whereabouts it is, places his noife directly in a line with it, and begins to move towards it. He is filent and flow, but conftant in his approach; often flopping to hear, or look forward, and know exactly where the creature is: when he is got within about five feet, he flops. Nature, which has denied him fpeed, has given him ftrength to leap, beyond moft other creatures. Having taken good aim, he springs from the place, and falls directly on his prey. Thus he deals with beafts and birds. But to ferpents he gives chafe, and to avoid their bite, always feizes them by the neck.

Gefner fays, that the Ichneumon is not only an enemy to ferpents themselves, but to their eggs alfo: which he hunts after continually and deftroys, though he does not feed upon them. How mercifully has God given this animal in the countries where thofe terrible reptiles moft abound! And which, without this provifion, would be fo over-run with them, as to be uninhabitable.

The Jackal is of the carnivorous kind. They hunt by fcent, and go in packs. They pursue with patience, rather than with swiftness, and excite each other by a spirit of

emulation.

It goes for current, that the Jackal difcovers the Lion's prey: that each of thefe retains one of them, and having fatiated himself, lets his dependent feed on the offals of his repast.

But the truth is, there are great numbers of Jackals in fome woods, and when one of these fees a Stag, or other large beaft, which is not a beaft of prey, he fets up his cry, which is like that of a hound, and follows it. As he continues his cry, the other Jackals within hearing follow likewife. And could the creature outrun those that began the chase, there is a continual fupply; fo that it cannot efcape. When they have run it down, they worry it at once, and it is devoured almost in an inftant. After this the Jackals difperfe, till another cry invites them,

They

They hunt generally in the night; and in those parts of the Eaft, where they are most frequent, there never is a night but they are heard, in one part or other of the woods. The other beafts of prey understand the found: and frequently profit by it. If a Lion, Tyger, or Leopard happens to be near, he hears the cry, and flands upon the watch. These large animals are all very fwift, but they are lazy, and never make long pursuits. If the creature pursued be far off, and runs another way, they never trouble themselves about it. But if it be near, or if it runs towards the place where the Lion is, he will dart out upon it as it goes by. And the little animals that hunted it down muft ftand by, and be content with what their mafter leaves,

The Sable-mice, (which were first observed in Lapland, in 1697.) are near as big as a fmall Squirrel. Their skin is ftreaked and spotted with black and light brown. They have two teeth above, and two under, very fharp and pointed, Their feet are like a Squirrel's. They are fo fierce, that if a flick be held out to them, they will bite it, and hold fo faft, that they may be fwinged about in the air. In their march they keep a direct line, generally from north-eaft to fouthweft. Innumerable thoufands are in each troop, which is ufually a square. They lie ftill by day, and march by night. The diftance of the lines they go in, parallel to each other, is of fome ells. Whatever they meet in their way, though it were fire, a deep well, a torrent, lake, or morafs, they avoid it not, but rush forwards. By this means many thousands of them are deftroyed. If they are met fwimming over a lake, and are forced out of their courfe, they quickly return into it again. If they are met in woods or fields and ftopt, they raile themselves on their hinder legs, like a dog, and make a kind of barking noise, leaping up as high as a man's knee, and defending their line as long as they can, If at laft they are forged out of it, they creep into holes, and fet up a cry,

founding

founding like Biab, biab. If a house stands in their way, they never come into it, but ftop there till they die. But they will eat their way through a ftack of corn or hay. When they march through a meadow, they eat the roots of the grafs and if they encamp there by day, they utterly spoil it, and make it look juft as if it had been burnt. They are exceeding fruitful: but their breeding does not hinder their march. For fome of them have been obferved, to carry one young in their mouth, and another upon their back. In winter they live under the fnow, having their breathing-holes, as Hares and other creatures have.

[To be continued.]

REMARKS upon Mr. Locke's ESSAY on HUMAN

UNDERSTANDING.

[Continued from page 146.]

of ATTENTION and REPETITION.

* Sect. 3.

A

TTENTION and REPETITION help much

to the fixing any Ideas in the Memory: but thofe which naturally at firft make the deepest, and most lafting impreflion, are fuch as are accompanied with pleasure or pain. The great bufinefs of the Senfes, being to make us take notice of what hurts, or advantages the body, it is wifely ordered by Nature (as has been fhewn) that Pain fhould accompany the reception of feveral Ideas; which fupplying the place of Confideration and Reasoning in Children, and afting quicker than Confideration in grown men, makes both the young and old avoid painful objects, with that hafte, which is neceffary for their prefervation; and in both, fettles in the Memory a caution for the future.

“Sect. 4.

"Sect. 4. Concerning the feveral degrees of lafting, wherewith Ideas are imprinted on the Memory, we may obferve, That fome of them have been produced in the Understanding, by an object affecting the Senfes once only, and no more than once: others, that have more than once offered themfelves to the Senfes, have yet been little taken notice of; the Mind, either heedlefs, as in children, or otherwife employed, as in men, intent only on one thing, not fetting the ftamp deep into itself. And in fome, where they are fet on with care, and repeated impreffions, either through the temper of the body, or fome other default, the Memory is very weak in all these cafes, Ideas in the mind quickly fade, and often vanish quite out of the Underftanding, leaving no more footsteps, or remaining characters of themselves, than fhadows do flying over fields of corn; and the Mind is as void of them, as if they never had been there.

"Sect. 5. Thus many of thofe Ideas, which were produced in the minds of children, in the beginning of their sensation (fome of which, perhaps, as of fome pleasures and pains, were before they were born, and others in their infancy) if in the future course of their lives, they are not repeated again, are quite loft, without the leaft glimpse remaining of them. This may be obferved in thofe, who by fome mifchance have loft their fight, when they were very young, in whom the Ideas of Colours, having been but flightly taken notice of, and ceafing to be repeated, do quite wear out; fo that fome years after, there is no more notion, nor memory of colours left in their minds, than in thofe of people born blind. The Me. mory in fome men, it is true, is very tenacious, even to a miracle but yet there feems to be a conftant decay of all our Ideas, even of those which are ftruck deepest, and in minds the most retentive; fo that if they be not fometimes renewed by repeated exercife of the Senfes, or Reflection on those kinds of objects, which at firft occafion them, the print wears out, and at laft there remains nothing to be feen. Thus the Ideas, as

well

well as the children of our youth, often die before us and our Minds represent to us those tombs, to which we are approaching; where though the brafs and marble remain, yet the infcriptions are effaced by time, and the imagery moulders away. The pictures drawn in our minds, are laid in fading colours; and if not fometimes refreshed, vanish and disappear. How much the conftitution of our bodies, and the make of our animal fpirits, are concerned in this, and whether the temper of the brain make this difference, that in fome it retains the characters drawn on it like marble, in others like free-ftone, and in others little better than fand, I fhall not here enquire, though it may feem probable, that the conflitution of the body does fometimes influence the Memory; fince we oftentimes find a disease quite ftrip the Mind of all its Ideas, and the flames of a fever, in a few days, calcine all thofe images to duft and confufion, which feemed to be as lafting, as if graved in marble.

"Sect. 6. But concerning the Ideas themselves, it is easy to remark, That thofe that are ofteneft refreshed (amongst which are those that are conveyed into the mind by more ways than one) by a frequent return of the objects or actions that produce them, fix themfelves beft in the Memory, and remain clearest and longest there; and therefore those, which are of the original qualities of bodies, viz. Solidity, Extenfion, Figure, Motion, and Reft, and those that almost constantly affect our bodies, as Heat and Cold; and those which are the Affections of all kinds of beings, as Exiflence, Duration, and Number, which almoft every object that affects our Senfes, every thought which employs our Minds, bring along with them thefe, I fay, and the like Ideas, are feldom quite loft, whilft the mind retains any Ideas at all.

"Sect. 7. In this fecondary Perception, as I may fo call it, or viewing again the Ideas, that are lodged in the Memory, the Mind is oftentimes more than barely paffive, the appearance of thofe dormant pictures, depending fometimes on the Will.

The