one's hypothesis is each as good as another's, since they are all
founded on conjecture. The late writers of this sort, in whom may
be seen all the arguments of those that have gone before, as I
remember, stock America from the western coast of Africa and the
south of Europe; and then break down the Isthmus that bridged
over the Atlantic. But this is making use of a violent piece of
machinery: it is a difficulty worthy of the interposition of a god!
'Incredulus odi.'



To Thomas Pennant, Esquire

The Naturalist's Summer-evening Walk

... equidem credo, quia sit divinitus illis
Ingenium.
Virg. Georg.

When day declining sheds a milder gleam,
What time the may-fly * haunts the pool or stream;
When the still owl skims round the grassy mead,
What time the timorous hare limps forth to feed;
Then be the time to steal adown the vale,
And listen to the vagrant** cuckoo's tale,
To hear the clamorous*** curlew call his mate,
Or the soft quail his tender pain relate;
To see the swallow sweep the dark'ning plain
Belated, to support her infant train;
To mark the swift in rapid giddy ring