HARMONY OF INSTINCTS AND HABITS. 71 



Did not this look like a concerted scheme between 

 these two goats to get free from the terrible appre- 

 hension of starving on this precipice ? You may be- 

 lie ve^ that a general joy was felt at the success of 

 their stratagem^, and no small surprise at the contriv- 

 ance. To jovL, who have probably never seen a goat 

 but in a tame^ domestic state, the story may seem 

 improbable ; but it would more easily gain credit from 

 an inhabitant of these mountainous regions, who must 

 often have observed the wild goats climb with rapi- 

 dity and elegant ease to the highest pinnacle of the 

 most rugged rocks ; and when they have attained to 

 a height that seems adapted only to be the resting- 

 place of the towering eagle, frisk about as carelessly 

 as a wanton child would do on a grass-plat, and then 

 look down without fear upon the vales below. 



No animal more strikingly demonstrates the har- 

 mony that prevails between the instincts and inclina- 

 tions of the inferior classes of creation, and the places 

 destined for their abode, than the goat. Nature has 

 foraied it to inhabit wild and uncultivated regions, 

 where nothing grows but a few alpine mosses and 

 lichens, a little wild thyme, or scattered blades of 

 mountain grass : but these are the very food the goat 

 delights to regale upon. 



There is another coincidence that is too remarkable 

 to be ascribed to chance : their hoofs are calculated 



