thofe voracious and bruteifh appetites that require animal food; nor those cruel and hard hearts, or thofe diabolical pasfions, which could eafeyly fuffer them to tear and deftroy their fellow-creatures; at least, not in the first and early ageës."* "To fee the convulfions, agonys, and tortures of a poor fellow-creature," exclaims this fenfible, juft, humane and feeling phyfician, "whom they cannot restore nor recompenfe, dyeing to gratify luxury, and fcratch callous and rank organs, muft require a rocky heart, and a great degree of cruelty and ferocity. I cannot find," he ads, any great difference, on the foot of natural reafon and equity onely, between feeding on hu man flesh, and feeding on brute animal flefh, except custom and example. I believe fome rational creatures would fuffer lefs in being fairly butcher'd than a ftrong ox, or red deer; and, in natural morality and justice, the degrees of pain here make the esfential difference.”† * Esfay on bealth, p. 92. He ruft refer to a state of na ture, as no beast of prey is so wantonly and malignantly cruel as man in fociety, whether Chriftian or Mahometan; and yet he has neither the teeth nor fangs of a tiger, nor the beak or claws of a vulture. Essay on regimen, p. 70. Our immortal Shakspeare was of the fame opinion: "And the poor beetle that we tread upon In corporal fufferance finds a pang as great "Among other dreadful and disgusting imagees, which custom has render'd familiar, are those which arise from eating animal food; he who has ever turn'd with abhorrence from the skeleton of a beaft, which has been pick'd whole by birds or vermin, muft confefs that habit onely could have enable'd him to endure the fight of the mangle'd bones and flesh of a dead carcase, which every day cover his table: and he who reflects on the number of lives that have been facrifice'd to fustain his own, fhould enquire by what the account has been balance'd, and whether his life is become proportionablely of more value by the exercife of virtue and piety, by the fuperior hapynefs which he has communicateëd to reasonable beings, and by the glory which his intellect has afcribe'd to god."* : "The Indian philofophers called Brachmans," according to old doctor Moffet, "did never, a great while after the flood, taste of any fenfible creature and though Nimrod, the great hunter, flew many beafts, yet flesh was even then untafteëd of the Babylonians, and many hundred years after, fay'th Herodotus: and veryly til god would have it fo, who dare'd to touch with his lips the remnant of a dead carcafe? or to fet the *Note, by doctor Hawkesworth, in his edition of Swifts works. (Gullivers travels, p. 94.) prey of a wolf, or the meat of a falcon, upon his table? Who, i fay, durft feed upon thofe members which lately did fee, go, bleat, low, feel, and move? Nay, tel me, can civil and human eyes yet abide the flaughter of an innocent beast, the cuting of his throat, the mauling him on the head, the flaying off his fkin, the quartering and dismembering of his joints, the sprinkleing of his blood, the riping up of his veins, the endureing of il favours, the hearing of heavy fighs, fobs, and groans, the pasfionate struggleing and panting for life, which only hard-hearted butchers can endure to fee? Is not the earth fufficient to give us meat, but that we must also rend up the bowels of beasts, birds, and fishes? Yes, truely, there is enough in the earth to give us meat; yea, veryly, and choice of meats, needing either none, or no great preparation, which we may take without fear, and cut down without trembleing, which also we may mingle a hundred ways to delight our taste, and feed on fafely to fill our bellys."# The very fight of animal food is unnatural and disgusting; even the most luxurious viands, place'd before the most elegant asfemblage, abounding with youth and beauty, remind the Health: improvement, 1746, p. 100. The authour dye'd in 1604. philofopher, or reflective individual, of a carrion carcafe by the road fide devour'd by vultures, or ravens; or of a human body at a feast of cannibals. "At Zwartkops river," fays Sparrman, "where we were now arrive'd, and intended to pass the night, we found two farmers had got in before us, who were come thither in order to get falt and hunt. Indeed, they had allready fhot feveral heads of game, which they had hung up in large flips and fhreds on the bushes, waggons and fenceës, in order to dry it in the fun.. From this flesh there was diffuse'd round about the spot, not only a crude and rank fmel, but, likewife, a putrid stench, from fuch parts of it as had arrive'd at the ftate of putrefaction; and the farmers wives and childeren, together with the Hottentots who had accompany'd them, were employ'd, fome in feafting upon it, others in fleeping, and others again in careing away a great number of birds of prey, which hover'd round about them, and over their heads, in order to fteal away the flesh. This horrid fpectacle, of fo many carnivorous human creatures, awaken'd in me a lively rememberance of the cannibals in New-Zealand, and had very nearly takeën away our appetites for a meat fupper, fo that werefolve'd to bear with our hunger that night as wel as we could."* This, filthy as it was, could not be more fo than the festive entertainments of our nobility and great epicures, where, if you admire tastey eating, you have the high-flavour'd hogo of ftinking venison, and the exquifite stench of roten and maggoty cheese; the elegant and accomplish'd guests washing, at the close, of their favoury repaft, their dirty maws, in pure water, which, render'd fufficiently foul and filthy, they fpurt back into blue or purple clouded receptacles, in order to conceal their nastynefs: which outdoes, in delicacy, the yahoos of the Houyhnhms. "Sec matter next, with various life endue'd, All forms that perifh other forms fupply Voyage to the cape of Good-bope, ii, 12. |