54 ANIMALS OF THE 



the possession only of the lowest of the people. 

 The sheep, therefore, and its varieties, may be 

 considered first ; and the goat, with all those of 

 its kind, will then properly follow. 



THE SHEEP. 



THOSE animals that take refuge under the pro- 

 tection of man, in a few generations become indo- 

 lent and helpless. Having lost the habit of self- 

 defence, they seem to lose also the instincts of 

 nature. The sheep, in its present domestic state, 

 is of all animals the most defenceless and inoffen- 

 sive. With its liberty it seems to have been de- 

 prived of its swiftness and cunning ; and what in 

 the ass might rather be called patience, in the 

 sheep appears to be stupidity. With no one qua- 

 lity 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 dan- 

 ger in the crowd, than of uniting to repress the 

 attack by numbers. The sheep, therefore, were 

 it exposed in its present state to struggle with its 

 natural enemies of the forest, would soon be ex- 



