THE HART AND THE HIND. 109 



however, arc objects of too curious a description to be passed over 

 in silence, especially as we shall have occasion to notice them 

 somewhat particularly, in order to ascertain the import of an ob^ 

 scure passage of scripture. The size of the deer's antlers is in pro- 

 portion to its age, and are shed every year: in full grown animals 

 they are very large, and give an expansion and beauty to the head 

 which is remarkably striking. Their growth and extension are 

 affected by several external circumstances ; and Buffon thinks it 

 possible to retard their growth entirely, by greatly retrenching the 

 animal's food. A stag bred in fertile pastures, and undisturbed 

 by the hunter, has his head expanded, his antlers numerous, and 

 his branches thick ; while one often pursued and ill nourished, has 

 but few antlers, and the expansion but little. The beauty and size 

 of their horns, therefore, mark their strength and vigor. 



The deer is a ruminating animal, and divides the hoof; it was 

 therefore permitted to be eaten by the Mosaic law, Deut. xii. 15 ; 

 xiv. 5. This was a great advantage to the Israelites, as the moun- 

 tainous tracts of Lebanon, Gilead, and Carmel, abounded with deer, 

 and supplied them with a rich provision of agreeable food. 



Naturally of a hot and arid constitution, the deer suffers much 

 from thirst in the oriental regions. He therefore seeks the fountain 

 or the stream with intense desire, particularly when his natural 

 thirst has been aggravated by the pursuit of the hunter. Panting 

 and braying, with eagerness lie precipitates himself into the river, 

 that he may quench at once the burning fever which consumes his 

 vitals, in its cooling waters. No circumstance can display more 

 forcibly the ardent breathings of divine love in the soul of a true 

 believer ; and the holy Psalmist has availed himself of it, with ad- 

 mirable propriety and effect, in the description of his religious feel- 

 ings, when exiled from the house of God, and a dejected wanderer 

 near the sources of the Jordan : ' As the hart panteth after the wa- 

 ter brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirst- 

 eth for God, for the living God : when shall I come and appear 

 before God?' Thus importunate are the desires of the genuine 

 saint; thus earnestly he longs after communion with his God; he 

 feels impatient at a distance from the sanctuary, and finds it impos- 

 sible to be satisfied with any enjoyment less than the sensible en- 

 joyment of his Redeemer's favor. 



The deer seems to resemble the goat, in being remarkably sure 

 footed, and delighting in elevated situations. It possesses extraor- 

 dinary swiftness, and will bound, with surprising agility, more than 

 fifty feet. It is, therefor, with admirable propriety and force, that 

 the spouse compares the sudden manifestations of her Saviour's 

 love and power, to the bounding of the hart on the summits of the 

 mountains: 'The voice of my beloved ! behold, he cometh leaping 

 upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills,' Cant. ii. 8. To give 

 us some idea of the joy and triumph which the Messiah's appear* 

 ance in human nature, his resurrection from the dead, and the 

 establishment of his kingdom in all its glory, should produce in the 



