The English Review, Or, an Abstract of English and Foreign Literature (Volume 16 (1790)) - Brossura

Brossura

ISBN 10: 1154191591 ISBN 13: 9781154191592

Riassunto

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1790. Excerpt: ... disgusting insects, which abound in warm and marshy countries. The frogs, so numerous in America, are devoured by the serpents, and they, in their turn, by the hogs. Even the small birds, though they commit devastations upon our crops, are perhaps useful upon the whole, by devouring the destructive caterpillars. A pair of sparrows, while they have young, are found to consume every week 3360 caterpillars. Such facts, though they do not remove the difficulties which obtrude upon us, serve to diminish the quantity of evil. If our knowledge were sufficiently enlarged we should perhaps discover that the ills are only apparent or imaginary, and that ' whatever is, is 'best.' The subject of Chap. XV. is the artifices of animah Mr. Smellie selects as instances the bear, the monkey, the deer, and the hare. We (hall transcribe his account of the fox: 'The fox has, in all ages and nations, been celebrated for craftiness and address. Acute and circumspect, sagacious and prudent, he diversifies his conduct, and always reserves some art for unforeseen accidents. Though nimbler than the wolf, he trusts not entirely to the swiftness of his course. He knows how to ensure safety, by providing himself with an asylum to which he retires when danger appears. He is not a vagabond, but lives in a settled habitation, and in a domestic state. He takes up his abode on the border of a wood, and in the neighbourhood of cottages. Here he listens to the crowing of the cocks, and the noise of the poultry. He scents them at a distance. He chooses his time with great judgment and discretion. He conceals both his route and his design. He moves forward with caution, sometimes even trailing his body, and seldom makes a fruitless expedition. When he leaps the wall, or gets in under it, he ra...

Su questa edizione

• ISBN 10: 1154191591
• ISBN 13: 9781154191592
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile