SHEEP. 147 



of which he is writing, on a certain occasion left their 

 tails behind them. This, of course, must only be regarded 

 as a metaphor, his meaning being that they were wholly 

 destitute of memory. Scriptural authority would seem to 

 show that the sheep is a superior animal to the goat, and 

 no doubt it is less given to mischievous tricks ; but as this 

 is due to a want of sufficient intelligence to devise a 

 mischievous trick, it can hardly be considered a feature 

 worthy of high commendation. Some have supposed that 

 the sheep throughout its life is oppressed with a sense of 

 duty which deadens all other faculties. Having in some 

 mysterious manner become possessed of an hereditary know- 

 ledge that the object of its life is to furnish mutton, it 

 sets itself deliberately to work to prepare for the butcher's 

 knife. To this end, it is always eating when it is not 

 sleeping. Its stolidity is assumed because it knows that 

 energy is destructive to the formation of fat. Unfor- 

 tunately for the reputation of these animals, their breeders 

 have regarded them solely in the light of producers of 

 mutton and wool, and have endeavoured to improve them 

 only in this respect. Had they turned their .attention 

 to developing their mental qualities, the consequences 

 might have been different ; but naturally the sheep, finding 

 that no efforts were being made to improve its intelligence, 

 accepted the place in the animal creation that man assigned 

 to it, and has taken no pains to improve itself. There is 

 no saying what a society for the improvement of the intel- 

 ligent faculties of sheep might not effect, and if its efforts 

 did but produce some change in the expression of their 

 faces it would be a boon to mankind. There is a limit now 

 to the pleasure which any one save a breeder can obtain 



