NNNNN

whom heav'n endu'd with principles of blood, he wisely sunder'd from the rest, to yell in forests, and in lonely caves to dwell, where stonger beasts oppress the weak by might, and all in prey and purple feasts delight.

O impious use! to Nature's law's oppos'd, where bowels are in other bowels clos'd: where fatten'd by their fellow's fat they thrive; maintain'd by murder, and by death they live. "T is then for naught that mother earth provides, the stores of all she shews and all she hides, if men with fleshy morsels must be fed,

and chaw, with bloody teeth the breathing bread : what else is this but to devour our guests and barbarously renew Cyclopean feasts? We, by destroying life our life sustain : and gorge th' ungodly maw with meats obscene. Not so the Golden Age, who fed on fruit, nor durst with bloody meals their mouths pollute. Then birds in airy space might safely move, and tim'rous hares on heaths securely rove: nor needed fish the guileful hook to fear, for all was peaceful; and that peace sincere. Whoever was the wretch (and curst be he) that envy'd first our food's simplicity; th' essay of bloody feasts on brutes began, and after forg'd the sword to murder man. Had he the sharpen'd steel alone employed, on beasts of prey that other beasts destroy'd, or man invaded with their fangs and paws, this had been justified by Nature's laws, and self defence: but who did feasts begin of flesh, he stretch'd necessity to sin. To kill man killers, man has lawful power, but not th' extended licence to devour.

Ill habits gather by unseen degrees, as brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas. The sow, with her broad snout for rooting up th' intrusted seed, was judg'd to spoil the crop, and intercept the sweating farmer's hope: the covetous churl of unforgiving kind, th' offender to the bloody priest resign'd: her hunger was no plea: for that she dy’d. The goat came next in order to be try'd: the goat had cropt the tendrills of the vine; in vengeance laity and clergy join, where one had lost his profit one his wine. Here was at least, some shadow of offence; the sheep was sacrific'd on no pretence, but meek and unresisting innocence. A patient, useful creature, born to bear the warm and woolly fleece, that cloathed her mur. and daily to give down the milk she bred, a tribute for the grass on which she fed. Living, both food and raiment she supplies, and is of least advantage when she dies.

[derer,

How did the toiling ox his death deserve, a downright simple drudge, and born to serve? O tyrant! with what justice canst thou hope, the promise of the year, a plenteous crop; when thou destroy'st thy lab'ring steer, who till'd and plough'd, with pains, thy else ungrateful field? From his yet reeking neck to draw the yoke, that neck, with which the surly clods he broke ; and to the hatchet yield thy husband-man, who finish'd Autumn and the spring began! Nor this alone! but heaven itself to bribe, we to the gods our impious acts ascribe: first recompense with death their creature's toil, then call the bless'd above to share the spoil:

NNNNN

the fairest victim must the powers appease,
(so fatal 't is sometimes too much to please!)
a purple fillet his broad brows adorns,

with flow'ry garlands crown'd, and gilded horns:
he hears the murd'rous prayer the priest prefers,
but undersands not till his doom he hears:
beholds the meal betwixt his temples cast,
(the fruit and product of his labours past,)
and in the water views, perhaps, the knife,
uplifted, to deprive him of his life;
then broken up alive his entrails sees,
torn out for priests t' inspect the gods' decrees.
From whence, O mortal man! this gust of blood,
have you deriv'd, and interdicted food?

Be taught by me this dire delight to shun, warn'd by my precepts, by my practice won. And when you eat the well-deserving beast, think! on the lab'rer of your field, you feast!

Ill customs by degrees to habits rise, ill habits soon become exalted vice: what more advance can mortals make in sin, so near perfection, who with blood begin? Deaf to the calf that lies beneath the knife, looks up and from her butcher begs her life : deaf to the harmless kid, that e'er he dies, all methods to procure thy mercy tries, and imitates in vain thy children's cries. Where will he stop, who feeds with household bread, then eats the poultry which before he fed? [breath, Let plough thy steers; that, when they lose their to nature not to thee, they may impute their death. Let goats for food their loaded udders lend, and sheep from winter-cold thy sides defend; but neither springes, nets, nor snares employ,

NNNNN

and be no more ingenious to destroy.

Free as in air, let birds on earth remain,
nor let insidious glue their wings constrain:
nor opening hounds the trembling stag affright,
nor purple feathers intercept his flight:
nor hooks conceal'd in baits for fish prepare,
nor lines to heave 'em twinkling up in air.
Take not away the life you cannot give;
for all things have an equal right to live.
Kill noxious creatures, where 't is sin to save;
this only just prerogative we have:

but nourish life with vegetable food,

and shun the sacrilegious taste of blood.

Dryden's Ovid's Metamorphosis, book 15.

How sweetly do others, of our most eminent poets, sing in the cause of humanity!

I would not enter on my list of friends,

(tho' grac'd with polish'd manners and fine sense, yet wanting sensibility) the man,

who needlessly sets foot upon a worm.

An inadvertant step may crush the snail,
that crawls at evening in the public path,
but he that has humanity, forewarn'd,
will tread aside, and let the reptile live.
The creeping vermin, loathsome to the sight,
and charged perhaps with venom, that intrudes
a visitor unwelcome into scenes

sacred to neatness and repose, th' alcove,
the chamber, or refectory, may die.
A necessary act incurs no blame.

Not so when held within their proper bounds,
and guiltless of offence, they range the air,
or take their pastime in the spacious field.
There they are privileged.

And he that hunts

or harms them there, is guilty of a wrong, disturbs th' œconomy of nature's realm, who, when she form'd, design'd them an abode. Ye, therefore, who love mercy, teach your sons to love it too. The spring time of our years is soon dishonour'd and defil'd in most, by budding ills, that ask a prudent hand to check them. But alas! none sooner shoots, if unrestrain'd, into luxuriant growth, than cruelty, most devilish of them all. Mercy to him who shews it is the rule, and righteous limitation of it's act,

by which Heaven moves in pardoning guilty man; and he who shews none, being ripe in years, and conscious of the outrage he commits, shall seek it, and not find it in his turn.

Distinguish'd much by reason, and still more by our capacity of grace divine,

from creatures that exist but for our sake, which, having served us, perish, we are held accountable, and God, some future day, will reckon with us roundly for th' abuse, of what he deems no mean or trivial trust. Superior as we are, they yet depend,

not more on human help, than we on their's. Their strength, or speed, or vigilance were given, in aid of our defects. In some are found, such teachable and apprehensive parts,

that man's attainments in his own concerns, match'd with th' expertness of the brutes in their's, are oft-times vanquish'd and thrown far behind. Some shew that nice sagacity of smell, and read with such discernment in the port, and figure of the man his secret aim, that oft we owe our safety to a skill