THE ASS. 173

favourable climates, and under better treatment,
is a sprightly handsome creature. In Spain,
for instance, they are large, strong, and stately
animals, and are accordingly much more highly
esteemed than with us. Hes there the servant
of the great; and is accordingly well fed and
well treated; with us, he is on the contrary
condemned to the lowest servitude, and is not
only treated with indignity, but oftentimes expe-
riences all the misery of harsh and ill usage.
Naturally patient and persevering, they are
loaded with enormous burdens, or compelled to
drag the heaviest weights ; yet their constitution
is so hardy, that they are able to undergo even
this harsh treatment ; and even in the depth of
winter the most wretched hovel is sufficient
shelter from the cold; and so temperate are they
with respect to food, that they can subsist on
such vegetables as almost any other animal
would reject. The thistle and plantain, which
generally grow in abundance on waste lands,
and along the sides of roads, afford them a