ANATOMICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 49 



breathes and breeds ; but it is here on the limits of even its power to 

 endure. In Scotland the tribe is all but unknown. Where it can live, 

 however, no one thinks of its real condition; no mortal is so weak as 

 to waste pity upon its suffering. Its toil is without other limit than 

 the pleasure of its master; when the day's work is done, the nearest 

 lane is the only stable ready to receive it. 



The author has often, when passing down some narrow and unfre- 

 quented highway, during the early part of December, encountered a 

 miserable group of beings endeavoring to afford each other a little 

 warmth by crowding close together. The weather at this season is 

 piercing cold. The ground is squashy, and moisture loads the atmos- 

 phere. The fierce wind bends the bare twigs of the adjacent hedge, 

 and the temperature is of that kind which heralds the Christmas frost. 

 It is not yet so low as to numb sensation ; but it leaves the edge of 

 feeling unblunted, that sense may fully appreciate the heavy misery, 

 before whose wildness all nature moans and crouches. In such a place, 

 and at such a season, the author has been made sad by the living anguish 

 which the preceding illustration feebly depicts. 



The donkey, in this country, is very unfortunate in the class whom it 

 principally serves. The lower order, though with impulses untainted by 

 politeness, yet, in the struggle for life, have little leisure to quicken their 

 perceptions or to cultivate their feelings. Their own necessities forbid 

 them to be generous, and render somewhat rude their intercourse. They 

 exist not within the amenities, but upon the borders of society ; the law, 

 under whose protection the affluent breathe in comfort, is. to them a cruel 

 institution, which forces them to endure, which they recognize only as a 

 restraint, and with which they are powerless openly to contend. 



In towns, the homes of such a race are without attractions. The 

 very poor are ignorant of domesticity. They eat and live abroad, and 

 seek their lodgings only when utter weariness makes them heedless 

 where they rest. If the lodging be large enough to conceal, it possesses 

 all the requirements poverty demands. To be larger is to be colder; for 

 the ignorant study rather to drag on existence from day to day than 

 think to promote the health, which is their only real possession. 



When such a people rise in their sphere of contention, and can afford 

 to discard the hand-barrow for the donkey-tray, the inferior animal can 

 expect no separate lodging. That will hardly be provided for a beast 

 which the master was too abased to conceive necessary for the members 

 of his family. 



The donkey is hailed as a new possession ; and for security, not from 

 any loftier consideration, it has to share the proprietor's home. No 

 hole can be too narrow, too dark, or too stifling for the animal's abode, 



4 



