1 44 Gleanings from the 



leading out of mules laden with ^Etolian toils 

 and dogs into the country was " a work of fpecial 

 importance to Romans, ufeful for their reputation, 

 their health, their morals, and the more fo if 

 you have ftrength enough either to furpafs the 

 hound in running, or conquer the boar by thews 

 and finews." 1 Plato, too, looks with much fond- 

 nefs on the chafe. His model legiflator is to 

 frame enactments concerning it, "commending 

 that kind of hunting which will make the fouls 

 of young men better, and blaming the contrary 

 kinds." Fiming and fowling may be all very well 

 for their profeflbrs, but hunting quadrupeds with 

 horfes and dogs, and fighting them hand to hand 

 with mifliles, as in a Homeric hunting-piece, is the 

 only fpecies of hunting which mould be fuffered 

 among high-born youths. Any kind of fetting of 

 traps or nets, and deceiving the quarry in the dark, 

 is hateful ; 2 but let no one flop thofe who are in 

 fober earneft facred huntfmen, wherever and in 

 what foe ver guife they choofe to hunt. Fowling 

 and fiming are not very noble taftes for any young 

 man ; they mould be left to thofe who are com- 

 pelled to practife thefe crafts in order to earn their 

 fubfiftence. With the whole oriental world, 

 hunting was held in fpecial favour. Hunting- 

 pieces conftantly appear in Egyptian imagery. 

 The Parthians were devoted to the chafe. The 

 Aflyrian and Babylonian monarchs conftruded 

 large " paradifes," as the Greeks called them, 



1 E P .,"i. 18,49. 



2 Plato, "Laws," bk. vii. 823-4. 



