A few years ago, I desired to atone
for this fault; I went to Uttoxeter in very bad weather, and stood for a
considerable time bareheaded in the rain, on the spot where my father's
stall used to stand. In contrition I stood, and I hope the penance was
expiatory.'
'I told him (says Miss Seward) in one of my latest visits to him, of a
wonderful learned pig, which I had seen at Nottingham; and which did all
that we have observed exhibited by dogs and horses. The subject amused
him. "Then, (said he,) the pigs are a race unjustly calumniated. PIG
has, it seems, not been wanting to MAN, but MAN to PIG. We do not allow
TIME for his education, we kill him at a year old." Mr. Henry White, who
was present, observed that if this instance had happened in or before
Pope's time, he would not have been justified in instancing the swine as
the lowest degree of groveling instinct. Dr. Johnson seemed pleased with
the observation, while the person who made it proceeded to remark, that
great torture must have been employed, ere the indocility of the animal
could have been subdued.
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