20 Essay on Sheep, 



appropriate a portion for the support of his 

 flock; he would compound with his tribe; or 

 the whole tribe, going into the same culture, 

 would mark out limits which they would not 

 suffer to be trespassed upon ; they would unite 

 for common defence; the rights of property 

 would be known, and a nation be formed 

 where before only wandering hordes had ex- 

 isted. By what simple means does providence 

 produce the greatest good? That we are not at 

 this moment iierce, savage, and brutal, little 

 superior to the beasts that roam in the wilder- 

 ness, and only employing that little superiority 

 in their destruction, and in the destruction of 

 each other, is probably owing to the domestica- 

 tion of graminivorous animals, and, first of all, to 

 that of sheep. To them we are also indebted for 

 some of the most pleasing, as well as for the most 

 important and useful arts. The cradle of music 

 and poetry was rocked by the shepherds of Ar- 

 cadia; while the spindle and thedistaff, the wheel 

 and the loom, originated in the domestication 

 of sheep. This little animal then, in losing its 

 own wild nature, has not only converted the 

 savage into the man, but has led him from one 

 state of civilization to another; the fierce hun- 

 ter it has changed into the mild shepherd, and 

 the untutored shepherd into the more polished 



