OF SELBORNE. 13 



with milk, till, from habit, she became as 

 much delighted with this foundling as if 

 it had been her real offspring. 



This incident is no bad solution of that 

 strange circumstance which grave histo- 

 rians as well as the poets assert, of exposed 

 children being sometimes nurtured by fe- 

 male wild beasts that probably had lost 

 their young. For it is not one whit more 

 marvellous that Romulus and Remus, in 

 their infant state, should be nursed by a 

 she-wolf, than that a poor little sucking 

 leveret should be fostered and cherished 

 by a bloody grimalkin. 



" viridi fcetam Mavortis in antro 



" Procubuisse lupam : geminos huic ubera circum 

 " Ludere pendentes pueros, et lambere matrem 

 " Impavidos : illam tereti cervice reflexam 

 " Mulcere alternos, et corpora fingere lingua." 





