ch his victuals till the boy's
return. This peculiar friendship was at last discovered, and the story
narrated to the Duke, who sent for the boy, and took care of him,
admitting him into his own household. The narrator observes that the
boy died a year or two after this unusual occurrence had taken place. I
have no doubt but that many more instances might be brought forward by
others to establish my supposition. To us, all wild animals of the same
species appear to be much alike in disposition, because we have not an
opportunity of examining and watching them carefully, but I should
rather imagine, that as we can perceive such a manifest difference in
temper between individual horses and dogs and other animals who are
domesticated, that the same difference must exist in the wild species,
and that, in fact, there may be shades of virtue and vice in lions,
tigers, bears, and other animals; and that there does exist in animals
as well as in man, more or less according to their natural dispositions,
a remnant of those affections which in the garden of our first parents
were so strongly implanted as to induce the lion to lie down with the
lamb. "God is Love," says the Scriptures; before the devil found his
way to this earth all was love, for God only was there. Now man
struggles between the two principles of good and evil. When his nature
was changed, so was that of animals; but the principle not being extinct
in man, why should not a portion still remain in the rest of the
creation, who with him were permitted to inhabit the garden of Eden, and
whose savage natures were not roused until with man they were driven
from that abode of peace?

The most affectionate animal that I know of is the common brown
Mongoose: it is a creature between the squirrel and the monkey, with all
the liveliness but without any of the mischief of the latter.
Unfortunately they will not live in our country, or they would supersede
the cat altogether; they are very clean, and their attachment is beyond
all conception to those who have not seen them. They will leap on their
master's shoulder, or get into his bed, and coil their long bushy tails
round his neck like a boa, remaining there for hours if permitted. I
recollect one poor little fellow who was in his basket dying--much to
the grief of his master--who, just before he expired, crawled out of his
straw and went to his master's cot, where he had just sufficient
strength to take his place