Page:Omniana 2.djvu/258

 , are cruelly annoyed by this destructive animal.

  There is nothing in the system of nature which in our present state of knowledge appears so unintelligible as the scale of longevity. It must be admitted, indeed, that our knowledge upon this subject is very imperfect; but all that is known of domesticated animals, and the accidental facts which have been preserved concerning others, tend to the strange result, that longevity bears no relation either to strength, size, complexity of organization, or intellectual power. True it is that birds, which seem to rank higher than beasts in the scale of being, are also much longer lived. Thirty is a great age for a horse, dogs usually live only from fourteen years to twenty; but it is known that the goose and the hawk exceed a century. But fish, evidently a lower rank 