340 LION. 



with them. He is gentle and caressing to his 

 master, and if he sometimes resumes his natural 

 ferocity, he seldom turns his rage against his be- 

 nefactors, lie has also been known to disdain 

 the insults and to pardon the offensive liberties of 

 the weaker animals. When led into captivity, he 

 discovers symptoms of uneasiness without anger 

 or peevishness ; on the contrary, he assumes the 

 habits of gentleness, obeys his master, caresses 

 the hand that feeds him, and sometimes spares 

 the animals that are thrown to him for prey. By 

 this act of generosity he seems to consider him- 

 self as for-ever bound to protect them; he lives 

 peaceably with them, allows them a part of his 

 food; and will rather submit to the inconveni- 

 ences of hunger than destroy the fruits of his own 

 beneficence." 



The Count de Buffon, reasoning from the size 

 and constitution of the Lion, and the time re- 

 quired for his arriving at full growth, concludes 

 that he " ought to live about seven times three 

 or four years, or nearly to the age of twenty-five. " 

 He adds, that those which have been kept at 

 Paris have lived sixteen or seventeen years. If, 

 however, we might depend on the commonly re- 

 ceived accounts of those which have been kept in 

 the tower of London, we might mention the Lion 

 known by the name of Pompey, which is said to 

 have lived no less than seventy years in his state 

 of captivity ; and another in the same receptacle, 

 which is reported to have lived sixty- three years. 



