This section is from the book "A Library Of Wonders And Curiosities Found In Nature And Art, Science And Literature", by I. Platt. Also available from Amazon: A library of wonders and curiosities.
Remarkable Strength of Affection in Animals - Surprising Instances of their Sociality - Unaccountable Faculties possessed by some Animals - Remarkable Instances of Fasting in Animals - Extraordinary Adventures of a Sheep - Sagacity of a Monkey - Astonishing Instance of Sagacity in a Horse - Sagacity of Dogs - Curious Anecdotes of a Dog - Remarkable
Far as creation's ample range extends,
The scale of sensual, mental powers, ascends:
Mark, how it mounts to man's imperial race.
From the preen myriads in the peopled grass !
What modes of sight, betwixt each wide extreme,
The mole's dim curtain, and the lynx's beam:
Of smell, the headlong lioness between,
And hound sagacious, on the tainted green:
Of hearing:, from the life that fills the flood,
To that which warbles thro' the vernal wood:
The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine !
Feels at each thread, and lives alone; the line:
In the nice bee, what sense so subtly true,
From pois'nous herbs extracts the healing dew:
How instinct varies in the grovelling swine,
Compar'd, half-reasoning elephant, with thine !
Twixt that and reason, what a nice barrier,
For ever separate, yet for ever near ! Pope.
 
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