Book excerpt: Excerpt from A History of the Earth, and Animated Nature, Vol. 2 of 6 Banquet, lessens the necessity of providing for it. But the meaner tribes of animals are made still more capable of sustaining life without food, many of them remaining in a state of torpid in difference till their prey approaches, when they jump upon and seize it. In this manner, the snake, or the spider, continue for several months together to subsist upon a single meal; and some of the butterfly kinds live upon little or nothing. But it is very different with man: his wants daily make their importunate demands; and it is known that he cannot continue to live many days with out eating, drinking, and sleeping. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.