THE HEDGEHOG. 137 



no sooner becomes the property of man in the 

 lower walks of life, than he commonly has his ears 

 shorn off; his knees are broken, his wind is broken, 



his body is starved, and his eyes ! ! I fear, in 



these grades of society, mercy is only known by 

 the name of cowardice, and compassion 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 repug- 

 nant to the primest attributes of our Maker, * ' be- 

 cause he delighteth in mercy." One of the three 

 requisites necessary for man to obtain the favour 

 of Heaven, and which was of more avail than 

 sacrifice and oblation, was that of " shewing mercy ;" 

 and He, who has left us so many examples in a life 

 of compassion and pity, hath most strongly en- 

 forced this virtue, by assuring us, that the " mer- 

 ciful 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, c< because 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 administered as a t( great de- 

 siccative of fistulas." 



The spines of the hedgehog are moveable, not 

 fixed and resisting, but loose in the skin, and when 

 dry, fall backward and forward upon being moved; 



