CHAPTER XXXIX 



THE ASS 



YOUR uncle's partiality, you have already 

 been able to see, my friends, is for the weak, 

 the ill-treated, the unfortunate. I did not try to 

 eulogize the horse, the valiant animal commending 

 itself sufficiently to our esteem without that; but 

 very gladly will I enumerate the good qualities of 

 the ass, sad victim of our brutality despite the serv- 

 ice it renders us. To give my words more authority 

 I will add Buff on 's testimony to my own. 



" 'The ass,' says the illustrious historian of ani- 

 mals, 4s not a degenerate horse, as many imagine; 

 it is neither a foreigner nor an intruder nor a bas- 

 tard; like all animals it has its family, its species, 

 and its rank. Although its nobility is less illustri- 

 ous, it is quite as good, quite as ancient, as that of 

 the horse. Briefly, the ass is an ass, nothing more, 

 nothing less. 



' ' ' This initial fact is of no slight importance. In 

 considering the ass as a degenerate horse we are led 

 to compare it with its assumed origin, and the com- 

 parison is not favorable to it: the long-eared don- 

 key makes but a pitiful showing beside the brisk and 

 noble courser. But as it is in reality a separate ani- 

 mal let us expect of it only the qualities of its spe- 



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