Page:Awful phenomena of nature (2).pdf/81

 remove, it was natural to think that ſhe at that time enjoyed. I muſt confeſs, that I tried to diſpoſſeſs her, but I tried in vain; and I have ſince reflected, that her preſervation was as dear to her as mine was to me and I feel a real comfort in repeating whoſe exquiſitely humane and tender lines of Ovid, which are ſo feelingly deſcriptive of the fate of this moſt uſeful and patient animal.

Every thing claims a kindred in misfortune; it revels like death; but death, alas! to ſome comes too late; and to others it comes too early. In a ſhort time, perhaps, it was the fate of the poor meek creature above diſcribed, to feel its ſtroke, I might have cauſed, unknowingly, its execution; and might have feaſted upon its fleſh. The very idea chills my blood, and brings to my mind the remembrance of the dreadful ſituation of Pierce Viand.

An act of dire neceſſity may be certainly excuſed; but to deſtroy (for the gratification of an appetite which we have in common with brutes) that which has been uſed to live in a domeſtic and in a cheriſhed ſtate around us, would argue an inſenſibility, from which every feeling mind muſt naturally : and I ſhould hope, that there are but few people who could eat of that id, which they had ſeen lick the butcher's hand at the very moment that the knife was about to deprive its innocence of exiſtence; and when it ſupplicated, with an almoſt human cry, its preservation of life, and with a blandiſhment ſo particularly expreſſive of tenderneſs and pity.

From the morning until four o'clock in the afternoon, the wind continued to blow with increaſing violence from the north and eaſt: but from that time, having collected all its powers of devaſtation, it rushed with irreſiſtable violence from the