98 
THE HEDGEHOG. 
is only known by the name of cowardice, and compas- 
sion designated simplicity and effeminacy ; and so we 
become cruel, and consider it as valiance and manliness. 
Cruelty is a vice repeatedly marked in Scripture as re- 
pugnant to the primest attributes of our Maker, “ be- 
cause he delighteth in mercy.” One of the three re- 
quisites necessary for man to obtain the favor of Heaven, 
and which was of more avail than sacrifice and ob- 
lation, was that of “showing mercy;” and He, who 
has left us so many examples in a life of compassion 
and pity, hath most strongly enforced this virtue, by 
assuring us, that the “ merciful are blessed, for they 
will obtain mercy.” 
Hedgehogs were formerly an article of food ; but this 
diet was pronounced to be dry, and not nutritive, “ be- 
cause he putteth forth so many prickles.” All plants 
producing thorns, or tending to any roughness, were 
considered to be of a drying nature ; and, upon this 
foundation, the ashes of the hedgehog were administer- 
ed as a “ great desiccative of fistulas.” 
The spines of the hedgehog are movable, not fixed 
and resisting, but loose in the skin, and when dry, fall 
backward and forward upon being moved ; yet, from 
the peculiar manner in which they are inserted, it re- 
quires more force to draw them out than may be at first 
sight expected. The hair of most creatures seems to 
arise from a bulbous root fixed in the skin; but the 
spines of the hedgehog have their lower ends fined 
down to a thin neck or thread, which, passing through 
a small orifice in the skin, is secured on the under side 
by a round head like that of a pin, or are riveted as it 
were, by the termination being enlarged and rounded, 
and these heads are all visible when the skin becomes 
dry, as if studded by small pins thrust through. Hence 
they are movable in all directions, and resting upon 
the muscle of the creature, must be the medium of a 
very sensible perception to the animal, and more so 
than hair could be, which does not seem to penetrate so 
far as the muscular fibre. Now this little quadruped, 
upon suspicion of harm, rolls itself up in a ball, hiding 
his nose and eyes in the hollow of his stomach, and 
