198 
PASSIONAL ZOOLOGY. 
by his track, penetrates into his den, advises him, appeals to his 
feelings, and after having rebuked him severely for his gluttony, 
announces to him, that the Lord, as a punishment for his crime, 
condemns him to replace at the plow the innocent ox which he 
had traitorously slain. Then taking by the ear the intimidated and 
docile bear, he conducted him to the field of labor, amid the ap- 
plauses of the enthusiastic crowd, which did not ask so much to 
convert them to Christianity. History adds that the beast thus 
subdued by the word of the holy man, long edified the country by 
its exemplary conduct and its zeal ; and that it always lived in 
good understanding with its companion in labor. 
Happy times, when faith produced such miracles ! Try then to 
impose similar penitences on the ferocious beasts of our own day. 
It was the least that could be looked for from the piety of the 
faithful, that it should consecrate by some monument the memory 
of so remarkable an event. A church was then built on the very 
spot where Saint Medard had worked his miracle, on the field 
plowed by the bear, thence the name of Bearfield. 
We see with what docility the bears of the Catholic legend en- 
due the harness of the plow when they are required by holy per- 
sonages. The heretic chronicles ; the Muscovite, the Asiatic, the 
Indian, the Armenian, and the American ; cite, like the Catholic and 
the Greek, respectable witnesses, all attesting, if not the high in- 
telligence of the bear, at least the quietude of his character, his 
good-nature and his credulity. 
The Pagan mythology knew well what it was about when it 
metamorphosed into bears the young hunter. Areas, and his mother, 
and gave them a place of honor in the heavens, charging them to 
serve as guides to those who wander at night over land and sea. 
