520 VERTEBRATA. 
THE LAMB, 
the gentler virtues ; they were the victims of propitiatory sacrifices ; and finally, they became the 
type of redemption to fallen man. These may not be considered accidental allusions in a book 
whose every feature is full of desio-u. 
"Nor has the sheep been less the subject of eulogy and attention with profane writers. Among 
these, Homer and Hesiod, Virgil and Theocritus, introduced them with evident delight in their 
pastoral themes ; while their heroes and demigods, Hercules and Ulysses, ^neas and Numa, care- 
fully perpetuated them throughout their regal domains. 
"lu modern times, they have commanded the attention of the most enhghtened nations, and 
their prosperity has in no instance been independent of these useful animals, wherever wool and 
its manufactures have been regarded as essential staples. Spain and Portugal, for more than two 
centuries, were the most enterprising nations of Europe, and during that period, they excelled in 
the production and manufacture of wool. Flanders for a time was before England in the per- 
fection of the arts and the enjoyments of life, and England then sent the little wool she raised to 
that country to be manufactured. Her politic sovereigns soon found this a losing game, and 
offered large bounties for the importation of artists and machinery. By a systematic and thor- 
ough course of legislation, which looked to the utmost protection and augmentation of wool and 
woolens, she has carried their production beyond any thing the world has ever seen. The small 
islands of Great Britain and Ireland, in addition to the support of their 26,000,000 of people, 
15,000,000 of cattle, 2,250,000 horses, 18,000,000 swine, and innumerable smaller domestic ani- 
mals, maintain over 40,000,000 sheep, worth $250,000,000 ; and beside manufacturing nearly 
all their fleeces, annually import nearly an equal amount from abroad." 
"We cannot doubt," says Bufifon, "that most animals which are actually domestic were for- 
merly wild ; those whose history has already been given aff'ord a sufficient proof of it ; and there 
are still wild horses, wild asses, and wild bulls. But man, who has conquered so many millions 
