sitively alive to kindness and encouragement. The quickness of comprehension displayed by this noble animal, has justly procured for him the appellation of the "half reasoning elephant." "I have myself," says an officer who served in India, 66 seen the wife of a mohaut (for the followers often take their families with them to the camp), give a baby in charge to an elephant, while she went on some business, and have been highly amused in observing the sagacity and care of the unwieldy nurse." In corroboration of this statement, I may mention the curious fact mentioned in the "Philosophical Transactions," of the attachment of an elephant to an infant. He was said never to have been happy except when the infant was near him. The nurse, therefore, frequently took the child in its cradle, and placed the latter between his feet. He at last refused to eat his meat when the infant was absent. When it was asleep, he watched it with much solicitude, and drove off the flies with his trunk as they approached. If it awoke and cried, he would rock the cradle, till it again fell asleep.

A thousand well authenticated accounts of the sagacity, the docility, the quick sense of injury, and the affectionate disposition of the elephant are stated, from which I shall only select one well known example, that is at once characteristic of almost all these qualities. "Some years ago, an elephant at Decan, from a motive of revenge, killed its conductor. The wife of the unfortunate man was witness to the dreadful scene; and, in the frenzy of her mental agony, took her two children, and threw them at the feet of the elephant, saying, Take my life also, and that of my children!' The elephant becoming instantly calm, seemed to relent; and, as if stung with remorse, took up the eldest boy with his trunk, placed him on its neck, adopted him for its cornac, and never afterward allowed another to occupy that seat."

VOL. III.

Y

ELEVENTH WEEK-FRIDAY.

RELECTIONS ON THE DOMESTIC ANIMALS.

"DEPRIVE man of the ox, the dog, and the horse," says Dr Macculloch, "and he could not maintain his position in the world for a year; he never could have attained the one which he holds, nor could he discover a compensation." He who reflects on the vast importance these animals are to the comfort and convenience of man, and on the addition which they afford to his power, will at once perceive that there is no exaggeration in this assertion. It may be true, that, as society advances in civilization, new modes of acquiring power, and new means of increasing our comforts and conveniences, may be discovered, which shall leave these immediately accessible gifts of the Creator far behind; but even should the uses of the domestic animals be destined to be superseded or excelled by the inventions of man, in a highly improved state, who will venture to say, that they were not necessary to assist him in arriving at that state?

And let it not be said, that the properties of these animals have been only accidentally fitted for the use of man, and that he is entirely indebted to his own ingenuity, in the appropriation of instincts and faculties destined by nature solely for a different purpose, for the existence or the happiness of the animal itself. This view may be disproved, and indeed I think I may confidently say, has already been disproved, by reference to the nature of these instincts and faculties, and, it may be added, by reference to the very form and bodily structure of the creatures we have subjugated. That the horse is made for a rider, and the ox for patient endurance of fatigue, and the dog for a thousand little offices, which contribute to the comfort of man, no person who candidly considers the correspondence of their forms

with the nature of their faculties, and the correspondence of these, again, with the wants of the human race, can, without a most inveterate and perverse scepticism, allow himself for a moment to doubt.

One very remarkable fact, which has already come under our notice, in regard to the subject of domestication, is the effect which an intercourse of the lower animals with man for many generations produces, in changing their habits, their dispositions, their very bodily form, fitting them more perfectly for the supply of his various necessities. This is particularly the case with those that have been the longest reclaimed, and are the most needful to him. How numerous and useful are the varieties, for example, which we find in the dog and the horse! And what adds materially to the proof of Creative Design, in this instance, is the power which man possesses of improving the breeds, or rendering them more subservient to some particular uses. The sheep has been made to yield a finer fleece, the cow to give a more abundant supply of milk, the horse to become more fleet and powerful, the dog more sagacious, under the skill of man. This is one species of the rewards which the Supreme Governor, in pursuance of a very general principle employed by his paternal beneficence, has annexed to human industry and ingenuity,—a department of useful discipline in the school of Providence. It is essential to man's welfare, that his faculties shall be stimulated, and kept in constant exercise; and, in a thousand ways, arrangements have been made by the Creator to effect this important purpose.

Another observation, which cannot fail to strike the minds of those who study the subject of domestication, relates to the dispositions implanted in the various animals which are the objects of it. These dispositions were clearly bestowed for the purpose of rendering them fit for this state, whether we consider, in some species, their affections, which go forth towards man as their protector and benefactor; or, in others, their love of

ease, which induces them to submit without resistance to his sway ; or in others, again, their local attachments, which bind them to the place in which they have been brought up ; or, finally, in others still, their very stupidity, which proves them to be born for a state of slavery.

Of the first of these qualities,-that of affection for man,—what an admirable example do we find in the dog! It is the instinct, not of individual varieties only, but of an entire race; while in these varieties we observe shades of difference, which show that the faculty is bestowed with discrimination, and with peculiar reference to man's convenience or comfort. In the elephant, too, a similar amiable property is conspicuous ; and, in both orders, this remarkable propensity bears no necessary reference to feeding, or marks of regard, on the part of the master; but is free, disinterested, and noble. In other tame animals, preferences to their keepers also exist; but, while these may be equally regarded as an intended character of the inferior creation for the benefit of man, they are in general of a less generous character. Some very affecting stories are related of the deep and ardent affections of both the animals I have mentioned, which cannot be heard without emotion. We read of elephants who have defended their masters with their lives, when fallen in battle ;* and we are told of dogs who have taken their station on the grave of some human friend, refusing food with the most steady resolution, till they pined to death; and of others who, during the absence of their master, became dejected and cheerless, and, on his sudden return, expired

* It is said of one of the soldiers of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, that, when fighting in the territory of Argos, he fell wounded from his elephant, that noble animal rushed furiously among the combatants till he found his master, when he raised him gently from the ground with his trunk, and placing him on his tusks, carried him back to the town; and when King Porus, in a battle with Alexander the Great, met with a similar misfortune, his faithful elephant is said to have kept the enemy at bay till he had replaced the monarch on his back with his trunk; but the poor animal lost his life in this heroic defence.

for joy.* The attachment of some of the monkey tribe to those who show them kindness, is remarkable. I was myself once possessed of a monkey, of one of the smallest species, which was frequently permitted to leave its cage, and run about the grounds. Whenever he observed me at a distance, he used instantly to rush towards me, uttering cries of delight, and, if permitted, would fondly clasp his arms round my knee, or take hold of my hand and squeeze it with both his in the most affectionate manner, applying, at the same time, his lips to the back of my hand, with a motion so like that of a human being, when expressing humble but devoted attachment, as to be at once humiliating and affecting.

The instinct of local attachment is another of those qualities by which the domestic tribes become subdued to the service of man. His home becomes theirs, and thus a bond of union is created, of a very strong and important kind. This instinct of home, indeed, belongs to wild animals as well as tame, and is one of the means by which the Creator has secured the useful distribution of animals, and their limitation to their proper boundaries; but it is of great moment also in domestication, and, though beneficial in a different way, may surely be ranked among the properties intended for that purpose. Proofs of the strength of this principle are of daily occurrence. It is seen in the astonishing efforts which some animals make to return to the locality in which they have been reared, and the mysterious manner in which they find their way by unknown roads; and it is observed on a large scale, in the return of the migratory animals to the place of their birth, after wanderings of thousands of miles. The very same principle attaches the horse to its manger, and the goose to its roost, and the sheep to its native hills.

*This is related of a dog belonging to the Marquis Langallery, and of several others. In the life of Mary Queen of Scots, it is stated that her favourite lap-dog, which had followed her to the scaffold, would not leave the body till forced away, and died two days afterward of a broken heart.