Essay on Sheep. 8-9 



weather. It was very natural for men who had 

 no interest in the prosperity of their flocks to 

 endeavour to abridge this wearisome and lonely 

 task, to share early in the evening the pleasures 

 of society, and enjoy their fire-sides, and to quit 

 their homes as late as possible in the morning. 

 This well-invented tale answered their purpose, 

 and, perhaps, in the begisuiing derived force 

 from the accidental or fraudulent death of some 

 part of their flocks. The shepherds were too 

 much interested in supporting this idea, and 

 their masters too ignorant, or too confident in 

 their integrity to refute it; and from hence this 

 system of keeping up the flock till the dew 

 dries off' the ground is so general as never once 

 to be doubted in every country where flocks 

 are tended by shepherds, and ridiculed in those 

 in which they feed without a guard. In Eng- 

 land sheep are out night and day. In America 

 the sheep are found to feed with most avidity 

 when the dew is upon the grass. If the pasture 

 is plentiful, they fill themselves and lay down 

 by nine o'clock, and rise again to feed an hour 

 after; but as soon as the sun has perfecdy dried 

 the grass, and began to beat upon their heads 

 with violence, they seek the shelter of some 

 friendly shade, and will even suffer hunger 

 rather than take their food while they may be 



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