THE GOAT. 199 



hircine moral ideals. But we will avoid the 

 risk of mental overstrain by not striving to ex- 

 plain or imagine how such could ever have been 

 the case. 



The goat is an excellent example of what 

 seems to be a general law — namely, that when 

 mountain animals are tamed and are removed 

 from their natural habitat, they tend to dimin- 

 ish in size. Oddly enough, the converse holds 

 good with many creatures coming from more 

 fertile and favourable situations : thus no wild 

 horses ever reach the size of the modern 

 hunter ; while the huge dray-horse, so commonly 

 seen in our streets, would appear a stupendous 

 monster if put side by side with his ancient 

 European ancestors. Both the sheep and the 

 ass also exemplify the above law ; for, in spite 

 of their having received the advantasfes of 

 human protection and of a more regular and 

 abundant dietary than they ever enjoyed in the 

 wild state, they are, as a general rule, markedly 

 inferior in size and robustness to their wild 

 surviving relatives, to whom ease and plenty 

 are all but unknown. These facts seem to show 

 that the average size of the animals of any 

 species (of course we are not here speaking of 



