While the human animal is directed to the object of his love by his sense
of beauty, as mentioned in No. VI. of this Section. Thus Virgil. Georg.
III. 250.

Nonne vides, ut tota tremor pertentat equorum
Corpora, si tantum notas odor attulit auras?
Nonne canis nidum veneris nasutus odore
Quærit, et erranti trahitur sublambere linguâ?
Respuit at gustum cupidus, labiisque retractis
Elevat os, trepidansque novis impellitur æstris
Inserit et vivum felici vomere semen.--
Quam tenui filo cæcos adnectit amores
Docta Venus, vitæque monet renovare favillam!--ANON.

The following curious experiment is related by Galen. "On dissecting a goat
great with young I found a brisk embryon, and having detached it from the
matrix, and snatching it away before it saw its dam, I brought it into a
certain room, where there were many vessels, some filled with wine, others
with oil, some with honey, others with milk, or some other liquor; and in
others were grains and fruits; we first observed the young animal get upon
its feet, and walk; then it shook itself, and afterwards scratched its side
with one of its feet: then we saw it smelling to every one of these things,
that were set in the room; and when it had smelt to them all, it drank up
the milk." L. 6. de locis. cap. 6.

Parturient quadrupeds, as cats, and bitches, and sows, are led by their
sense of smell to eat the placenta as other common food; why then do they
not devour their whole progeny, as is represented in an antient emblem of
TIME? This is said sometimes to happen in the unnatural state in which we
confine sows; and indeed nature would seem to have endangered her offspring