ANIMALS. 506 



or whatever is next at hand, he will continue fixed in the same 

 situation, and he will not so much as attempt to rise to free 

 himself from those slight impediments. He walks, trots, and 

 gallops, like a hor;e ; but although he sets out very freely at first, 

 yet he is soon tired ; and then no beating will make him mend 

 his pace. It is in vain that his unmerciful rider exerts his whip 

 or his cudgel ; the poor little animal bears it all with patience, 

 and without a groan ; and, conscious of his own imbecility, does 

 not oifer even to move. 



Notwithstanding the stupid heaviness of his air, he may be 

 educated with as much ease as any other animal ; ana several 

 have been brought up to perform, and exhibit as a show. In 

 general, however, the poor animal is entirely neglected. JMan 

 despises this humble useful creature, whose efforts are exerted 

 to please him, and whose services are too cheaply purchased. 

 The horse is the only favourite, and upon him alone all expense 

 and labour are bestowed. He is fed, attended, and stabled, 

 while the ass is abandoned to the cruelty of the lowest rustics, 

 or even to the sport of children ; and instead of gaining by the 

 lessons he receives, is always a loser. He is conducted along 

 oy blows ; he is insulted by unnecessary stripes ; he is over- 

 loaded by the lazy ; and, being generally the property of the 

 poor, he shares with them in their distresses. Thus this faith- 

 ful animal, which, were there no horses, would be the first of 

 the quadruped kind in our esteem, is now considered as nothing : 

 his properties and qualifications being found in a higher degree 

 elsewhere, he is entirely disregarded ; and, from being the second, 

 he is degraded into one of the most useless of the domestic 

 quadrapeds. * 



» In early times, the ass was not, as is now the case with us, considered a 

 despicable animal ; for we find that he was rode by the rich and noble, in 

 preference to the horse ; as will appear from the foUouing instances, from 

 many that are recorded in the Sacred Writini^s : — When Abraham went to 

 otter his eon Isaac, he rode upon an ass ; Joseph and his brethren rode on 

 assps when they went down to Kgypt to purchase corn ; and we are told, 

 that when Moses left Jethro, his father-in-law, he took his wife and his sons, 

 and set them upon asses, and returned to Eg^'pt. In the enumeration of Job's 

 property, which appears to have been very great, we find, that he had tivo 

 hundred she asses ; and, in his prosperity, he is said to have had a thousand 

 she asses. It is likely that the preference of females arose from the circum. 

 stance, that the ass can subsist on a scanty and coarse fare ; so that, in thA 

 patriarchal ages, the she ass would not only bear the rider through the de 



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