FROM SAVAGE TO CIVILIZED LIFE. 1J)3 



beginning ? In fact, there is nothing in the statements of those who support the 

 theory of gradual taming and ages of training beyond conjectural assertion or gra- 

 tuitous assumption. 



" A fawn, a kid, or a lamb," says Lord KAMES, " taken alive, and tamed for 

 amusement, suggested, probably, flocks and herds, and introduced the shepherd 

 state."* 



According to BUFFON, " the most feeble species of useful animals have been 

 first reduced to domesticity. The sheep and goat have been acquired before hav- 

 ing tamed the horse, the ox, or the camel."f And again, " Man changes the na- 

 tural state of animals in forcing them to obey him, and subjecting them to his 

 use. A domestic animal is a slave which amuses him, which serves him, which 

 he abuses, which he alters, and changes its country and nature."} 



In another place, the same naturalist writes thus : " It is by the power of his 

 mind, and not by physical force, that man has subjugated animals. In the ear. 

 liest times, all were equally independent. Man, become criminal and ferocious, 

 was little calculated to tame them. Time was necessary to approach, to ob- 

 serve, to choose, to subjugate them. It was necessary that he himself should 

 become civilized, to be able to instruct and command ; and the empire over 

 animals, like all other empires, was not founded, but with the progress of 

 society. " 



To the same effect writes the Abbe RAYNAL. " Men," says he, " While they 

 live at large, never bring any of the animal species under their subjection. All 

 the knowledge they have is to destroy them. The taming of animals is always 

 posterior to the social state. The taming of animals, as well as all the other use- 

 ful arts, was doubtless one of the inventions of society."]] 



" A savage," says ROBERTSON, " is the enemy of the other animals, not their 

 superior."^ 



" In the domestication of animals and the cultivation of plants," says Mr 

 LYELL, " mankind have first selected those species which have the most flexible 

 frames and constitutions, and have then been engaged for ages in conducting a 

 series of experiments, with much patience and at great cost, to ascertain what may 

 be the greatest possible deviation from a common type which can be elicited in 

 these extreme cases."** 



To nearly the same purport writes Dr TAYLOR, the latest author on the sub- 

 ject. " The art of domesticating animals," says he, " and so completely changing 

 their nature as to efface the original type, requires more intelligence than we are 

 accustomed to suppose, and it is not easy to conceive how the attempt could have 

 been originally suggested. It is also very singular, that the number of domesti- 



I 



* Sketches of the History of Man, i. 46. f Histoire Naturelle, edit. SONNINI, xxix. 239. 



I Ibid. xxii. 65. Ibid. xxii. 70. || History of East and West Indies, Book xviii. 



^ ROBERTSON'S History of America, ii. 124. ** Principles of Geology, iii. 74. 



VOL. XV. PART I. 3 P 



