companions of their camels and horses. By the rivers and in the jungles,
they often encountered beasts of prey, became familiar with their
habits, and formed a higher opinion of their intelligence than we
generally hold. At that time, when strength was more esteemed than
intellectual gifts, there was sometimes a tendency to consider them as
rather above than below the human race. The lion, the eagle, and the
stag possessed qualities to which it was man's highest ambition to
aspire, and, in some cases, he even went so far as to worship them. In
the ancient civilisation of Egypt we find the most numerous traces of
this culture and feeling--gods, kings, rulers, and disembodied spirits
being represented entirely or partially under the forms of what we call
the lower animals. The strange allegorical figures found at Nineveh may
also be considered illustrations in point. There was evidently no
caricature intended in these representations, and it is worthy of notice
that such as are grotesque are not earlier than Roman times.

It is unnecessary to recapitulate the beautiful comparisons of this
character which are profusely scattered through Holy Writ, but we should
especially notice the blessing given by Jacob to his sons on his
death-bed; in which we seem almost to discover the first origin of
heraldry. Another remarkable comparison is that of Nathan, aptly made,
and likely to sink with weight into the heart of the Shepherd-King. The
same respect for animals survived in the time of the earliest Greek
writers.

Homer in his solemn epic has numerous instances of it:--Hector in
"Iliad" xi, 297, is setting the Trojans on "like dogs at a wild boar or
lion." In xi, 557, Ajax retreating slowly from the Trojans is compared
to an ass who has gone to feed in a field, and whom the boys find great
difficulty in driving out, "though they belabour him well with cudgels."