The Poets Herds. 281 



that he might add to the pleasures of the season ; that but 

 for our great annual holiday he would have died long ago, 

 unwept, unhonoured, and unsung? If it had not been for 

 the Christian institution of the 25th he would have been a 

 common bullock. As it is, he has had a twelvemonth's 

 grace of life, and luxurious life too. Fed upon the best of 

 everything, and tended as if he were an emperor's favourite, 

 he has dreamed away his days in obese contentment, and 

 now that the end has overtaken him he goes to his fate 

 surrounded with every accessor)' of importance. 



The influence, therefore, of human society upon the 

 bullock is all for its advantage. If it had not been for 

 Christmas he would have been common beef long ago. 

 But as it is he is prize beef, and those who bred him, sold 

 him, and ate him, are all the better for the time and money 

 spent upon his education. 



In Greece and Rome it was a matter of popular belief 

 that animals devoted to sacrifice walked to the altar with 

 something of a nobler gait than when at liberty in the grass. 

 They were conscious of an exceptional dignity in the occa- 

 sion, and paced to death with a becoming stateliness. 



"The fatter the ox," says the Pilgrim, "the more game- 

 somely he goes to the slaughter." The significance of the 

 fancy is of course obvious. The ancients wished to think 

 that the animal world was in alliance with them in the 

 honours that were conferred upon their divinities, and in 

 harmony with themselves. The thought of unwilling death 

 jars upon the dignified composure of the sacrificial rite. 



Whether or not bullocks look upon Yule-tide as an occa- 

 sion for high spirits, is of course a point involved in some 

 doubt But I do not think we need feel any hesitation in 

 congratulating ourselves upon having given these amiable 

 animals the opportunity of doing so if they Uked, We 

 bring a great moral purpose into their lives and add a 

 dignity to decease. If they do their duty in death, they 



