Page:The Bible of Nature, and Substance of Virtue.djvu/21

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Then birds in airy space might safely move,

And tim'rous hares on heaths securely rove

Nor needed fish the guileful hooks to fear,

For all was peaceful ; and that peace sincere.

Whoever was the wretch, (and curs'd be he

That envy'd first our food's simplicity!)

Th' essay of bloody feasts on brutes began,

And after forgM the sword to murder man.

Had he the sharpen'd steel alone employed

On beasts of prey, that other beasts destroy'd

Or man invaded with their fangs, and paws.

This had been justified by nature's laws,

And self-defence: But who did feasts begin

Of flesh, he stretch'd necessity to sin.

To kill man-killers, man has lawful pow'r.

But not th' extended license to devour.

Ill habits gather by unseen degrees,

As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas.

The sow, with her broad snout, for rooting up

Th' intrusted seed, was judg'd to spoil the crop,

And intercept the sweating farmer's hope: ^

The cov'tous churl, of unforgiving kind,

Th' offender to the bloody priest resign'd:

Her hunger was no plea : For that she died.

The goat came next in order, to be tried;

The goat had cropt the tendrils of the vine:

In vengeance laity and clergy join,

Where one had lost his profit, one his wine:

Here was, at least, some shadow of offence:

The sheep was sacrific'd on no pretence.

But meek, and unresistmg innocence:

A patient, useful creature, born to bear

The warm and woolly fleece, that cloth'd her murderer,

And daily to give down the milk she bred,

A tribute for the grass on which she fed.

Living, both food and raiment she supplies.

And is of least advantage when she dies.

How did the toiling ox his death deserve,

A downright simple drudge, and born to serre?

O tyrant! with what justice canst thou hope

The promise of the year, a plenteous crop,