But the divine ray with which man is animated ennobles and raises him above all other material beings. This spiritual substance, far from being subject to matter, has the power of making it obey; and though it cannot command all Nature, it presides over particular beings; God, the sole source of all light and understanding, rules the universe and the species with infinite power; man, who possesses only a ray of this spiritual substance, has a power limited to small portions of matter and individuals. It is by the talent of the mind, then, and not by force, and the other qualities of matter, that man has been enabled to subdue animals. In the first ages they were all equally independent; man, after he became guilty and ferocious, was very unfit to deprive them of liberty. Before he could approach, know, make choice of, and tame them, it was necessary that he should be civilized himself, to know how to instruct and command; and the empire over animals, like every other empire, was not founded till after society was instituted. It is from society that man derives his power: from that he perfects his reason, exercises his genius, and unites his strength. Previous to the union of society man was perhaps the most savage, and the least formidable of all creatures; naked, defenceless and without shelter, the earth to him was only a vast desert peopled with monsters, of which he frequently became the prey; and even long after, history informs us, that the first heroes were only the destroyers of wild beasts. _Engraved for Barr's Buffon_ [Illustration: FIG. 18. _Horse_] [Illustration: FIG. 19. _Ass_] But when the human race multiplied, and spread over the earth, and when, by the aid of the arts and society, man was able to conquer the universe, he by degrees lessened the number of ferocious beasts, he purged the earth of those gigantic animals of which we sometimes still find the enormous bones; he destroyed, or reduced to a small number, every hurtful and voracious species; he opposed one animal to another, and conquered some by fraud, others by force; and attacking them by every rational method he arrived at the means of safety, and has established an empire which is only bounded by inaccessible solitudes, burning sands, frozen mountains, and obscure caverns, which now serve as retreats for the small number of species of ferocious animals that remains. THE HORSE.