98 THE HEDGEHOG. 



is only known by the name of cowardice, and compas- 

 sion designated simplicity and effeminacy ; and so we 

 become cruel, and consider it as valiance and manliness. 

 Cruelty is a vice repeatedly marked in Scripture as re- 

 pugnant to the primest attributes of our Maker, " be- 

 cause he delighteth in mercy." One of the three re- 

 quisites necessary for man to obtain the favor of Heaven, 

 and which was of more avail than sacrifice and ob- 

 lation, was that of "showing mercy;" and He, who 

 has left us so many examples in a life of compassion 

 and pity, hath most strongly enforced this virtue, by 

 assuring us, that the " merciful are blessed, for they 

 will obtain mercy." 



Hedgehogs were formerly an article of food ; but this 

 diet was pronounced to be dry, and not nutritive, " be- 

 cause he putteth forth so many prickles." All plants 

 producing thorns, or tending to any roughness, were 

 considered to be of a drying nature ; and, upon this 

 foundation, the ashes of the hedgehog were administer- 

 ed as a " great desiccative of fistulas." 



The spines of the hedgehog are movable, not fixed 

 and resisting, but loose in the skin, and when dry, fall 

 backward and forward upon being moved; yet, from 

 the peculiar manner in which they are inserted, it re- 

 quires more force to draw them out than may be at first 

 sight expected. The hair of most creatures seems to 

 arise from a bulbous root fixed in the skin ; but the 

 spines of the hedgehog have their lower ends fined 

 down to a thin neck or thread, which, ' passing through 

 a small orifice in the skin, is secured on the under side 

 by a round head like that of a pin, or are riveted as it 

 were, by the termination being enlarged and rounded, 

 and these heads are all visible when the skin becomes 

 dry, as if studded by small pins thrust through. Hence 

 they are movable in all directions, and resting upon 

 the muscle of the creature, must be the medium of a 

 very sensible perception to the animal, and more so 

 than hair could be, which does not seem to penetrate so 

 far as the muscular fibre. Now this little quadruped, 

 upon suspicion of harm, rolls itself up in a ball, hiding 

 his nose and eyes in the hollow of his stomach, and 



