the hog, and many others. The chief birds of. this defcription, are the ostrich, the emu, the casfowary, the goofe, &c. The fresh-waterfishes are partly giveën to prey upon each other, and partly fubfift on weeds and vegetables: but those which live in the fea are univerfally piscivorous: at least with a fingle exception, that of the BARBEL, as we learn from the Halieuticks of Oppian, an ancient poet, thus render'd in Engleish:

"Barbels, unlike the reft, are just and mild,

No fish they harm, by them no feas are spoil'd;
Nor on their own, nor different kinds they prey,
But equal laws of common right obey,
Undreaded they with guiltless pleasure feed,
On fat'ning flime, or bite the fea-grown weed.
The good and just are heavens peculiar care:
All ravenous kinds the facred barbel spare;
Nor wil, though hungery, feize the gentle fry,
But give the look, and, pitying, pafs them by."

As a proof of the havock commited by man upon his fellow-creatures, it is fay'd that, at Paris, there are four thousand felers of oysters, and that fifteen hundred large oxen, and above fixteen thousand fheep, calves, or hogs, befide a prodigious quantity of poultry and wild fowls, are eaten there every day. In a dayly paper of

+ Saint-Everemoniana, as quoteëd by Bayle, who bids his

1785, it is alledge'd that the quantity of provifions confume'd annually in London is as follows:

10

Poultry and wild-fowl innumerable.

Mackarel fold at Billingsgate
Oysters, bufhels

Small boats, with [turbot], cod, haddock, whiteing, [herrings,] befides great quantitys of river and falt-fish

14,740,000

105,536

11,438"*

"With respect to myself," fays Montaigne, i have never been able to fee, once, without affliction, an innocent beaft, which is without. defence, and from which we receive no offence, pursue'd and kil'd : and, as it commonly hapens," he ads, "that the tag, feeling himself out of breath and ftrength, haveing, moreover, no other remedy, yields and renders himself to us.

readers judge what must be confume'd in those countrys where they eat more, and feed more upon flesh. (Dictionary, Ovid.)

* General advertiser, December 19th. This account, however, is certainly erroneous, and much underrated.

who pursue him, craveing mercy of us by his

tears,

questuque cruentus

Atque imploranti fimilis,§

this has ever appear'd to me a very disagre able fight."

"I can remember," fays lord Chesterfield, "when i was a young man at the univerfity, being fo much affected with that very pathetick fpeech, which Ovid has put into the mouth of Pythagoras, against eating the flesh of animals, that it was fome time before i could bring myself to our college-mutton again, with fome inward doubt, whether i was not makeing myfelf an accomplice to a murder. My fcruples remain'd unreconcile'd to the commiting [of] fo horrid a meal, til, upon serious reflection, i became convince'd of its legality, from the general order of Nature, who has inftituteëd the univerfal preying [of the fronger] upon the weaker as one of her first principles; though to me it has ever appear'd an incomprehenfible mystery, that fhe who could not be restrain'd by any want of

§ Aeneid, L. 7, V. 501.

"Pierce'd with the dart, the bleeding fawn, in vain,
Flys back for refuge to his home again;

Complains with human tears, and human fighs,

And begs for aid, with unavailing crys."

Efais, L. 2, C. 11.

:

materials from furnishing fupplys for the fupport of her various offspring, should lay them under the necessity of devouring one another.* I know not," he ads, "whether it is from the clergys haveing look'd upon this fubject as too trivial for their notice, that we find them more filent upon it than could be wifh'd for, as flaughter is at prefent no branch of the priesthood, it is to be prefume'd they have as much compasfion as other men. The Spectator has exclaim'd against the cruelty of roasting lobsters alive, and of whiping pigs to death: but the misfortune is, the writeings of an Addison are feldom read by cooks and butchers. As to the thinking part of mankind, it has allways been convince'd, i believe, that, however conformable to the general rule of nature our devouring animals may be, we are nevertheless under indelible obligations, to prevent their fuffering any degree of pain, more than is abfolutely unavoidable. But this conviction lyes in fuch hands [his own for one], that i fear not one poor creature in a million has ever fare'd the better for it, and i believe never wil; fince people of condition, the only fource from whence this pity is to flow [and who have feldom more huma

Who" is this female perfonification, "Nature," what are "her" principles, and where does "fhe" refide?

nity than their neighbours], are fo far from inculcateing it to those beneath them, that a very few years ago, they fuffer'd themselves to be entertain'd at a publick theatre, by the performanceës of an unhapy company of animals, who could onely have been made actors by the utmost energy of whipcord and starveing ‡

"Could the figure, inftincts, and qualitys of birds, beasts, infects, reptiles and fish," says fir William Jones, "be ascertain'd, either on the plan of Buffon, or on that of Linnaeus, without giveing pain to the objects of our examination, few studys would afford us more folid inftruction, or more exquifite delight; but i never could learn by what right, nor conceive with what feelings, a naturalift can occafion the mifery of an innocent bird, and leave its young, perhap, to perish in a cold neft, because it has gay plumage, and has never been accurately delineateed, or deprive even a butterfly of its natural enjoyments, because it has the misfortune to be rare or beautyful; nor fhall i ever forget the couplet of Firdaufi, for which Sadi, who cites it with applaufe, pours blessings on his departed fpirit:

"Ah! spare yon emmet, rich in hoarded grain;
He lives with pleasure, and he dyes with pain."

‡ World, Num. 195.