BLAKE'S LINES ON THE TIGER. 191, 



activity of its wild nature. Its heavy mane defended its head and neck 

 so well that the tiger could not inflict any severe injury on those 

 portions, and the fatal wounds under which it sank were all upon the 

 flanks and abdomen, which were torn open by the tiger's claws. It was 

 a serious loss to the proprietor, for the lion had cost three hundred, 

 and the tiger, which, although the victor, did not escape unscathed, 

 four hundred pounds. The lion was six or seven years of age at th<? 

 time. 



The tiger was not known in Europe so early as the lion. He is not 

 mentioned in the Bible. Nearchus, the famous admiral of Alexander the 

 Great, had seen a tiger-skin, but not the animal itself. A tame tiger was 

 exhibited at Rome about 24 B. c. The Emperor Claudius had four ; the 

 Emperor Heliogabalus had four tigers yoked to his chariot to represent 

 Bacchus. Avitus had five killed in the amphitheatre. Nero had a tame 

 tigress named Phoebe, which he used to set at those of his guests who had 

 displeased him. 



Tiger, tiger, burning bright 

 In the forest of the night ! 

 What immortal hand or eye 

 Could frame thy fearful symmetry? 



In what distant deeps or skies 

 Burnt the ardor of thine eyes? 

 On what wings dare he aspire — 

 What the hand dare seize the fire? 



And what shoulder, and what art. 

 Could twist the sinews of thy heart? 

 And when ihy heart began to beat, 

 What dread hand formed thy dread feet? 



What the hammer, what the chain, 



In what furnace was thy brain? 



Did God smile his work to see? 



Did he who made the Lamb make Thee? 



c^^^fe^)^ 



