Bacon and Mutton

"Some books," stated Sir Francis Bacon, "are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested." In The Book of a Naturalist (George H. Doran, 1919) W. H. Hudson tells of a sheep who "would steal quietly in [my home] and finding a book would catch it hastily up and make off with it. Carrying it off to the plantation she would set it down, put her hoof on it, and start tearing out the leaves and devouring them as expeditiously as possible. Once she had got hold of a book she would not give it up—not all the shouting and chasing after her would make her drop it" (p. 124-125).