Page:The Bible of Nature, and Substance of Virtue.djvu/20

10

He first the taste of flesh from tables drove,

And argu'd well, if arguments could move:

"O mortals, from your fellows' blood abstain,

Nor taint your bodies with a food profane:

While corn and pulse by nature are bestow'd,

And planted orchards bend their willing load;

While labour'd gardens wholesome herbs produce,

And teeming vines afford their generous juice;

Nor tardier fruits of cruder kinds are lost,

But tam'd with fire, or mellow'd by the frost;

While kine to pails distended udders bring,

And bees their honey, redolent of spring;

While earth not only can your needs supply,

But, lavish of her store, provides for luxury;

A guiltless feast administers with ease.

And without blood is prodigal to please.

Wild beasts their maws with their slain brethren fill;

And yet not all, for some refuse to kill:

Sheep, goats, and oxen, and the nobler steed.

On browze, and corn, and flow'ry meadows, feed.

Bears, tigers, wolves, the lion's angry brood,

Whom heav'n endu'd with principles of blood,

He wisely sunder'd from the rest to yell

In forests, and in lonely caves to dwell;

Where stronger beasts oppress the weak by might,

And all in prey, and purple leasts delight.

O impious use! to Nature's laws oppos'd.

Where bowels are in others bowels clos'd;

Where, fatten'd by their fellow's fat, they thrive;

Maintain'd by murder, and by death they live.

'Tis then for nought that mother Earth provides

The stores of all she shows, and all she hides,

If men with fleshy morsels must be fed.

And chew, with bloody teeth, the breathing bread;

What else is this, but to devour our guests.

And barb'rously renew Cyclopean feasts!

We, by destroying life, our life sustain;

And gorge th' ungodly maw with meats obscene.

Not so the Golden Age, who fed on fruit.

Nor durst with bloody meals their mouths pollute