people to feed on their children, friends, fathers, and wives, as if they were dead; or Pythagoras and Empedocles, that accustom men to be just toward even the other members of the creation. You laugh at a man that wil not eat a sheep; but we (they'l fay again), when we see you cuting off the parts of your dead father, or mother, and fending them to your abfent friends, and calling upon and inviteing your prefent friends to eat the rest freely and heartyly, fhal we not smile ?... Who then were the first authors of this opinion, that we owe no justice to dumb animals?

Who firft beat out accurfeed steel,

And made the lab'ring ox a knife to feel?

In the very fame manner oppresfors and tyrants began first to fhed blood. For example, the first man that the Athenians put to death was one Epitedius, the bafeëft of all knaves; after him they put to death a second and a third; after this, being now accustom'd to blood, they patiently faw Niceratus the fon of Nicias, and their own general Theramenes, and Polemarchus the philofopher, fuffer death. Even fo in the begining fome wild and mischievous beast was kil'd and eaten, and then fome little bird or fish was entrap'd: and conqueft being first experimented and exercife'd in these, at last pass'd

even to the labouring ox, and the fheep that clothes us, and to the poor cock that keeps the houfe: until, by little and little, unfatiableness being ftrengthen'd by ufe, men came to the flaughter of men, to blood-fhed and wars.*

The following excellent obfervations are an extract from The Guardian, No. 61:

"I cannot think it extravagant to imagine, that mankind are no lefs, in proportion, accountable for the il ufe of their dominion over creatures of the lower rank of beings, than for the exercise of tyranny over their own species... "Tis obferveable of those noxious animals, which have qualitys moft powerful to injure us, that they naturally avoid mankind, and never hurt us, unless provoke'd, or necesfitateed by hunger. Man, on the other hand, feeks out and purfues even the most inoffenfive animals on purpose to perfecute and deftroy them. Montaigne thinks it fome reflection upon human nature itsself, that few people take delight in feeing beafts care fs or play together, but allmoft every one is please'd to fee them lacerate and worry one another. I am forry this temper is become allmost a distinguishing character of our own nation, from the obfervation which is made by foreigners of our

Of eating of flesh, tract z.

belove'd pastimes, bear-baiting, cock-fighting, and the like. We fhould find it hard to vindicate the destroying of any thing that has life, merely out of wantonnefs; yet, in this principle, our children are bred up, and one of the first pleafures we allow them, is the licence of inflicting pain upon poor animals: allmost as soon as we are fenfible what life is ourfelves, we make it our Iport to take it from other creatures. I cannot but believe a very good use might be made of the fancy which children have for birds and infects. Mifter Locke takes notice of a mother who permited them to her children, but rewarded or punish'd them as they treated them. wel or il. This was no other than entring them betimes into a dayly exercise of humanity, and improveing their very diverfion to a virtue.*

..... When we grow up to men, we have another fuccesfion of fanguinary sports; in particular bunting. I dare not attack a diverfion which has fuch authority and custom to support it, but must have leave to be of opinion, that the agitation of that exercise, with the example and

*There can be no doubt that children would be not lefs apt to learn humanity than cruelty; but the mischief is that, the parents themselves haveing little sense of the former, they are only inftructed or indulge'd in the latter.

H

number of the chafeërs, not a little contributes" to refift those checks, which compasfion would naturally fuggeft in behalf of the animal pursue'd. Nor fhal i fay, with monfieur Fleury, that this fport is a remain of the Gothick barbarity; but i must animadvert upon a certain custom yet in use with us, and barbarous enough to be derive'd from the Goths, or even the Scythians; I mean that favage compliment our huntsmen pass upon ladys of quality, who are prefent at the death of a ftag, when they put the knife in their hands to cut the throat of a helpless, trembleing and weeping creature.*

"But if our Sports are destructive, our gluttony is more fo, and in a more inhuman manner. Lobfters roafted alive, pigs whip'd to death, fowls Jew'd up, are testimonys of our outrageous luxury. Those who (as Seneca expresfes it) divide their lives betwixt an anxious confcience and a nauseateëd ftomach, have a juft reward of their gluttony in the diseaseës it brings with it: for human favageës, like other wild beafts, find

* The tender feelings of these elegant fair ones never induce them, it seems, to reject this delicate and humane office! -They contemplate, with equal fatisfaction, the poor heron with its wings and legs brokeën, and its bil ftuck in the ground, a liveing prey to the favage hawk!" Ladies of quality," quotha? Gorgons and Furies!

fnares and poyfon in the provifions of life, and are allure'd by their appetite to their destruction. I know nothing more fhocking or horrid, than the profpect of one of their kitchens cover'd with blood, and fil'd with the crys of creatures expireing in tortures. It gives one an image of a giants den in à romance, beftrow'd with the fcatter'd heads and mangle'd limbs of those who were lain by his cruelty.

History tels us of a wife and polite nation that rejected a person of the first quality, who ftood for a judiciary office, onely because he had been obferve'd, in his youth, to take pleasure in tearing and murdering of birds: * and of another that expel'd a man out of the fenate, for dafhing a bird against the ground which had takeën fhelter in his bofom.... Perhap that voice or cry fo nearly resembleing the human, with which Providence has endue'd fo many different animals, might purposely be giveën them to move our pity, and prevent those crueltys we are too apt to inflict on our fellowcreatures.f

* The emperour Domitian began his favourite pursuit with the murder of flys, and ended it with that of men: a progresfion perfectly natural.

t

It may be fo; but it is evident that Providence has not,