Page:Original stories from real life 1796.pdf/33

Rh them, at the hazard of her life: yet, a fortnight hence, you will ſee the ſame hen drive the fledged chickens from the corn, and forget the fondneſs that ſeemed to be ſtronger than the firſt impulſe of nature.

Animals have not the affections which ariſe from reaſon, nor can they do good, or acquire virtue. Every affection, and impluſe, which I have obſerved in them, are like our inferior emotions, which do not depend entirely on our will, but are involuntary; they ſeem to have been implanted to preſerve the ſpecies, and make the individual grateful for actual kindneſs. If you careſs and feed them, they will love you, as children do, without knowing why; but we neither ſee imagination nor wiſdom in them; and, what principally exalts man, friendſhip and devotion, they ſeem incapable of forming the leaſt idea of. Friendship is founded on knowledge of and virtue, and theſe are human acquirements; and devotion is a preparation for eternity; becauſe when we pray to God, we offer an affront to him, if we do not ſtrive to imitate the Rh