Page:OntheConductofMantoInferiorAnimals.pdf/45

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
36
STRIPPING OF GEESE.

cap. 42. Augustus erected a tomb to the memory of a favourite horse. At Athens, those horses which had thrice conquered at the Olympic Games, were always buried with those who had fallen in battle.—Ælian, lib. xii. Lucius Verus erected a golden statue of a favourite speedy horse, during his life, and on his death made a tomb for him in the Vatican.—Capitolin. in Vero. Adrian was so fond of horses and dogs, that he erected tombs for them.

On the Treatment of the Ass. Such is the depravity of the human race, that because this poor animal is meek and patient, beyond all comparison, it is subjected to excessive labour, the most barbarous treatment, and the coarsest food. It's humble appearance, size, and want of spirit, subjects it to become the property of the most abject and brutal of the human kind. The common lanes and high roads are it's nightly residence; where it becomes the sport of debased children, who have been early initiated in unfeelingness and the arts of wanton cruelty.

The ass has many and superior claims to protection and kind treatment. His countenance is mild and modest, expressing a languid patience; his deportment simple and unaffected; and his pace, tho' not swift, is uniform and unabated. His service is indefatigable and unostentatious, and he is content with the most indifferent food. He is said to be immoderately fond of plantane, and nice only in the choice of water, drinking that which is clear. The inimitable Sterne has endeavoured to render the ass respectable, and that this patient useful animal is not so in this country, is a proof of the wretchedly unfeeling and barbarous disposition of it's inhabitants.

Stripping of Geese, as practiced in the fens of Lincolnshire, reflects an odium en the name of