SHEEP AND GOAT KIND. 255 



tirpated. Loaded with a heavy fleece, deprived 

 of the defence of its horns, and rendered heavy, 

 slow, and feeble, it can have no other safety than 

 what it finds from man. This animal is now, 

 therefore, obliged to rely solely upon that art for 

 protection, to which it originally owes its degra- 

 dation. 



But we are not to impute to nature the forma- 

 tion of an animal so utterly unprovided against its 

 enemies, and so unfit for defence. The Moufflon, 

 which is the sheep in a savage state, is a bold fleet 

 creature, able to escape from the greater animals 

 by its swiftness, or to oppose the smaller kinds 

 with the arms it has received from nature. It is 

 by human art alone that the sheep has become 

 the tardy defenceless creature we find it. Every 

 race of quadrupeds might easily be corrupted by 

 the same allurements by which the sheep has been 

 thus debilitated and depressed. While undis- 

 turbed, and properly supplied, none are found to 

 set any bounds to their appetite. They all pur- 

 sue their food while able, and continue to graze 

 till they often die of disorders occasioned by too 

 much fatness. But it is very different with them 

 in a state of nature : they are in the forest sur- 

 rounded by dangers, and alarmed with unceasing 

 hostilities ; they are pursued every hour from one 

 tract of country to another, and spend a great 

 part of their time in attempts to avoid their ene- 

 mies. Thus constantly exercised, and continual- 

 ly practising all the arts of defence and escape, 

 the animal at once preserves its life and native 



