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Who first taught fouls enflave'd, and realms undone,

Th' enormous faith of many made for one ;

That proud exception to all Natures laws,
T'invert the world, and counter-work its caufe?
Foree firft made conqueft, and that conqueft, law;
'Til fuperftition taught the tyrant awe,

Then fhare'd the tyranny, then lent it aid,

And gods of conqu❜rors, flaves of fubjects made.
She 'midft the light'nings blaze and thunders found, A
When rock'd the mountains, and when groan'd the ground,
She taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray,
To pow'r unfeen, and mightyer far than they :
She, from the rending earth, and bursting skys,
Saw gods defcend, and fiends infernal rife:
Here fix'd the dreadful, there the blefs'd abodes;
Fear made her devils, and weak hope her gods;
Gods partial, changeful, pasfionate, unjust,
Whose attributes were rage, revenge or luft;
Such as the fouls of cowards might conceive,
And, form'd like tyrants, tyrants would believe.
Zeal then, not charity, became the guide,

And hel was built on spite, and heaven on pride.
Then facred feem'd th' aetherial vault no more;
Altars grew marble then, and reek'd with gore:
Then firft the flamen tafteëd liveing food;
Next his grim idol fmear'd with human blood;
With heavens own thunders shook the world below,
And play'd the god an engine on his foc.*

Popes Essay on man, ver. 241, &c.

CHAP. VI.

HUMAN FLESH THE CONSEQUENCE OF ANIMAL

FOOD.

As human facrificees were a natural effect of that fuperftitious cruelty which first produce'd the flaughter of animals, fo is it equally natural that thofe accustom'd to eat the brute, fhould not long abstain from the man: more especially as, when toasted or broil'd on the altar, the appearance, favour, and tafte of both would be nearly, if not entirely, the fame. But, from whatever cause it may be deduce'd, nothing can be more certain than that the eating of human flesh has been a practice, in many parts of the world, from a very remote period, and is fo, in fome, at this day. That it is a confequence of the use of animal food there can be no doubt, as it would be impossible to find an inftance of it among people who were accustom'd folely to a vegetable diet. The progrefs of cruelty is rapid. Habit renders it familiar, and hence it is deem'd natural.

The man who, accustom'd to live on roots and vegetables, firft devour'd the flesh of the smallest

animal, commited a greater violence to his own nature than the most beautyful and delicate female, accustom'd to animal food, would feel in fheding the blood of her fellow-creatures for fustenance; posfefs'd as they are of exquifite feelings, a confiderable degree of intelligence, and even, according to her own religious fystem, of a liveing foul.* That this is a principlein the focial dispofition of mankind is evident from the deliberate coolness with which feamen, when their ordinary provifions are exhausted, fit down to devour fuch of their comrades as chance or contriveance renders the victim of the moment: a fact of which there are but too many, and those too wel-authenticateëd, inftanceës.† Such a

Genefis, I, 20, in the margin.

+ See The melancholy narrative of captain Harrison of the floop Peggy, p. 21, &c.; Narrative of the shipwreck of the Nottingham galley, p. 19; Shipwreck and adventures of Pierre Viaud, p. 165 ;-Account of the loss of the brig Mary and Ann of London, in The morning chronicle of Decem. 22, 1791; Voyages and travels of an Indian interpreter (J. Long), p. 126. See allfo an account of fome Ufipians in Tacituses Life of Agricola. In the old testament, and in the history of Jofephus, at different fiegeës of Jerufalem the Jewish women ate their own children. (See II Kings, vi, 26, and Whistons Jofephus, p. 931.) The foldiers of Cambyfes, in his frantick expedition against the Aethiopians, fed upon herbs fo long as they found any in the way; but when they arrive'd in the

crime, which no necesfity can justify, would never enter the mind of a starving Gentoo, nor, indeed, of any one that had not been previously accustom'd to animal food. Even among the Bedouins, or wandering Arabs of the desert, according to the obfervation of the enlighten'd Volney, though they fo often experience the extremity of hunger, the practice of devouring human flesh was never hear'd of. Content with his milk and his dates, the Bedouin has not defire'd flesh; he has fhed no blood; his hands are not accustom'd to flaughter, nor his ears to the crys of fuffering creatures; he has preserve'd

fandy deferts, fome of them were guilty of a horrid action : for they caft lots among themselves, and ate every tenth man. (Herodotus, Thalia.) The Numantines, according to Valerius Maximus, being befiege'd by Scipio, were conftrain'd to feed upon mans flesh. But necesfity, fays that authour, was no excuse for this; for there was no necesfity for them to live, to whom it was fo lawful to dye. The horrid impiety, however, of the Calagurritans, it seems, exceeded the obstinacy of the former: who, being befiege'd by Pompey, and haveing devour'd all other creatures in the city, fel to feast upon their wives and children; and, to the end the armed youth might nourish their bowels with their own bowels the longer, they were not afray'd to falt up the unfortunate remains of the dead bodys. In comparison of these, he exclaims, ferpents and wild beafts are gentle and merciful crea tures! (B. 7, c. 6.)

a humane and fenfible heart.

The habit of fhed.

ing blood, he says, and tearing his prey, has familiarife'd the favage to the fight of death and fufferings. Tormented by hunger he has defire'd flesh; and finding it eafy to obtain that of his fellow-creature, he could not long hesitate to kil him, to fatisfy the craveings of his appetite. The first experiment made, this cruelty degenerates into a habit; he becomes a cannibal, fanguinary and atrocious, and his mind acquires all the infenfibility of his body.*

The Cyclops and Laeftrigons, in the Odyssey, are devourers of human flesh, as are, likewise, Scylla and the Syrens.

The Scythian drank the blood of the first prifoner he took; and made the fkin of his head serve him for a handkerchief; and, fometimes, the skins of the entire bodys, for a coat. The Melanchlaenians, allfo, a Scythian nation, fed upon human flesh.t

The Callatii, a nation of India, when asked by Darius, for what fum they would confent to

**Travels, I, 409, 410.

Herodotus, Melpomene. The Scythians, according to Pliny, were anthropophagi, or eaters of mans flesh; they ufe'd to drink out of mens fculs, and to wear the fcalps, hair and all, inftead of ftomachers. (B. 6, c. 17; B. 7, c. 1.)

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