468 BEAUTY IN THE ANIMAL CREATION. 



each extremity presented a distressing picture of mutilation and 

 deformity. It would be difficult to discover what could possibly 

 have given rise to these needless acts of cruelty ; for it is generally 

 supposed that the outward part of the ear assists the entrance of 

 sound into the cavity of it : thus we observe blind horses in particular 

 with their ears perpetually pricked ; and as the power of moving the 

 ears at pleasure has not been given to ourselves, we are often seen to 

 place our hand behind them, by way of introducing the coming sound 

 to more advantage. There is still another operation on the horse's 

 tail, a torment of three weeks' duration at the least. To be in high 

 beauty, he must have the remains of it (after docking has been per- 

 formed) curved up permanently over his back. This superlative act 

 of cruelty and bad taste drew down upon us a pleasant and sarcastic 

 remark from the mouths of our Gallic neighbours : " Quelle folie 

 des Anglais ! faire couper les oreilles aux chevaux, et tourner la queue 

 en 1'air." 



What folly in those Englishmen appears ! 

 They cock their horses' tails, and clip their ears. 



The stinking polecat, shunned by most people and persecuted by 

 everybody, presents to our view a symmetry of no ordinary beauty. 

 The length of his body is wonderfully well adapted to that of his neck 

 and when he carries his prey, there is such a stateliness in his whole 

 contour, that it is impossible not to be struck with the elegance of 

 his motions. 



The sloth again is astonishing in its anatomy, which is so peculiarly 

 adapted to its habits that we cannot help pronouncing it a production 

 perfect in every point of view. The strange stories which we have 

 had of it have been penned in the closet, not in the forest. I saw 

 in the Nation, an Irish newspaper, of last week, that we may 

 shortly expect a living sloth in London. I am rejoiced at this, 

 because the public will then find by actual observation that I had sure 

 ground to go upon when I ventured to take a near view of this 

 animal, whose economy, up to that time, had been marvellously mis- 

 represented. But we live to learn, as the old woman said when her 

 cat was too lazy to kill a mouse. The cat, by the way, is terribly 

 elegant in its frolics over the captured mouse ; and it exhibits sucr 



