THE LION. 217 



in his encounters with mankind ; that the dread of fire-arms 

 has become, in some degree, a habit of the species j and that he 

 has sagacity, or hereditary instinct, to know that a flash and a 

 loud sound is often followed by a speedy death, or a grievous 

 injury."* The contradiction in those accounts, which describe 

 it as courageous, and those which describe it as the reverse, is 

 probably attributable to their authors having seen the lion under 

 very different circumstances, as regarded time and the state of 

 its stomach. When its appetite is satisfied, it does not volun- 

 tarily destroy j and Shaw, the zoologist, says, that a child, by 

 the use of sharp words and a stick, may obtain command over 

 a lion satiated with flesh. When pinched by hunger, however, 

 " its vaunted magnanimity is no protection even for the sleeping 

 foe, as the poets have pretended." f No poet, perhaps, has so 

 frequently and so beautifully alluded to the royal station 

 and the generous nature ascribed to this animal, as Shake- 

 speare, 



Who talks as familiarly of roaring lions 



As maids of fifteen do of puppy dogs. 



Troilus. " Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you, 



Which better fits a lion than a man. 

 Hector. What vice is that ? 

 Troilus. When many times the captive Grecians fall, 



Even in the fan and wind of your fair sword, 



You bid them rise and live." 



(Troilus and Cressida, Act V. Sc. 3.) 



In the Choise of Change (1585), it is observed that " there is a 

 great clemency in lions; they will not hurt them that lie groveling." 

 Bartholomaeus says, " Their mercie is known by oft examples : 

 for they spare them that lie on the ground." Lodge, in his celebrated 

 novel of Rosalynd, or JEuphue's Golden Legacie (1540), tell us, that 

 " a hungry lyon came hunting down the edge of the grove for 

 prey, and espying Saladyne, began to seize upon him ; but seeing 

 he lay still without any motion, he left to touch him, for that 

 lyons hate to prey on dead carkases ; and yet desirous to have some 

 food, the lyon lay downe and watcht to see if he would stirre." 



* Menageries, p. 156. f Ibid. p. 151. 



