Page:The Bible of Nature, and Substance of Virtue.djvu/26

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If none of these, yet there's a man* within.

O spare to make a Thyestaen meal,

T'inclose his body, and his soul expel.

I11 customs by degrees to habits rise,

I11 habits soon become exalted vice:

What more advance can mortals make in sin

So near perfection who with blood begin?

Deaf to the calf, that lies beneath the knife,

Looks up, and from her butcher begs her life:

Deaf to the harmless kid, that ere he dies,

All methods to procure thy mercy tries.

And imitates, in vain, thy children's cries.

Where will he stop, who feeds with household bread,

Then eats the poultry which before he fed?

Let plough thy steers ; that, when they lose their breath,

To Nature, not to thee, they may impute their death.

Let goats for food their loaded udders lend.

And sheep from winter-cold thy sides defend;

But neither springes, nets, nor snares employ,

And be no more ingenious to destroy.

Free as in air let birds on earth remain.

Nor let insidious glue their wings constrain:

Nor op'ning hounds the trembUng stag affright,

Nor purple feathers intercept his flight;

Nor hooks conccal'd in baits for fish prepare,

Nor lines to heave 'm twinkling up in air.

Take not away that life you cannot give,

For all things have an equal right to live.

Kill noxious creatures, where 'tis sin to save;

This only just prerogative we have:

But nourish life with vegetable food,

And shun the sacrilegious taste of blood."

These precepts by the Samian sage were taught.

Which godlike Numa to the Sabines brought,

And thence transferr'd to Rome, by gift his own:

A willing people, and an offer'd throne.

O happy monarch, sent by heav'n to bless

A savage nation with soft arts of peace!


 * Portions of the elements of former men.