OVIS ARIES. 



duce the cheese without a mixture of water to make it part 

 from the whey. The dung is a remarkably rich manure, 

 insomuch that the folding of sheep is become too useful a 

 branch of husbandry for the farmer to neglect. Whether, 

 therefore, the advantages that result from this animal to indi- 

 viduals in particular, or to the world in general, be consid- 

 ered, sheep may certainly be ranked as the first of domestic 

 quadrupeds ; and particularly are they deserving the attention 

 of the agriculturist, both from the influence of improvements 

 on the breed, and from their generally affording larger profits 

 than can be obtained from the rearing and feeding of cattle. 



The history of the sheep may be traced to the remotest 

 antiquity, for we read that " Abel was a keeper of sheep," 

 Gen. iv. 2, and that " Abel brought as an offering to the 

 Lord the firstlings of his flock, and the fat thereof." There 

 probably is not a species amongst all our domesticated ani- 

 mals which in its historical relations is so interesting as the 

 sheep. Its early domestication, its employment as the sub- 

 ject of the first sacrifices, its typical character as an offering 

 of atonement, its importance as forming the principal wealth 

 of the early patriarchs, its various connection, in short, with 

 the political, the religious, and the domestic customs of those 

 primitive magnates of the Jewish nation, are all of them 

 subjects forming ample food for deep and delightful reflec- 

 tion. The relation which existed between the patriarchal 

 shepherds and their flocks was indeed of so intimate and 

 even affectionate a nature, as to have afforded the subject of 

 many of the most beautiful and touching parables and moral 

 illustrations in the Sacred Writings. It is scarcely necessary 

 to refer to the unequalled appeal of Nathan to David, to the 

 still higher and prophetic allusion to the character of the 

 Messiah, or to the sublime illustration of the beneficence of 

 the "great Shepherd of Israel" in the beautiful and well- 

 known pastoral psalm. These are subjects which cannot be 

 discussed here, but it is impossible to pass them wholly witb 

 out notice. But the historical interest attached to this ani- 

 mal does not stop here. The customs observed in the treat- 

 ment of their flocks by the shepherds of the Eastern nations, 

 in the present day, offer numerous and highly important 

 coincidences with those incidentally alluded to, or more dis- 

 tinctly described, in the Scriptures. 



Many persons are accustomed to consider the sheep as the 



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