Bears and Wolves. 65 



• Madam, t^is youth with bears was bred, 

 And reared «-ithm their den. 

 But recollect ye any mark 

 To know your son again ? ' " 



And the Russian and " the Persian beares," the badges of 

 Warwick and Leicester, are referred to. But not a word 

 for the legends of St. Ursus and St. Ursula, St. Maximin, 

 St. Anthony, and St Medard ; for Oursine or the Orsinis ; 

 for the Cities of the Bears or the Bear Hills; for the 

 virgins of Artemis or the unhappy rival of Juno, mother of 

 constellations, the terror of the Tjrrrhenian mariners, who 

 had unawares given Bacchus a free passage ; nor the bears 

 of story, Gundramnus the church-builder, Restaurco the 

 musician, and Tony Lampkins' bear that only danced to 

 " the genteelest of tunes ; " Sackerson and Martin, Rollo and 

 Marco, " the good bear of Lorraine," the ursine monsters of 

 the Ramayana — the bear-kings, friends-in-arms of the Solar 

 Hero — or all the hundred bear-myths of the world- How is 

 it that not a hint of these distinctions in literature, and of 

 ten times as many more that I have omitted, do not find 

 even a passing reference in the poets ? Is it possible that, 

 having formulated a bear of their own, which is " obscene " 

 in Nature and ridiculous in captivity, they purposely avoided 

 all appearance of countenancing the condoning dignities of 

 Bruin's past ? 



Once more, then, whence arose this strange antipathy to 

 the bear? It could not have come from previous informal 

 tion, for all precedent honoured the animal. Nor was it 

 from any knowledge of the bear in Nature. For the bear 

 in Nature — I am speaking of the species which the poets 

 supposed themselves to be speaking of — is really almost a 

 lovable animal. It is a vegetable and fruit feeder, when it 

 can get such food, and, failing its favoiurite viands, eats by 

 preference insects. It is a delightful touch where Wilson 

 makes the bear gaze ferociously en — beech-nuts. But, above 



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