Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/307

 that in ancient times they were regarded as the objects of affection, and not of profitable speculation merely:

The passage has often been cited in illustration of the following verses from the Gospel of St. John. Our Savior, describing himself as a shepherd, here alludes to various indications of care and attachment, which distinguish the owner of a flock from the hireling, who, being engaged to tend the sheep only for a season, could not be so well known by them, nor so much interested in their security and welfare.

In reference to this passage of Scripture the following remarks of a late traveller are instructive:

The city of Sybaris stood between two rivers, the Sybaris and the Crathis. The ancients asserted that the sheep which drank of the Crathis, were white, and those which drank of the