42 THE SHEEP. 



age. At this time, the value of the wool, annually shorn in 

 England, is estimated at about five millions sterling, and when 

 manufactured conjointly with the Spanish wool imported, to the 

 annual amount of not more than six or seven hundred thousand 

 pounds, the value of the cloth must be above twenty millions 

 sterling. 



Our woollen manufactory stands unrivalled by any nation, and 

 employs a greater capital, produces a greater profit, and fur- 

 nishes employment to a greater number of hands, than any other 

 manufacture in Europe, or probably in the world. Thus we 

 perceive, that the sheep of this island, besides supplying us with 

 the most essential comforts and conveniences of life, are the 

 support of our commerce and population, as well as one of the 

 great sources of our wealth. When we give these considerations 

 their due weight, we do not adopt the principle advanced by some 

 naturalists, who pretend that animals were not primarily intended 

 for the use of man, but are only capable of a secondary appli- 

 cation to his purposes ; for it is evident, that in many instances, 

 what these philosophers term the secondary purpose, is so mani- 

 fest, and so essentially necessary to our comfortable existence, 

 that we cannot, without impropriety, as well as ingratitude, sup* 

 pose it to have been excluded from the original design of the all- 

 wise and bountiful Creator. The wonderful qualities and varied 

 utility of the horse, the cow, and the sheep, exhibit a striking 

 example of this subordination of the animal race, and of an 

 adaptation to the circumstances and wants of the human species, 

 which evidently appears to be the effect of an all-wise design, 

 and a constituent part of a comprehensive plan. In order to 

 perceive the reasonableness of this hypothesis, we have only to 

 consider the benefits we derive from these animals, and the diffi- 

 culties under which mankind must have laboured without them, 

 or some others which might have served as substitutes. The 

 important and interesting reflections, both moral and religious, 

 which these three excellent species of quadrupeds, so commonly 

 seen, but so seldom viewed with a philosophic eye, are calculated 

 to excite in the contemplative mind, will, we trust, be a sufficient 

 apology for the prolixity of this article. 



