SHEEP AND GOAT KIND 



211 



may, from hence, be considered as two different 

 kin Is uir i i-'-gard to all common and domes- 

 tic purposes. But if we co ne to examine 

 them closer, and observe their internal con- 

 formation, no two animals can be more alike; 

 their feet, tlvir four stomachs, their suet, their 

 app;'tit -, all are entirely the same, and show 

 the similitude between them; but what makes 

 a much stronger connexion is, that they pro- 

 pa-jate with each other. The buck-goat is 

 found to produce with the ewe an ani.nal that, 

 in two or tiiree generations, returns to the 

 sheep, and seems to retain no marks of its 

 ancient progenitor." The sheep and the goat, 

 therefore, may be considered as belonging to 

 one family ; and were the whole races reduced 

 to one of each, they would quickly replenish 

 the earth with their kind. 



If we we examine the sheep and goat inter- 

 nally, we shall find, as was said, that their con- 

 formation is entirely the same ; nor is their 

 structurevery remote from that of the cow kind, 

 which they resemble in their hoofs, and in 

 their chewing the cud. Indeed, all ruminant 

 animals are internally very much alike. The 

 goat, the sheep, or the deer, exhibit to the eye 

 of the anatomist the same parts in miniature 

 which the cow or the bison exhibited in the 

 great. But the differences between those 

 animals are, nevertheless, sufficiently apparent. 

 Nature has obviously marked the distinctions 

 between the cow and the sheep kind, by their 

 form and size ; and they are also distinguished 

 from those of the deer kind, by never shedding 

 the horns. Indeed, the form and figure of 

 these animals, if there were nothing else, would 

 seldom fail of guiding us to the kind ; and we 

 might almost upon sight tell which belongs to 

 the deer kind, and which are to be degraded 

 into that of the goat. However, the annually 

 shedding the horns in the deer, and the per- 

 manence in the sheep, draws a pretty exact 

 line between the kinds ; so that we may hold 

 to this distinction only, and define the sheep 

 and goat kind as ruminant animals of a smaller 

 size, tnat never shed their horns. 



If we consider these harmless and useful 

 animals in one point of view, we shall find that 

 both hive b^en long reclaimed, and brought 

 into a state of domestic servitude. Both seem 

 to require protection from man ; and are, in 



11 Buffon, passim. 



some measure, pleased with his society. The 

 sheep, indeed, is the more serviceable creature 

 of the two ; but the goat has more sensibility 

 and attachment. The attending upon both 

 was once the employment of the wisest and the 

 best of men ; and those have been ever sup- 

 posed the happiest ti ies in which these harm- 

 less creatures were considered as the chief ob- 

 jects of human attention. In the earliest a^es, 

 the goat seemed rather the greater favourite; 

 and, indeed, it continues such, in some coun- 

 tries, to this day among the poor. However, 

 the sheep has long since become the principal 

 object of human care ; while the goat is disre- 

 garded by the generality of it aidund, or 

 become the possession only of the lowest of 

 the people. The sheep, therefore, and its va- 

 rieties, may be considered first ; and the ^oat, 

 with all those of its kind, will then properly 

 follow 



THE SHEEP. 



THOSE animals that take refuge under the 

 protection of man, in a few generations become 

 indolent and helpless. Having lost the habit 

 of self-defence, they seem to lose also the in- 

 stincts of nature. The sheep, in its present 

 domestic state, is, of all animals, the most de- 

 fenceless and inoffensive. With its liberty, it 

 seems to have been deprived of its swiftness 

 and cunning; and what in the ass tni^lit rather 

 be called patience, in the sheep appears to be 

 stupidity. With no one quality to fit it for 

 self-preservation, it makes vain efforts at all. 

 Without, swiftness, it endeavours to fly ; and 

 without strength, sometimes offers to oppose. 

 But these feeble attempts rather incite than 

 repress the insults of every enemy ; and the 

 dog follows the flock with greater delight upon 

 seeing them fly, and attacks them with more 

 fierceness upon their unsupported attempts at 

 resistance. Indeed, they run together in flocks 

 rather with the hopes of losing their single 

 danger in the crowd, than of uniting to repress 

 the attack by numbers. The sheep, therefore, 

 were it exposed it its present state to struggle 

 with its natural enemies of the forest, would 

 soon be extirpated. Loaded with a heavy 

 fleece, deprived of the defence of its horns, and 

 rendered heavy, slow, and feeble, it can have 

 no other safety than what it finds from man. 



