340 LION. 
with them. He is gentle and caressing to his 
master, and if he sometimes resumes his natural 
ferocity, he seldom turns his rage against his be- 
nefactors. He has also been known to disdain 
the insults and to pardon the offensive liberties of 
the weaker animals. When led into captivity, he 
discovers symptoms of uneasiness without anger 
or peevishness ; on the contrary, he assumes the 
habits of gentleness, obeys his master, caresses 
the hand that feeds him^ and sometimes spares 
the animals that are thrown to him for prey. By 
this act of generosity he seems to consider him- 
self as for-ever bound to protect them; he lives 
peaceably with them, allows them a part of his 
food; and will rather submit to the inconveni- 
ences of hunger than destroy the fruits of his own 
beneficence. " 
The Count de Buffon, reasoning from the size 
and constitution of the Lion, and the time re- 
quired for his arriving at full growth, concludes 
that he ought to live about seven times three 
or four years, or nearly to the age of twenty-five." 
He adds, that those which have been kept at 
Paris have lived sixteen or seventeen years. If, 
however, we might depend on the commonly re- 
ceived accounts of those which have been kept in 
the tower of London, we might mention the Lion 
known by the name of Pompey, which is said to 
have lived no less than seventy years in his state 
of captivity ; and another in the same receptacle, 
which is reported to have lived sixty-three years. 
