Essay on Sheep. \^ 



Europe and Asia, and perhaps even in Africa; 

 as its young are easily tamed; as its milk, its 

 flesh, and its skin are extremely valuable to man 

 in a savage state, it is highly probable that it 

 was among the first quadrupeds that were do- 

 mesticated; and, from this circumstance, it has 

 perhaps wrought no less change in man, than 

 man has in it. What respect do we not owe it, 

 if, as is highly probable, we are indebted to it for 

 the conversion of man from the wild and vi^an- 

 dering savage, to the mild and gentle shepherd ! 

 The horse, the bull, and the camel, were proba- 

 bly conquests subsequently made over the ani- 

 mal creation, because it required more strength 

 and skill to tame and render them useful; but 

 the young Mouflon was soon tamed ; the female 

 savage that followed her husband to the chace 

 snatched it from its bleeding dam, pressed it to 

 her bosom, and became its mother; it sported 

 with her children, and taught them to love a race 

 which they had hitherto pursued only to destroy, 

 A slight ray of reason must have shown the sa- 

 vage how much less precarious his subsistence 

 would be, if he could draw it from an animal 

 that fed at the door of his hut, than if he was 

 compelled to seek it in the chace. He would 

 extend his flock; he would cease to trespass up- 

 on the hunting grounds of others; but he would 



