirers, who had neither Courage nor Merit enough to address themselves in any other Language? In short, languishing modeft Lovers resemble a Nation or Society of dumb People, who are never at a loss for a Set of fignificant Looks, Motions, and Gestures, to supply the Want of Words, and Defect of other Expreffions; and which form a Language as expreffive and intelligible to them, as the most articulate Language in the World can be to other People. Now, can any one reasonably doubt, whether the brute Animals have the Power and Means of doing the fame? It is, I think, undeniable, that they have all a knowing Faculty; but to what purpose can we fuppofe the all-wife Author of Nature has given them this Faculty, but to enable them to provide for their Wants, their Preferva

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Prefervation, and whatever is fit for their Condition, and fuitable to the peculiar kind of Life he has ap pointed for them. Let us, moreover, confider that many Species of Birds, Beafts, and Infects, are made to live in Society at large, and others to live in a kind of domestic Society, Male and Female cohabiting together, in a kind of Family, for the Education of their young ones. Now, do but confider what Ufe could the firft Species make of their Understanding, for the Prefervation and Welfare of their Society, and of courfe for their own peculiar Good, arifing from the public Profpexity, if the Members of that Society have not among themselves a common Language perfectly known to every one of them? What Ufe could they make of their Knowledge and Understanding, if they had not fome Method of communicating their Knowledge, Advice, and Affistance, to each other? If they could not understand, or be understood by each other, they could neither give nor receive any Comfort, Affiftance, or Help, from Society, and without fuch a Communication it would be abfolutely impoffible for fuch a Society to fubfift; in a Word, no more Communication, no more Society.

For the better understanding the Neceffity of this Communication, let us take a nearer View of those particular Families among the Beafts, Birds, and Infects, that seem most to want and to use it, those I mean that live in Society. Among the Beasts, we will particularly confider the Beaver, who, for his fingular Sagacity, Patience, Industry, and Skill in Architecture, feems to excel all the quadrupede Fa

mily. " *The Beaver is a Creature particularly “remarkable for the use made of his Skin, but most "of all, for the Dexterity with which he builds his "Habitation. The Beaver, whether Male or Fe"male, has four Bags under his Inteftines, impreg"nated with a refinous and liquid Subftance, which, "when it is ejected, fettles into a thick Confift"ence, of which he makes a fingular Ufe in the "building his Habitation. The Physicians call it "Caftor, and prescribe it as an excellent Remedy "against Poisons, Vapours, and other Indifpofitions; "when it grows old, it blackens and degenerates "into a dangerous Poison. He is furnished with "three very useful Implements for building, his "Teeth, his Paws, and his Tail. His Teeth are "ftrong and deeply riveted into his Jaws, with a " long and crooked Root; with these he cuts, as "well the Wood for his Building, as that which "furnishes him with his Food. His fore Feet re"femble those of such Animals as hold what they "eat in their Paws, as Apes for inftance, Rats, and "Squirrels; with these Feet, he digs, foftens, and "works the Clay, which is extremely serviceable to "him. His hind Feet are accommodated with Mem"branes, or large Skins between his Toes, like "thofe of Ducks and other Water-Fowl. His Tail "is long, a little flat, intirely covered with Scales, "supplied with Muscles, and perpetually lubricated "with Oil or Fat. This Animal, who is an Ar"chitect from his Nativity, ufes his Tail inftead of "a Hod, for the Conveyance of his Clay or Mortar,

* Spectacle de la Nature, Dial. 12, p. 77.

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❝ and

" and a Trowel to fpread and form it into an In"cruftation; the Scales prevent these Materials from "penetrating the Tail with their Cold and Moisture; "but the Scales as well as the Tail would be in66 jured by the Air and Water, if it were not for "the Prevention of an Oil, which he distributes all "over them with his Snout; and the four Bags, I "have mentioned, are undoubtedly the Magazine of <<this Fluid.

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"The Beavers inhabit the fame Mansion in great "Numbers, unless violent Heats, or Inundations, "the Pursuits of Hunters, Scarcity of Provisions, or 66 an extraordinary Increase of their Offspring, oblige "them to separate. In order to fix their Settle"ment, they choose a Situation that abounds with "Provisions, and is washed by a Rivulet, where they may form a convenient Refervoir of Water for "their Bagnio. They begin with building a Mole or Caufey, in which the Water may rise to a "level with the firft Story of their Habitation. "This Causey at the Foundation may contain ten or ' a dozen Feet in Thickness: It descends in a Slope "on the Side next the Water, which, in proportion "to its Elevation, gravitates upon the Work, and "preffes it with a ftrong Tendency towards the "Earth. The oppofite Side is raifed perpendicular "like our Walls, and the Slope, which at its Bafis "is twelve Feet broad, diminishes towards the Top, "whofe Breadth does not exceed two Feet. The "Materials of this Work are Wood and Clay. "The Beavers, with admirable Facility, cut the "Pieces of Wood as thick as one's Arm, others as "large as one's Thigh, and from two to four, five,

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